Trade Idea Thread II

[og15]

I don't hear anybody offering realistic solutions other than the nonsense scribble about signing Carmelo, Dwight Howard or KD. Anybody have any other realistic ideas ?

Outside of Wammy and his interesting propositions, the majority of us are not interested in Carmelo, most don't care for Dwight and hardly anyone even thinks the Clippers have any chance at Durant.

Trading DJ is not out of the question for me, truthfully it wouldn't have been such a giant issue for the Clips had they not already let Hawes go, not that Hawes gave them anything last year. But I think he's a better player than what he showed last year. The question is who do ya get to replace DJ ? I'm for keeping JJ & Blake, the rest of the team is up for trade in my view. That said, I've got nothing against keeping Wes Johnson and Rivers for the bench. Rivers because the Clips have to have a back up for CP, he will be out with more groin strains. I'd trade DJ to the Wiz for Gortat, then bring in more Clipper names and a third team for a quality SF. I kinda like Wilson Chandler in Denver.

DJ is the least "star" of all the Clippers stars and is not a superstar level player. Hawes might be better than what he showed, but you need a big that has length and can defend next to Blake. If the Clippers were to trade DJ, it would be targetting bigs who can provide similar things even if they aren't as good, but then upgrading at SF. So bigs like Biyombo, Koufos, etc. Another idea is an older guy like a Gasol, but that would require more moving parts and another team to get a starting caliber SF, and so would those other two, so that becomes harder to pull off.

The other option we've mentioned is Horford since Atlanta might be conflicted about re-signing him going forward and continuing the pairing of Horford/Milsap, but of course that's a harder one.

[wasteh202]

So the Clips keep their streak going, but I wasn't impressed with the win today. Yes, Blake was out, but so was Davis. The game easily could have been a home loss to a decent team with a terrible record, much do to injuries.

So here is where I find the Clips need to change their game.... rebounding, and offense and defense around the rim. We all know the team is lacking a quality SF, but this same issue around the rim has existed for a few years now, it didn't appear after trading Barns.
So in my mind, the clippers need to get a bigger front line. Perhaps a tougher front line. If you believe the answer is not size, as has been suggested here.
Whether you want to give DJ superstar status is irrelevant, the man gets paid $20M per year, and is considered first team NBA defense, and a third pick all-star. I don't give DJ superstar status either. I feel DJ could and should be tougher around the rim, however I doubt management is looking for a trade, but I'd also trade for Horford given the chance. So again today, the team got out rebounded by NO, as is too often the case.... Clips pulled down 47 rebounds to NO 56 rebounds. I can't blame Blake today since he didn't play today, but I do many times feel that Blake is not finishing with enough rebounds. I must conclude that either he is not healthy, or he is not working hard enough. His rebounds per game have gone down steady since his first year, when they actually should be holding even or going up every year at this point of his career. So, this is where I suggest that the Clips beef up the front line. Move Blake to the SF where he can dominate a little more, and bring on another PF to make the team tougher around the rim both offensively and defensively. Blake is easily athelitec enough to be the SF. Obviously you folks here at the message board don't like David Lee, but I do think bringing another quality forward on board would help the Clippers at their weakness.

[og15]

If we look at when Blake was playing, the starters grabbed about 76% of available defensive rebounds, and a little over 50% total reb, which was about average. When Luc got inserted into the starting lineup, they grabbed 54.3% REB and 79.8% DREB, making them a very good rebounding unit. Even the starting unit with Pierce has done 52.4% REB / 76.7% DREB.

The team rebounding issue came from the fact that the main bench lineup which was a small ball lineup was grabbing 67% DREB and a horrible 35.5% of total rebounds.

Inserting Aldrich put the bench unit dow to 62.5% DREB, but up to 40.9% TREB because it added Aldrich and removed Josh, but now the second best rebounder on the bench unit with Josh, Pierce is starting. So they need Aldrich and another big / decent rebounder in there to not be awful.

