Transaction Discussion Part 3 (Trades, Free-Agency, News, Rumors & Ideas)

[Ranma]

Brice Johnson was an absolute beast this year for UNC. I don't see him being around in the 2nd round.

I thought the same thing as well, but I guess early scouting reports had questions about him. NBAdraft.net currently has Johnson as a lottery pick while the more respected IMO DraftExpress has him early in the 2nd round. We'll see how he'll perform in the pre-draft camps and interviews to address his shortcomings, perceived or otherwise. We also have a late 1st-round selection that might be good enough to nab him.

I generally believe that you always draft the best player available, but that also entails a level of commitment to developing unrefined talent, which has proven problematic during Doc's regime. Would a project like Thon Maker even be worth the effort if Doc is not going to develop him at all or fast enough before he heads elsewhere? I don't even know if Maker is a decent enough prospect otherwise as I'm using him for context in a hypothetical.

As of right now, I'm currently eyeing big-man talent with our late 1st-round selection and guards with our 2nd-round pick. Wing players are also a priority, if not the top priority, but given our current draft slots, I'm not sure any of our draft picks will be in position to nab the more notable wing prospects with them.

[QRich3]

Since the season is almost over now, we are getting that Brooklyn 2nd round pick, since the Raptors kept pace and will finish with the better record.

Currently the DraftExpress mock draft has the Clippers taking Brice Johnson, but it's so early that nothing in the range means anything right now.

And now we have it mathematically

The more I dive into the prospects around our range, the more I think we need to get Taurean Prince from Baylor. He might be gone at 25, but we should probably be able to get to his range if we package both picks to move up. If not, I still think there'll be a few players well worth the risk at #33. Not sure if it's me, but I see more talent at the beginning of the 2nd round this year than I did at the end of the 1st when we got Bullock and Wilcox. everyone talks how this is a weak draft at the top, but it seems reasonably deep at the bottom, which should benefit us.

[Wammy Giveaway]

This could happen: http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=zmja7hw

1. Clippers trade Blake Griffin to Oklahoma City Thunder. Clippers receive Carmelo Anthony from Knicks.
2. Thunder sign-and-trade Kevin Durant to New York Knicks. Thunder receive Blake Griffin from Clippers.
3. New York Knicks trade Carmelo Anthony to Clippers. Knicks receive Kevin Durant from Thunder.

This is a pretty complicated sign-and-trade in that:

1. Clippers are not getting Kevin Durant directly to trigger the hard cap.
2. Carmelo Anthony must waive his no-trade clause for the trade to take off.

Would this even work?

[nickhx2]

well if the trade machine says it works then it must be able to work

[og15]

This could happen: http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=zmja7hw

1. Clippers trade Blake Griffin to Oklahoma City Thunder. Clippers receive Carmelo Anthony from Knicks.
2. Thunder sign-and-trade Kevin Durant to New York Knicks. Thunder receive Blake Griffin from Clippers.
3. New York Knicks trade Carmelo Anthony to Clippers. Knicks receive Kevin Durant from Thunder.

This is a pretty complicated sign-and-trade in that:

1. Clippers are not getting Kevin Durant directly to trigger the hard cap.
2. Carmelo Anthony must waive his no-trade clause for the trade to take off.

Would this even work?

Yea, no thanks, pretty awful trade for the Clippers to even consider and they wouldn't at all. Blake is better and younger than Carmelo, makes no sense, though there's probably some srt of brotherhood story about this that is supposed to make it reasonable.

[Quake Griffin]

Wammy, you got CTE famo?


You definitely fell out of bed this morning and bumped your head.

[Wammy Giveaway]

Wammy, you got CTE famo?

What is CTE famo?

I did say hypothetical on my post. I only posted this trade to see if it was legal. I need to know if the Clippers are able to avoid the hard cap through this trade.

If you'd rather take me for granted, we're talking about a possible breaking up of the core here should the Clippers lose to the Golden State Warriors in the 2nd round. A lot of sports analysts believe the writing's on the wall for them; a trade's happening. 1.11% chance for a 4th seed to defeat a top seed in the 2nd round. No team in NBA history has ever defeated a 69-win or higher team in the playoffs. The 1969 Boston Celtics are the only team in NBA history to win the whole thing as a 4th seed.

Only way to end all this trade talk nonsense: beat the Dubs in the 2nd round. Clips must spit in the face of history to make history.

[BlzMwt]

If you'd rather take me for granted, we're talking about a possible breaking up of the core here should the Clippers lose to the Golden State Warriors in the 2nd round. A lot of sports analysts believe the writing's on the wall for them; a trade's happening. 1.11% chance for a 4th seed to defeat a top seed in the 2nd round. No team in NBA history has ever defeated a 69-win or higher team in the playoffs. The 1969 Boston Celtics are the only team in NBA history to win the whole thing as a 4th seed.

Alot of sports analysts don't do actual analysis, moreso making up stories for viewership and web hits. Let's not give them more credibility than they deserve.

No team in NBA history has ever defeated a 69-win or higher team in the playoffs. The 1969 Boston Celtics are the only team in NBA history to win the whole thing as a 4th seed.

