RealGM

I know it's early and there are 27 games left for the Clippers, but we're once again not going to make the playoffs.

Therefore I think a thread like that would be nice, in which we can talk about NCAA prospects, possible free agent signings, trades and players around the league, which could be an option for us this offseason.

First of all, I'd like to say that I want us to win as many of the remaining games as possible and try to built more team chemistry going into next season, whenever it's going to start.

Still, there are quite some holes and question marks about our team, outside of Eric Gordon and Blake Griffin.

Ryan Gomes is an OK player and Al-Farouq Aminu has shown some glimpses of what he might can become, but our small forward position is still in limbo.
We're also not sure what to do with Chris Kaman, who once again is missing loads of games and will be entering the final year of his contract.
DeAndre Jordan has shown some promise, but hasn't been able to consistantly bring it night in and night out.

We sure will be looking to re-sign DJ, but that might be costly(depending on how the new CBA will look like) and would probably force us to trade Kaman, maybe even at the trading deadline on February 24th.
Eric Gordon is a must re-sign for us, as he's the one of the two cornerstones of this franchise.

With Baron Davis playing solid, since about the start of December, I think we're pretty much set with this lineup:

PG: Baron/Bledsoe
SG: Gordon/Foye(?) ---> backup could need an upgrade
SF: Gomes(?)/Aminu ---> starting position could need an upgrade
PF: Griffin/Diogu(?) ---> keeping Ike could be an option, but there are many PF's in this years draft
C: Jordan/Kaman(?) ---> what to do with Chris?

Looking at that team, we're pretty much set at point guard, shooting guard, power forward and center, if we can re-sign DJ.

That leaves us with a decision to be made at small forward and, very important as well, at bench scoring.
Currently we've got one of the worst benches, scoring wise, of the whole league and can't give our starters(especially Blake and EJ) enough rest to stay in games.

The problem we've got currently is, that we don't know the new CBA and therefore won't know for quite some time how much we'll be able to spend on FA's if at all.

Still, here are some interesting Free Agents, that we should take a look at:

Small Forwards:
Tayshaun Prince
Andrei Kirilenko
Caron Butler
Jeff Green(RFA) --> maybe a sign and trade involving Kaman?
Wilson Chandler(RFA) --> same as Green?
Shane Battier
Mike Dunleavy
Corey Brewer(RFA)
Josh Howard
Vince Carter(will probably be bought out)
Jason Richardson(though, more of a sg)

Center/Power Forwards:
Nene(ETO)
Marc Gasol(RFA)
Yao Ming
Greg Oden(RFA)
Kendrick Perkins
Tyson Chandler
Joel Przybilla
Nazr Mohammed
Spencer Hawes(RFA)
Nenad Krstic
Dan Gadzuric
Kyrylo Fesenko

Bench Scoring:
Jamal Crawford
J.R. Smith
Reggie Williams(RFA)
Nick Young(RFA)
Tracy McGrady

Here's the complete list of 2011 free agents
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages ... sition.jsp

Another thing to keep in mind is the Draft:
While it's not touted to be one of the better drafts, I still think you can find a nice player somwhere between pick #7 - #10, which is were we'll pretty much end up, if we don't find a way to consistantly win games again.
There's even the chance to move up and win one of the top 3 picks, which would enable us to add a really nice talent to the current core.

Though, this draft seems quite a bit tweener forward happy to me and if you aren't in the top 3 it pretty much looks like a crap shoot, at this moment.
The two guys I'd take without hesitation are Duke's guard Kyrie Irving and suspended Kentucky forward Enes Kanter.

Irving could be groomed as our future starting pg, making Bledsoe irrelevant and trade bait to fill other holes.
Kanter might seem "a waste" thanks to our current roster, but I wouldn't mind a big man rotation of Blake, DJ and Kanter for the next couple of years.
The other guy that's really interesting certainly's Perry Jones, who looks more like another tweener forward in the mold of Lamar Odom instead of the next coming of Tracy McGrady, which some scouts compare him to.

Still, I certainly wouldn't mind him on the Clippers.

