Clippers buy rights to Balsa from Pistons for $2.1 million - Bigger trade coming soon?

[bstein14]

Clippers buy rights to Balsa from Pistons for $2.1 million.... This really doesn't make any sense looking at his stats he isn't impressive at all. He literally played 6 games and averaged 1 point per game in the Euroleague. There is no way this scrub is worth $2.1 million you could buy an early 2nd rounder for that.

This deal feels like its part of the James Harden to LA Clippers deal. We're getting paid cash from the Clippers likely because we're taking on a bit of extra salary in a trade happening soon.

[coordinator0]

Yeah, this one seems odd. If getting some team a "touch" in a bigger deal is the idea then it would have been cheaper for them to do the minimum in cash considerations at $110k like Detroit did with Brooklyn in the Harris trade.

[tmorgan]

Balsa isn’t worth 1/10th that. Def something up here.

[bstein14]

We might be immediately flipping Harris to another team (or Bojan).... Clippers paying $2.1 million for Balsa (who barely played in Europe this past season and averaged just 1 point per game) is super suspect and likely part of a bigger deal in which Detroit is taking on a player(s) from the Clippers that the Sixers didn't want in a trade for James Harden.

It'll be interesting to see who we might get. Philly likely wants all expirings so I could see us ending up with Normal Powell who has three years left and then some combination of our expirings going out to Philly.

Or perhaps we're taking on Marcus Morris but sending out a lesser amount of salary. Could be a lot of scenarios at play here but I also know Norm has a connection to Casey from his Toronto days. Powell is another guy that shoots nearly 40% from deep.

[Pharaoh]

This is interesting.

I'll wait for additional information

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[ducler]

We would receive Tobias or some salary from Clippers but I suspect Bojan to be traded to Philly

[zeebneeb]

Why would the Pistons want Harris?

[Piston Pete]

Maybe is Bagley going out for Covington (expiring)

[mattao313]

Maybe is Bagley going out for Covington (expiring)

Marcus morris isn't he still on the clippers?

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[LaSheed]

Gimme Bob Covington.

[440BB]

Troy's up to something once again and keeping us guessing. One of the reasons he's beloved by all.

[Canadafan]

Troy's up to something once again and keeping us guessing. One of the reasons he's beloved by all.

He better be up to something

[Kilo]

Can't be a stand alone. Unless LAC and either Washigton or Nets will make a deal that needed cap space with the respective Nets/DC opened up with the Harris/Morris deals to Detroit. Ie LAC is sending 8M in extra cap money out in a deal and didn't want to take on Harris or Morris themselves so essentially paying Gores 2.1M to subsidize taking on one of those deals.

[FloridaMan78]

Why would the Pistons want Harris?

There’s been a ton of rumors about Tobias Harris for some reason. Ku from Locked On Pistons has been spilling the beans on most of Weavers moves. He’s been on speed dial with James Edwards during his segments. He mentioned the Joe Harris trade a few weeks ago and I thought that’s why Tobias got mixed in, but Ku mentioned it again in his last video.

Doesn’t make sense besides the fact we need a power forward.

[thesack12]

https://uproxx.com/dimemag/clippers-trade-pistons-cash-balsa-koprivica-draft-rights-free-agency/

As to why the Clippers would deal for a guy’s draft rights they probably would never actually sign, there are a couple of reasons. First, as Tony East explains, is once it’s July 1 they won’t be allowed to trade cash anymore as a second apron team, but can deal draft right.

This is clever as hell. In about 80 minutes, the Clippers won't be able to trade cash in deals since they will be over the second apron. But they can trade draft rights even when over the second apron. So, a quick swap while still within the old CBA for a bit.

Dorky and smart. https://t.co/zG7g3tWN4r

— Tony East (@TonyREast) July 1, 2023

Second is, as John Hollinger notes, they can use those draft rights in a potential three-team deal for James Harden, as all parties involved need to “touch” in a trade, and Koprivica’s draft rights would suffice.

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Looks like this might ultimately be a pre-cursor to a larger trade, but it probably won't include Detroit at all since their cap has been wiped out.

It would be pretty ironic if the draft rights for Koprivica were used as an avenue to park some salary with a 3rd team (like say OKC) to facilitate a larger trade, and that team receives real draft picks for their part.

[Kilo]

Why couldn't a top 55 protected SRP be used as the touch? That would have been cheaper to acquire $$ wise, even if Ballmer is ridiculously wealthy.

[thesack12]

Why couldn't a top 55 protected SRP be used as the touch? That would have been cheaper to acquire $$ wise, even if Ballmer is ridiculously wealthy.

As mentioned in the 1st quote in the post above yours....

Since LAC will be over the 2nd tax apron, after the new league year started they won't be allowed to use cash considerations as trade capital.

So getting the draft rights to some random scrub was their way of finding a loophole to work around that.

As for why didn't they just buy a future 2nd before those sanctions were set to take effect, my guess is that other teams aren't all that interested in selling draft picks on any other day other than draft night. Regarding price, Washington sold #57 in this past draft night to GSW for a reported $2 mil in cash. So the price is basically the same as the Koprivica rights. Although that Wizards/Warriors might have been a residual effect from the CP3 trade.

[BIG BEN'S FRO]

Seems fairly obvious at this point that both the Clips and Portland knew they were interested in trading for Dame.

[JD43320]

This was just Balmer's way of getting Gores some coke money and being able to write it off as a legit business expense. Bet at least half of that money has already gone up Gores' nose by now.