Considering there has only been 4 teams to win 69 games or higher in a season... the sample size really doesn't tell us anything. Other than those teams were dominant, and then won the championship.

Only way to end all this trade talk nonsense: beat the Dubs in the 2nd round. Clips must spit in the face of history to make history.

There will never be an end to trade talk nonsense. It's the NBA, and sports commentary is at an all-time high. Unless you have the pedigree and history of the Spurs... your team will have some aspect of trade talks.

Even if the Clippers managed to beat the Warriors in the 2nd round and lost to the Spurs or Thunder in the Conference Finals or to Cleveland in the NBA finals, there would still be trade talk.

[og15]

It's a bad hypothetical, that's the problem. If the Clippers are making a trade where Blake is involved as well as Durant, why are they facilitating Blake going to OKC and Durant going to New York only to get the worst player in the move in Carmelo. You must think the FO is beyond dumb or something to even propose that hypothetically.

[mttwlsn16]

Why the **** would we unload Blake and take on Melo? That is just stupid.

[nickhx2]

we wouldn't but somehow people keep seeming to think that's a good idea. for your own sake don't read the T/T boards lol

[Don Tommy]

You aren't kidding. Apparently Blake is a cancer, the Clippers are getting tired of his antics... one drunken night after having been sidelined and now he's an a-hole? This is what happens when people stay at home on their computers and listening to Stephen A. If some of these guys actually tried to leave their houses once in a while and had fun, I bet they might have a drunken incident as well. That's why you have people like me, I was always the sober one in the Navy making sure everyone got back to the ship safe.
And if you think it doesn't correlate at all, trust me, a bunch of American sailors in Lisbon stand out just as much as a 7 footer in Toronto.
I hope this hurts Blake's value, so we can resign him for less when his contract is up!

[QRich3]

I hope this hurts Blake's value, so we can resign him for less when his contract is up!

I'm not sure Doc and his minions are looking that far ahead, but they need to be playing the long con for the 2017 offseason, where Paul, Blake and Redick are all gonna be free agents at the same time as guys like Gordon Hayward, in the offseason where the salary cap is projected to be at the highest it'll be for a few years. He needs to be buttering them all up already to take a paycut and get the SF that the Clippers have been missing to make a deep run once and for all.

[og15]

Paul is the most likely one to take a paycut since he will be older. Redick is already making less than he would if he was actually a free agent in the past two seasons. Blake I'm not so sure about.

[nickhx2]

redick is gonna get paid pretty big, and deservedly so. i'm kind of afraid of losing him for the big time bucks.

[QRich3]

Blake must be more fed up with all the Clippers narratives than anyone of us, I bet he's ready to make an effort if it means having a full fledged contender. JJ is trickier but he really loves living in LA and all the opportunities it gives him. Let's have in mind that taking a paycut with a $108M cap is still getting more or less what currently amounts to a max salary for these guys.

Doing some quick math and assuming a lot of stuff, the key would be to sign Crawford/Green/Luc/whoever to one year deals this offseason, and convince whoever we sign to the MLE this summer to take a 1 year deal too. With that, we'd have:

$22,642,350 from Deandre
+ $4,000,000 from 8 cap holds to get to 13 guys
+ $1,412,964 from the guys Doc stretched last year

That's $28,055,314. If we believe the projections of the cap going up as high as $108M, we'd have nearly $80M to invest in those four guys. Not easy to convince them to take $20M each (specially Hayward who'd have no allegiance to us and a few $32M offers on the table), but who knows. Or give the $32M to Hayward and have Paul/Blake/Redick make $16M each. If they want to be like the Spurs they're gonna have to start taking paycuts like the Spurs guys have done for their whole careers.

Also, I'm not completely sure of this, but couldn't they (Redick/Paul/Blake) circumvent the CBA by siging 1 year, $16M contracts, and then sign another multiyear/max dollars offer the next offseason since we'd have their bird rights?

Obviously a lot of stretching and hoping involved, but that's pretty much what we have to hold on to if we want to get a top roster sometime.

[Wammy Giveaway]

You aren't kidding. Apparently Blake is a cancer, the Clippers are getting tired of his antics... one drunken night after having been sidelined and now he's an a-hole? This is what happens when people stay at home on their computers and listening to Stephen A. Smith.

They don't just listen to Stephen A. Smith. They listen to ESPN, TNT, CBS. Basically every radio show where there's a high or 100% probability of bandwagoners.

Here's a question nobody has asked: when trying to find Clipper news and opinions, where should they go? Which bloggers, radio personalities and podcasts should Clipper fans trust on, if only to treat the Clippers kind and not be such a jerk on the team all the time?

[DusterBuster]

Anyone mind filling me in on the whole Blake for Melo idea? I don't understand why this keeps getting talked about all the time. Seems like a terrible idea considering Melo is kinda a black hole on offense and starting to get a bit up there in age.

[og15]

Anyone mind filling me in on the whole Blake for Melo idea? I don't understand why this keeps getting talked about all the time. Seems like a terrible idea considering Melo is kinda a black hole on offense and starting to get a bit up there in age.

You shouldn't ask us, you should ask the people who keep proposing it, we really have no clue why they think it is supposed to be of any value to the Clippers

[nickhx2]

seems like a bad idea cause it is a bad idea