The other guys are either tweener forwards(Sullinger, Derrick Williams, Terrence Jones), smallish point guards(Kemba Walker) like Bledsoe, european guys with question marks(Valanciunas, Montiejunas, Vesely), a guy like Harrison Barnes, who's probably not going to come out anyways or back ups for Blake strictly, like Jon Henson out of NC.

That certainly should have us thinking about moving this pick before the draft or trying to trade up or down during draft day.
The problem with that is, that we can't trade this pick before we've made the pick on draft night, because of the deal that brought us Eric Bledsoe and send a future protected first round pick to OKC.

So anyone trying to do trades and just send our own 2011 pick somewhere should think again, as that ain't a possibility.


Anyways, those are some of my thoughts about the Clippers and this offseason.
I hope none of you's irritated and what not because the season's still going on and we should be trying to win more games.
I just thought it would be good to start something like this concentrating on our team needs and how we might be able to fix them this summer, or whenever the new CBA's agreed upon.

BTW: We can certainly talk about next weeks trading deadline on this thread as well, as it might see us trading Kaman and trying to fix some of our current rosters problems.

I'd love a Kaman for Green swap, as it would fill out needs for both teams. I wish Kaman would come back already so that we can showcase him a bit for trades suitors.

Assuming we make no trades, I'm guessing we look at a backup center in the draft. It would be weird to draft another SF after getting AFA, and we got plenty of wings as is. Haven't kept up with college ball this year though so dunno whos gonna go where, etc.

Be aggressive to team needs help with scoring options.

The frees agent SFs don't impress me. If they have any interest in Green or Chandler,they might as well try to trade for them now. Idk how much interest the Clipps would have in these guys, since they are not great three point shooters. JR Smith is an interesting option since he could shoot, start, come off the bench and play both SG and SF. The thing I don't like about the PGs is the fact that they are both not good three point shooters. I think at least one of them should be a good shooter. Davis is hard to trade, so I guess that would mean Bledsoe might be the guy that is expendable. Maybe try to swap Bledsoe for Casspi. Idk if Sac would do that because that would leave them with two guards that love to penetrate and can't shoot.

I think we need a SF that can be a real 3rd option, play solid defense, and is still young to grow with our core, like Iggy or Granger. I don't see anyone like in this year's draft or in FA (Green maybe, but he will get way overpaid).

The guy I want is Kyrie Irving. Everyone else in the draft doesn't really excite me.

Is there any way we can get Delfino??

mattfish wrote:Is there any way we can get Delfino??

Why?

Remember, he'll not play against the Clippers defense once he joins us.

Det the Threat wrote:Still, here are some interesting Free Agents, that we should take a look at:

Center/Power Forwards:
Nene(ETO)
Marc Gasol(RFA)
Yao Ming
Greg Oden(RFA)
Kendrick Perkins
Tyson Chandler
Joel Przybilla
Nazr Mohammed
Spencer Hawes(RFA)
Nenad Krstic
Dan Gadzuric
Kyrylo Fesenko

Samuel Dalembert could be added to the list of free agent centers, he will be unrestricted. He is probably more of a backup C at this point and will take a huge pay cut from his present salary but can provide some defense and shot blocking if Kaman is moved during the offseason.

This is too early because by the time next season rolls around, who knows if our young'ns have developed even more (Bledsoe, Gordon, Aminu, Griffin, and DJ). It's kinda bad to assume they won't.

(If Bledsoe turns into a better ball handler and finishes better around the rim...
If Aminu finally finds his role in the offense...
If DJ can pass out the post and make FTs...)

We need someone who can handle the ball and make jump shots who isn't Eric Gordon. Gomes is more of a glue guy (plays solid D, rotates well, hustles). Butler, who knows what happened with him. Foye, not a great ball handler, so he's inconsistent. Baron Davis, he's aging (slower). Hopefully Aminu or Bledsoe can turn into that option. If not, THEN we can look at potential FAs.

Nothing intriguing in the draft that can help us ASAP, so just draft an interesting prospect and move on.

... but again... tooooo earlllly.