[Wammy Giveaway]

With a completely different trade chip in mind:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/CraigFreemanNBA/status/686655584553156608[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/CraigFreemanNBA/status/686656105963896832[/tweet]

Which leads to a quote from NBC Sports Kurt Helin in this week's Power Ranking:

Without Griffin, the Clippers are doing it with more of a spread pick-and-roll in which Chris Paul (and J.J. Redick) are thriving.

If there were a superstar in this league who could improve the Clipper's spread pick-and-roll, who would that guy be?

[nickhx2]

a blake griffin who shoots a couple 3's a game.

[Wammy Giveaway]

a blake griffin who shoots a couple 3's a game.

Let's ignore Griffin for now. I'm not endorsing Craig's suggestion by any means. Like before, it's a hypothetical question.

[nickhx2]

well i assume you mean which superstar could we trade griffin for who would improve the function you're discussing.

if i'm okc and i think there's more than a 20% chance durant leaves i think they'd be smart in considering a swap, as blake's locked in for at least a year longer and they might feel more secure with blake resigning in his home state. but quantifying such odds is impossible and maybe okc feels comfortable with a 20% risk of face planting and him leaving them with nothing, so who knows.

[nickhx2]

as a tangent, i want to add it sure seems lately that everyone and their mothers are obsessed with breaking up our core right now even though we've won 9 straight and are seemingly figuring out our recipe to success.

to win in this league you take what's good and make it better. i'd say getting blake griffin on top of what we're already doing is just that, and in the bigger scheme having a functional bench to support our core is also just that. seems like everyone outside of this forum is desperate to break up cp3/blake or trade their headcases for ours (even though lance and smith aren't). to make us "better."

i've just been hearing too many crazy things lately from twitter/TT/GB i guess. trade cp3? trade blake? trade jj for arron afflalo? (LOL). part of being an imaginative sports fan though.

[Wammy Giveaway]

It's not to make the Clippers better given what I've read. On the contrary, it seems they just want to make the Clippers worse - with the condition that they stay worse. The Timberwolves have yet to climb back to the top of the ranks after their first taste of playoff battles from 1997 to 2004. Clippers have no such string of consistency, having only appeared in the playoffs every "blue moon."

[BlzMwt]

you don't trade a top 5 player (which I believe Blake to be) for multiple players in an attempt to get better. If they are unhappy, not going to resign, you're headed to the lottery or a first round exit maybe, but not when you have title aspirations, the chemistry amongst the entire team looks solid, and they are finally performing.

Who is this Craig Freeman anyways? lol

[Neddy]

the better approach may be to use Blake as the 6th man as he returns, at least for a week or two to evaluate. the starting unit is doing rather well, but the second unit continues to go as Jamal goes. we now have Aldrich who is defending and rebounding in the middle, Blake can go nuts on offense, have the ball in his hand and let him create the offense with Wes, Austin, and Pablo spreading the floor. he may not like it coming off the bench, and in a long run this may not be the way to go, but as of right now with the starting 5 rolling, Blake as our primary ball handler for the second unit just might be what the doctor ordered.

[Wammy Giveaway]

Chris Escarra, the "Arye Abraham" of the Clippers, wrote some tweets today that I know are going to get deleted. So I'm copying them here for prosperity, the exception being a profanity which has been edited here due to RealGM policy and the phpBB Filter.

Ok let's ignore the fact that Blake is a obvious top 7 player in the NBA & 27 yrs old lets ignore his talent let's & his game all together. why in the world would Clippers trade maybe the most marketable player the Clippers have ever had why someone plz tell me why. you know how much money the Clippers make from his marketability alone? Put it like this then Kobe no one can touch it

Whatever you do, don't take this at face value just yet. This is most likely just a response to Craig Freeman's suggestion of trading Blake Griffin which I shared earlier. But be prepared for anything.

EDIT: Just as I figured, he was responding to that trade proposal. I'll post what Craig Freeman suggested:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/CraigFreemanNBA/status/686662563078119425[/tweet]

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/CraigFreemanNBA/status/686662563078119425[/tweet]

I'm going to put aside the fact that we would never do this deal and shouldn't even consider it. The marketability factor alone makes it a non-starter. The fact that the proposal is calling for a homegrown franchise player to be traded for an older and more expensive replacement plus a rookie pretty much sums up why we wouldn't do the deal, but I'll try to look at the merits of this proposal.

