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

[madmaxmedia]

That's a pretty good trade package for Beal that would allow us to sign another max. I get attached to young guys like Shamet and want to see them grow with the team, but Beal would be a great addition with say Kawhi.

[Ranma]

Danilo Gallinari
Jerome Robinson
Landry Shamet
Sindarius Thornwell
PHI Pick (lottery protected through 2022)

For

Bradley Beal

I +1'd your posts because of the excellent points you laid out and it's an attractive proposition to consider, however, I'm with donemilio21 in thinking that making such a trade should be more of a backup plan instead of a primary objective. I've talked before about how giving out max contracts to truly max-worthy players should be how we approach this upcoming summer of free agency. To a lesser degree, a similar logic applies to giving up our newfound coveted assets in pursuit of trades.

I've contemplated pursuing Bradley Beal for a while, especially given his fairly recent comments admonishing the Wizards' front office for the top-down dysfunction throughout the organization. On top of that, there is the apparent discord between John Wall and Beal, which I don't think has really mended. Despite the fact that Beal has come out recently to say that he hopes to retire as a Wizard, he qualified that by saying that his mindset is to totally commit to his team while he's under contract, so I'm also of the impression that he'll look for greener pastures once he's an unrestricted free agent. Washington likely will have little choice but to deal Beal away in the not-too-distant future if it wants to retain significant value before losing him for nothing.

The Wizards are stuck with Wall's albatross contract for the foreseeable future and I'll use that bad investment as a cautionary tale against pursuing Beal. While Beal is certainly the more valuable player and trade asset who's also on the more reasonable contract, I don't think he's far from becoming an albatross contract himself albeit to a lower degree than Wall.

Beal will make $27 million and $28.75 million over the next 2 seasons after this one before hitting free agency at the age of 28 years old. While he's worth his contract right now, what happens if and when he signs a max deal? His next contract will probably be worthwhile during the first 2 years of a 5- or 4-year contract. Even at a premium, we'd probably have maybe 4-5 seasons of production that justifies his salary, but that doesn't mean we can't squeeze a couple of good years after his age 30 season.

The problem is that like Klay Thompson, whom you've compared him to, he's not really a true max-worthy player. Still, it can be argued that he'd still be a worthwhile investment even at a premium cost with respect to trade value and contract commitment. The problem I have is that I see Beal likely deteriorating along the same lines as Eric Gordon. Gordon's injury problem has more to do with his unique body type of being overly muscular, but Beal plays a similar style of slash-and-drive to complement his perimeter game and I see the wear and tear taking a toll on his frame given his body type. As it is, he's already considered to be injury-prone having only played a full season only once during the 2017-18 season.

The aim is to maximize our asset management in order to put together the best team possible. Signing max-worthy free agents and complementing them with our draft assets along with current roster players would be an ideal approach, but trading away draft capital to obtain premium players is obviously a consideration, but one I feel should only be exercised as a sort of last resort.

[TrueLAfan]

I agree that pursuing FAs should be our primary objective. But I also think teams are going to be focused on free agency on missing out on some other options. We’re on the border of having enough for two max FAs, and that’s great. I think the odds of us getting one are good. The odds of us getting two … less so. So I think having a backup plan is critical. I think it’s likely we’ll need it.

So here’s what that would mean. Say we get Kawhi Leonard, but no other FAs. Great … what do we do with our other 30 million in cap space? We’ll still kind of need a veteran PG or combo guard—just in case—and we’ll still have three SGs on the roster. I kind of see a roster/$$ lineuip that looks something like

Kawhi Leonard $32.4 million
Danilo Gallinari $21 million
Lou Williams $8 million
Montrezl Harrell $6 million
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander $4 Million
Jerome Robinson $3.6 million
Landry Shamet $2 million
Sindarius Thornwell $1.6 million
Tyrone Wallace $1.6 million

That leaves us around $29 million. Nice. But what if we don’t get a second top tier guy? Really, outside of Kawhi and Durant—would you want to give $30 million a year to Kyrie? Or Butler? I wouldn’t. So what then? What do you with a big chunk of that money? Take a flyer on Vucevic? Try and outbid the Bucks for Mirotic? Gamble on (shudder) Cousins? And how much do you pay?

If it were me, I’d want to resign Bev. And, unless he gets hurt or stops getting better, keep hold of Zubac. Invest $10 million in those two. After that … hmm. I’d make one speculative bet and one hedged bet. I’d bet on Kelly Oubre, who has that inconsistent shot, but is still on the upswing. I’d offer 3 years/$29 million for Oubre and see if he’d be interested. And I’d go for a vet PF on a deal like Bradley’s—a two year deal with a second year option. Maybe Markieff Morris on a 2 year/$16-17 million deal with a second year buyout for $2 million. (Or maybe just keep JaMychal Green, who is kind of the Pat Bev of PFs—except Green is a little better at this point in his career.) We’d have a lineup of

C—Zubac, Harrell
PF—Gallo, Morris
SF—Kawhi, Oubre
SG—Shamet, Lou, Rome
PG—SGA, Bev

On the bench (a lot) Thornwell, Wallace

With our pick, we’d be right around the cap. And with the buyout and Gallo’s expiring deal, we’d have a max amount again in 2020-21, as well as that Miami pick. And I really like that team—it’s a tough team, with a ton of youth. I think it’s a 50 win team, maybe a little more, maybe even a first round bye team. It’s as good as the Lob City teams and totally different in psyche.