We can trade this year's pick before selecting a player in the draft. The rule is that you cannot go 2 consecutive years without a 1st round draft pick (it doesn't matter how you get it, it only matters that you have one). Minnesota's pick will cover us. Trading a future pick can be problematic.

I never get to watch as much College Ball as I would like, so I'm pretty much on the fence on players that I'm interested in. I would definitely take Irving, but we'd need a top 3 pick for that. After that, it pretty much comes down to where we are drafting and who's available. I would have no problem taking a center. Regardless of if Kaman is traded or not, we need depth at the 5 spot. As Det mentioned, many of the prospects are 3/4's, whereas we need 2/3's. Barnes and Hamilton could be a couple players that we are looking at in the 7-10 range.

In the 2nd round, Houston has the right to swap picks with us. We also have Detroit's 2nd rounder.

jgustav1 wrote:Samuel Dalembert could be added to the list of free agent centers, he will be unrestricted. He is probably more of a backup C at this point and will take a huge pay cut from his present salary but can provide some defense and shot blocking if Kaman is moved during the offseason.

My bad, Dalembert is a FA as well, like you've said.

Still, I doubt that he'd be all that interested coming here as a back up and I can't see us handing out the kind of money he'd want to be our back up.
I think he'll most likely join some contending team in need of a starter or rotation big.

jflipclip wrote:This is too early because by the time next season rolls around, who knows if our young'ns have developed even more (Bledsoe, Gordon, Aminu, Griffin, and DJ). It's kinda bad to assume they won't.

I know it's early and talking about the trading deadline would probably be more interesting right now, but we can do that here as well.

Like I've said, we should look to win as many games, keep developing our young guys while building chemistry for the future.

jflipclip wrote:We need someone who can handle the ball and make jump shots who isn't Eric Gordon. Gomes is more of a glue guy (plays solid D, rotates well, hustles). Butler, who knows what happened with him. Foye, not a great ball handler, so he's inconsistent. Baron Davis, he's aging (slower). Hopefully Aminu or Bledsoe can turn into that option. If not, THEN we can look at potential FAs.

You're absolutely right.
Still, I don't think Butler is that kind of a player, because he's hardly got any handles.

BTW: I'd even look at potential FA's if Bledsoe can turn out to be a shooter(which I doubt will happen this season), because we just need scoring off the bench very bad.

jflipclip wrote:Nothing intriguing in the draft that can help us ASAP, so just draft an interesting prospect and move on.

It's not the most exciting draft, but that's also a result of no clear cut #1 prospect, that has experts and fans talk up the draft.
There are some interesting players that could fit, but we'd either have to get lucky and land in the top 3(Irving, Kanter, P. Jones or even T. Jones), take a risk(Montiejunas, Valanciunas) or even trade down some(Fredette?) to get our hands on them.

mkwest wrote:We can trade this year's pick before selecting a player in the draft. The rule is that you cannot go 2 consecutive years without a 1st round draft pick (it doesn't matter how you get it, it only matters that you have one). Minnesota's pick will cover us. Trading a future pick can be problematic.

Thanks.
I thought we can't trade that pick before the draft because we owe one to OK'C starting in 2012(if it's out of the top 10) and that would mean trading consecutive draft picks.
At least that's what I've read during some of those ESPN chats, I think by Hollinger or Stein.

mkwest wrote:I never get to watch as much College Ball as I would like, so I'm pretty much on the fence on players that I'm interested in. I would definitely take Irving, but we'd need a top 3 pick for that. After that, it pretty much comes down to where we are drafting and who's available. I would have no problem taking a center. Regardless of if Kaman is traded or not, we need depth at the 5 spot. As Det mentioned, many of the prospects are 3/4's, whereas we need 2/3's. Barnes and Hamilton could be a couple players that we are looking at in the 7-10 range.

I also haven't watched as much collge ball this year as I've done in the past.

Still, I think Kanter, even without playing this season, is a really interesting prospect that could really help us down low.
He's not the most explosive player, but he plays solid defense, rebounds the ball and can get you points in the paint.