It can be argued that Bosh would be a better fit for Doc's system than Griffin since Bosh has established himself as a proven mid-range shooter while also being proficient from the beyond the arc and at the free-throw line. He's a capable rebounder and has the length and experience to be a better defender. Blake's a better passer and ball-handler, but Bosh would be a more complementary piece who doesn't dominate the ball on a team that already has Chris Paul.

Having said that, Blake is actually shooting better from the field than Bosh this season even with Blake's tendency to settle for mid-range jumpers. While Bosh is a better free-throw and 3-point shooter, Blake is actually shooting well from beyond the arc as he gets more comfortable taking those shots and his free-throw shooting is steadily improving as well. Bosh may be a better defender but he's not putting up numbers that are blowing Blake out of the water there either. Basically, while Bosh seems like a better fit for our system in the short-term, he hasn't demonstrated that to be clearly the case numbers-wise and the long-term benefits of keeping Griffin are apparent.

Obviously, both Deng and Winslow are clear upgrades over Crawford and Stephenson but Deng, like Crawford, only has one year left on his deal. Whatever benefit we gain from swapping them would be limited to just over half a season. You guys know I'm a Justise Winslow fan since I'd been pimping him for practically all of last season. However, as good as he'd be in filling the void at our SF spot, the benefit of having him doesn't outweigh the long-term loss of Blake Griffin. Winslow is potentially a supreme role player; he's not really someone who can be counted on to carry a team. Who knows? Maybe he could be the next Jimmy Butler, but it would be foolish to sacrifice the sure-thing in Griffin for an aging Bosh and the solid Winslow.

This does feel like a Doc-type of trade where he'll sacrifice the long-term future for short-term fix much like his desire for a DJ-for-KG swap, but just like that proposal, it would quickly backfire and set the franchise further back rather than just stalling our progress.

[mattd13]

does anyone really think the clips would actually consider trading blake. I do not think so. by the way when he returns he will be starting. book it. all this trade nonsense is crazy. maybe some secondary bench players but what's out there that could be a game changer at this point. not much. I do not really care for josh, lance, and Austin but getting someone else is a crap shoot.

[QRich3]

None of the core players is getting traded. Some of us wouldn't be opposed to trading DJ if we could get a decent return that made sense, but in reality it's not gonna happen. What we need right now is stability and being healthy at the right time, then I see us taking any team in the league, but also losing against any team in the league (story of last year postseason).

Come to think of it, this season is more and more equal to the previous one. Not only we have the same exact record we had this time last year, the narrative is similar cause we also started slowly and casual guys thought we were done because we lost a couple early games to the Warriors on national TV. Then as the season progresses we are still one of the most solid teams in the league, and hopefully come post season time everyone will be trying to avoid us like they were last year.

For all the screaming at the beginning of last season, we were the Vegas favorites to win the title after game 3 of the 2nd round. Hopefully we can get to the same place again, and trading core pieces is not gonna get us there.

[TucsonClip]

Anyone who is interested in trading Blake realizes that he might be a few years away from being a legitimate threat from three, further expanding his overall game... Right?

[nickhx2]

i think it's safe to assume that they don't lol

[og15]

In terms of trade ideas that don't involve moving one of the teams two superstars, I still like the idea of trying to get Brandon Bass from the Lakers as well as Gerald Henderson from the Blazers or PJ Tucker from the Suns.

[Ranma]

this isn't fantasy basketball, it's the nba. actually watching the games matters. not some stupid ass PER garbage from a fraud of a statistician.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/samesfandiari/status/687142324913049600[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/687142432622776320[/tweet]

[nickhx2]

lol. recent argument on TT:

utah wouldn't trade favors + hayward for blake because blake's per = favors's.

yeah these are the kind of people you deal with on the internet.