The Chris Paul era in Los Angeles has come to an end, but the Clippers sound like they harbor plans to keep some of the other members of the band together.
Chris Paul trade clears room for Clippers to re-sign Blake Griffin. Here’s why they shouldn’t
The Clippers would be making a mistake by bringing Blake Griffin back to L.A. next season.
Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
The Clippers believe trading Paul opened up the opportunity for them to keep free agent Blake Griffin, according to Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times and ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
This would be the wrong move for the Clippers. It’s time to begin rebuilding instead of engaging in this half measure.
Look, starting over stinks, especially when you’ve just started to cleanse decades of stink and ineptitude out of the very fabric of the franchise. Lob City has crumbled.
More on Chris Paul to the Rockets
No one expected Paul to leave the Clippers and pass up on a $200 million deal, but he was gracious enough to opt in and give the Clippers the opportunity to trade him. They were able to get real assets in return for it — expiring contracts, a solid point guard in Patrick Beverley, and a 2018 draft pick. The time to take advantage of that is right now.
They don’t have to tank, but they shouldn’t bring any core players back next season. Here’s why:
They could have $70 million in cap space in the summer of 2018
There’s no quick and easy answer for the Clippers here, but blowing the rest of this team up is their best road to recovery. The Clippers aren’t going to be a destination this season without Paul.
But come next summer, with a potential clean slate, who knows what could happen?
It’s still Los Angeles and the Clippers will have a new arena coming in their future. There are tons of talented free agents available in 2018, including LeBron James and Paul George. Sure, it’s unlikely to attract both, but having the roster flexibility to bring in multiple stars at a time has brought players in the past.
But to do that, the Clippers have to blow things up. They need to close the doors on Griffin and J.J. Redick. DeAndre Jordan would have to choose not to exercise his player option for next season or he would have to be traded, which is likely to happen if the team isn’t competing at a high level. Austin Rivers also has a player option worth about $12 million next summer that he can opt out of.
That leaves the team with about $22 million in committed salary for next offseason without the commitment of the Rockets draft pick and their own selection next season. It isn’t the prettiest picture. The team will be bad, yes. But in the NBA, being average is often worse than being terrible.
We know what this core’s ceiling is with Chris Paul. Without him, They’re the definition of mediocrity. Good enough to get to the playoffs, but not good enough to compete for a title.
Blowing it up allows them to take a different direction with their salary and also allows them to build through the draft.
The Clippers may need to rebuild through the draft, but they have to keep their picks to do that
The Clippers must rely on the draft, once again, to bring in talent. With Jerry West in the fold as a consultant, they have someone in the front office who knows how to evaluate talent.
But here’s the problem: The Clippers’ first-round pick in 2019 is only lottery protected. They traded this pick along with Lance Stephenson to the Grizzlies for Jeff Green in 2016. The Grizzlies then traded it to the Celtics for Deyonta Davis during last year’s draft.
The only way the Clippers can retain the pick is if they’re bad. They probably will be this season without Paul, but if their other marquee guys return, they could be a fringe playoff team. A team that just lost their best player doesn’t need to be competitive — they need to rethink their strategy.
The pick is top-14 protected in 2019 and 2020. The Clippers might not plan on being bad for that long, but to rethink their formula here, they may have to be. They could have two first-round picks in 2018, a lottery selection in 2019, and a lottery pick in 2020.
I’m not saying the Clippers need to outright tank, but they do need to keep their options open. If they keep Griffin and Jordan together without two other decent starters, they’re riding down a fast track to mediocrity. No one in the league wants to be in that place.
The headway the Clippers made was nice. They became a real, relevant team in league circles for half a decade — that is hard to accomplish in itself. But that’s over now. It’s time to move on. And part of that is letting Blake Griffin go.
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