I haven't seen Hamilton play so far, but he seems to be quite an interesting prospect.
Barnes, on the other hand, probably won't be available at all, as he most likely will return to North Carolina for his sophomore season.

Other guys I'd look for in that 7 - 10 range are:

Terrence Jones(Kentucky guy might not be available at that spot)
Jonas Valanciunas(European Center that needs some time, but already rebounds and blocks shots)
Dontas Montiejunas(Somwhat like Andrea Bargnanin, as he shoots the lights out, but doesn't really play D or rebound all that much)
Harrison Barnes(doubt he'll come out this year)

If we're trading down:
Jimmer Fredette(would be great to spread the floor)
Jordan Hamilton
Kawhi Leonard
Jan Vesely
Chris Singleton

mkwest wrote:In the 2nd round, Houston has the right to swap picks with us. We also have Detroit's 2nd rounder.

I knew about that pick swap with Houston, but having that Pistons pick is big.
It means we'll have a 2nd rounder somewhere between 35 - 40 and another one in that 40 - 48 range.

There should be some interesting players available at those spots, with shooteres like David Lighty(Ohio State), some project bigs or some guys slipping down from round one, like DJ, Blair etc. did during their respective drafts.

1. Clipps should start off by trading Kaman and eiher Aminu/Bledsoe or Warren to Memphis for Mayo and Thabeet.
2. Draft a player for Indiana, maybe like power forward Perry Jones or Enes Canter.
3. Trade Mayo, Thabeet and the pick to Indiana for Granger and their 2nd round pick.
4. Resign DJ, maybe 5 years/30 million
5. Sign a free agent center, maybe Delembert 4 years/ 20 million
6. Resign Diogu to be back up power forward.

I wasn't aware we had the Pistons 2nd, and that is indeed huge.

At our draft spot, Leanord & Jones should be the target, but odds are Jones will be off the board and it's probably a reach for Leanord. I wouldn't mind trading down to about the mid-teens for Honeycutt as well. As far as the 2nd round, Keith Benson would be my preferred pick.

Some early ideas:
1. Trade Aminu for Gallinari/Anderson- If Gallinari's people push for a trade and if Denver resigns Nene, this move would give Denver 6 million in salary relief and free up a log jam at center. Clipps get their shooting small forward and a back up center/pf.
2. Clipps sign Prince for 3 years/24 million. Clipps would still only have around 24 million on the books in 2012, still enough cap space to bring in a big free agent.

Clipps could also offer Aminu to a team for a future 1st round pick. This would allow Clipps to use the Twolves pick in a trade. If Deron Williams is unhappy I'm NJ, perhaps this summer or by the deadline, Clipps could offer the Nets a package centered around that pick. For example, on draft day the Clipps could offer Aminu to NJ for the Lakers 1st and then in a seperate trade send Bledsoe, Cook, 2011 2nd, Twolves pick for Deron Williams. New Jersey gets two young players, potential 1st overall pick, save money on swapping a high first for a low second and create a ton of cap space to sign multiple players. Kaman and or Mo Willaims could even be included in a three way to bring in talent from another team. Griffin/EJ/Deron would be an ideal big three. Deron's size is the perfect compliment to EJ's lack of size and his shooting and passing ability are a great compliment to Blake/ EJ/DJ. If the Clipps do this, they could start my grandma at small forward and still win the championship.

scoobs07 wrote:Some early ideas:
1. Trade Aminu for Gallinari/Anderson- If Gallinari's people push for a trade and if Denver resigns Nene, this move would give Denver 6 million in salary relief and free up a log jam at center. Clipps get their shooting small forward and a back up center/pf.
2. Clipps sign Prince for 3 years/24 million. Clipps would still only have around 24 million on the books in 2012, still enough cap space to bring in a big free agent.

Aminu for Gallinari/Anderson would be nice, but I doubt that would be enough for the Nuggets.
It also would only make sense if we were to trade Kaman some place else as well.

And I doubt Prince would want to sign with us, when there are contending teams out there able to offer something close to that.
We also do not know how the new CBA will look like, which makes it difficult to predict what we could spend etc.

scoobs07 wrote:Clipps could also offer Aminu to a team for a future 1st round pick. This would allow Clipps to use the Twolves pick in a trade. If Deron Williams is unhappy I'm NJ, perhaps this summer or by the deadline, Clipps could offer the Nets a package centered around that pick. For example, on draft day the Clipps could offer Aminu to NJ for the Lakers 1st and then in a seperate trade send Bledsoe, Cook, 2011 2nd, Twolves pick for Deron Williams. New Jersey gets two young players, potential 1st overall pick, save money on swapping a high first for a low second and create a ton of cap space to sign multiple players. Kaman and or Mo Willaims could even be included in a three way to bring in talent from another team. Griffin/EJ/Deron would be an ideal big three. Deron's size is the perfect compliment to EJ's lack of size and his shooting and passing ability are a great compliment to Blake/ EJ/DJ. If the Clipps do this, they could start my grandma at small forward and still win the championship.

Trade Aminu for a 1st round pick could a possibility, if there's a player available in this years draft we really like.
Though, I doubt our FO would do that, as they just gave away a lottery pick in that draft to save on Baron's contract and stated that they do not like this draft that much.

We also don't have to trade for a first round pick to use that Minny pick in a trade.
Once the 2011 draft is over we can trade that Minny pick, cause we'll either have our own pick in 2012 or 2013(depending on us finishing outside the top 10 picks or not) and wouldn't be without a first round pick in during the next two drafts.

Ok thanks for clarifying that.

So here I go again(won't go away with that ).

Draft 2011:

After dealing away our own first rounder this year(to get rid of Baron and his contract and add Mo), many folks probably aren't really paying attentiont to it, but we should.

First of all, draft day is one of the biggest chances to make trades and with Kaman and Foye in their final season of their contracts, we should be looking if there's any chance to make a deal.

Looking at Kaman right now, it's getting harder to trade him(for me) because he's providing some nice scoring off the bench and we've been lacking this for years.
Though, if you've followed the Clippers for some time you know that he only teases you with that, because he's missing quite some games year in and year out.
So he should become a solid trading chip this offseason(whenever that's going to be), after hopefully staying healthy for the rest of the year, helping us to win some more games and upgrading his trade value.

Then there's going to be the draft.

We don't have a first round pick as of right now, but we've got two 2nd round picks(Pistons and Rockets picks) somewhere between #35 - #44 and there's always some nice talent around.
Of course this years draft isn't the greatest, but even back in 2000 there's been some talent and probably the best player of that draft(Michael Redd) was selected in the middle of the 2nd round.

I don't want to say that this will be happening this time around again, but at least there's a chance to get a solid talent with those picks and they're more valuable to me, as we don't have to give them guaranteed contracts.

Guys we should be looking at are:

Keith Benson - Center/Oakland
This guy probable won't ever be a great offensive guy, but he can block shots and grab some rebounds, which is something that should keep him in the league for some years and would help us.
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Keith-Benson-5712/

Bojan Bogdanovic - Guard - Forward/Cibona Zagreb
This guy has gotten better over the years and is really putting it together this year.
Some are even saying that he might be a late first rounder right now, but if there's a chance for us to draft him we should do so.
He could become a really good wing player, doing all the little things for us.
We could also keep him in Europe some more time and let him grow some more.
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Boj ... ovic-1104/

Kyle Singler - Forward/Duke:
He's been a lottery to mid first round pick in mock drafts the last three years, but somehow DX is listing him in the early second round as of right now.
A solid run by Duke probably would change that, but he's a solid forward that could help us and could become a steal in round two.
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Kyle-Singler-1071/

Nicola Vucevic - Forward/USC:
He's gotten better every year and his jumpshot has become pretty good.
Could be a solid big off the bench providing some scoring and rebounds for us, if he declares for this years draft.
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Nik ... evic-5828/

Another idea could be using a guy like Aminu to trade into the first round, if we really like someone available.
Though, it's probably better to keep him for at least another year and see if he improves.

Free Agency:
Whenever that's going to be and however the new CBA will look like.
Right now we're having quite some financial flexibilty etc. but we can't really talk about free agency without knowing the new rules of the new CBA.

Though, if that CBA will be about as the current one, then we should have quite some possibilities to upgrade our team.

First of all, we need to re-sign DJ and extend EJ.
Even then we'll still have some financial flexibilty and trading possibilities(Kaman, Foye, Aminu, Bledsoe, Minny pick) to upgrade our team.

Of course people will always have that 2012 free agent class in mind(myself as well, as I think Deron Willimas would be a brilliant fit), but I don't think it's all that important to save all of our money, because those guys most likely will be traded and won't sign outright anywhere.
And as we've got Mo Williams(who'll probably use his player option in 2012 and add that final year of his contract, because he won't earn anything close to it otherwise) and some picks we should be in a good spot, even if we use some of that money on free agents.

The position we really need to upgrad is at small forward, which is something every Clipper fan knows.

We were rumored to be interested in adding Danilo Gallinari for that, but have been rejected and I don't think the Nuggets will give in right now.

Though, we still should look to Denver, IMO, to fill that position, as Wilson Chandler would be a good fit, if there aren't any injury problems(said to have some ankle issues again that might need surgery/treatment during the offseason.
He can play three positions(SF/SG/PF) and defend them as well.
They're also having Gallinari at that position and they also need to re-sign J.R. Smith, who happens to be able to play that position at small forward(as well as shooting guard) as well.

This would give us a starting five of:
Williams - Gordon - Chandler - Griffin - Jordan

And we could round out that roster with Bledsoe, Foye, Aminu, Kaman, some low level free agents and those 2nd round picks.
Or we could upgrade there in trading some of those guys mentioned above.

I think this would make for a very solid roster that should finally be able to challenge for the playoffs in the west, if healthy.

Here's a breakdown of team salary

Salary (expected) on books - July 1st
Chris Kaman - $12,700,000 (Expiring)
Mo Williams - $8,500,000 (ETO was waived)
Blake Griffin - $5,731,080
Randy Foye - $4,250,000 (Expiring)
Ryan Gomes - $4,000,000
Eric Gordon - $3,831,184
Al-Farouq Aminu - $2,755,560
Eric Bledsoe - $1,596,360
Brian Cook - $1,265,976 (Player Option/Expiring)
Willie Warren - $788,872 (Unguaranteed)

Total - $45,419,032

Qualifying Offers
DeAndre Jordan - $1,091,100

We need to extend the Qualifying offer to DeAndre Jordan in order to match any offer sheet he may receive.

Unrestricted Free-Agent Cap Holds
Craig Smith - $4,600,000
Jamario Moon - $3,900,000
Ike Diogu - $884,293

Projected Draft Picks
37th Pick via Pistons - No Cap Hold
43rd Pick via Rockets - No Cap Hold

10 players under contract ($45,419,032) + Jordan QO ($1,091,100) + Roster Charge ($490,180) = $47,000,312

Total Expected Cap Space (based on current salary cap) = $11,043,688

If DJ signs an offer sheet with another team, then his 1st year salary will be counted on the team's salary unless we decided not to match.

Clipps should trade Aminu for a first round pick because that would mean, they would then be able to trade the Minny pick. I could see Clipps dangling Mo Williams and the Minny pick for Deron Williams. I could also see the Clippers dangling Kaman, Aminu, Gomes, 37th pick to Atl with Josh Smith going to Indiana and Granger and Marvin Williams going to the Clipps. In Indy, Paul George takes over at small forward and they get their power forward. In Atl, Horford moves to his natural position and they get their center, while getting Aminu who is a promising sf who is from ATL. They Lso get a good value pick and save 7 million per year dumping Williams while getting the more reasonable contract of Gomes. Clipps get the SF they want in Granger. Williams is a guy that could back up the 3 and 4. He has more of a scorers mentality then Gomes, so it helps their bench In terms of scoring punch. Clipps also get to keep the Minny pick, so they could land a prized blue chip prospect I'm 2012 or use it to still try and get Deron Williams. Indy or Atl probably pushes hard for the 2012 pick in negotiations though.