But is that enough? I mean, unless SGA really develops (like, into a borderline all-star) and Zubac can play 2000 minutes a year at the same or better level … that’s not going to punch through to the finals. And here’s the deal; the team is still guard heavy. Rome and Shamet are interchangeable; Thornwell and Wallace are fringe NBA players. We should lose at least two of those guys.

So … I dunno. Maybe package this year’s pick and Rome and Thornwell and trade exception we’ve got for … someone? Maybe Jerry can pull something out of his hat. But I keep coming back to only getting one top FA—and then needing to do something else. I’m not sure Beal is the best answer and I kind of get the concern about injuries, although I know (disclosure: I have a small connection with Beal’s family; his nephews were my students) he really doesn’t like that tag and is probably overcompensating now to overcome it. He’d be better off as a 33-35 mpg player, IMO … and on a team with SGA, Bev, and Lou, that’s where’d he’d be. Curious to see about this year—I know he wants to play as close to 82 games as possible. That’d be his third straight season with over 75 games and 2650 plus minutes. Gordon hasn’t been over 70 games or 2300 minutes in a decade. It’s a risk—but it’s a risk that could pay off.

Just my .02. But we really do need to think about what will happen if we get one, and only one, big FA. What’s the plan then?

[MartinToVaught]

I trust the Logo and our front office to find ways to build depth around multiple stars. These guys know what they're doing, unlike GM Doc.

[esqtvd]

I trust the Logo and our front office to find ways to build depth around multiple stars. These guys know what they're doing, unlike GM Doc.

GM Doc had zero budget. No sal cap room. And no scouting staff. People forget the underlying facts. The Sterling era was grim.

He had to weedle and deedle and beg and cajole and promise PT to minimum wagers to come play here. His job was to win now, with CP and BG's free agency looming and the clock ticking on our 2 "superstar" Golden Age. Collison, Luc, Barnes, Speights.

He guessed right on JJ. Guessed wrong on Jared Dudley and Spencer Hawes. All the other moves followed from the latter 2 bad bets. We had no flexibility. CP, BG and DJ ate up the majority of our sal cap. Doc Rivers did not pick his Big Three. In fact he tried to let DJ quietly slip off to Dallas.


This is not to say Doc should be the GM for a rebuilding [retooling, LOL] team. He doesn't have the interest or inclination to watch 1000s of hours of video of Bulgaria vs. Rwanda Under-19s or last night's East Stroudsburg St. game. But d-bagging Doc's GMship is not only lazy but moot.


The most important thing GM Doc did was not sell out our future while doing his appointed task of trying to put CP-BG over the top. Many GMs have left nothing but wreckage behind as they got more and more desperate to saved their wrinkled asses. [Thank you, Stan van Gundy.]

Lottery-protecting the Jeff Green pick is something that all his attackers give him zero credit for. If we lose it, it's the 17th pick or worse. Not the 3rd, not even the 12th or 16th. The 17th. The 17th pick in the NBA draft is not a needle-mover.


Doc Rivers as GM won 50+ games a year and did no long-term harm. And as President of Basketball Operations, he built/rebuilt the organization we have today. Give him his gold watch and find another scapegoat.

[MartinToVaught]

You do realize GM Doc's legacy is never changing no matter how many times you try to revise history with your walls of text, right?

GM Doc will forever be the guy who traded Bledsoe for Dudley, drafted Reggie Bullock over Rudy Gobert, chose Jared Cunningham over Joe Ingles, gave Jamal Crawford an outrageous $42 million contract, and created a nepotism issue by bringing in Austin. He never won a trade, never drafted an impact player, and gave away draft picks like candy. End of story.

[esqtvd]

I agree that pursuing FAs should be our primary objective. But I also think teams are going to be focused on free agency on missing out on some other options. We’re on the border of having enough for two max FAs, and that’s great. I think the odds of us getting one are good. The odds of us getting two … less so. So I think having a backup plan is critical. I think it’s likely we’ll need it.

So here’s what that would mean. Say we get Kawhi Leonard, but no other FAs. Great … what do we do with our other 30 million in cap space? We’ll still kind of need a veteran PG or combo guard—just in case—and we’ll still have three SGs on the roster. I kind of see a roster/$$ lineup that looks something like

Kawhi Leonard $32.4 million
Danilo Gallinari $21 million
Lou Williams $8 million
Montrezl Harrell $6 million
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander $4 Million
Jerome Robinson $3.6 million
Landry Shamet $2 million
Sindarius Thornwell $1.6 million
Tyrone Wallace $1.6 million

That leaves us around $29 million. Nice. But what if we don’t get a second top tier guy? Really, outside of Kawhi and Durant—would you want to give $30 million a year to Kyrie? Or Butler? I wouldn’t. So what then? What do you with a big chunk of that money? Take a flyer on Vucevic? Try and outbid the Bucks for Mirotic? Gamble on (shudder) Cousins? And how much do you pay?

If it were me, I’d want to resign Bev. And, unless he gets hurt or stops getting better, keep hold of Zubac. Invest $10 million in those two. After that … hmm. I’d make one speculative bet and one hedged bet. I’d bet on Kelly Oubre, who has that inconsistent shot, but is still on the upswing. I’d offer 3 years/$29 million for Oubre and see if he’d be interested. And I’d go for a vet PF on a deal like Bradley’s—a two year deal with a second year option. Maybe Markieff Morris on a 2 year/$16-17 million deal with a second year buyout for $2 million. (Or maybe just keep JaMychal Green, who is kind of the Pat Bev of PFs—except Green is a little better at this point in his career.) We’d have a lineup of

C—Zubac, Harrell
PF—Gallo, Morris
SF—Kawhi, Oubre
SG—Shamet, Lou, Rome
PG—SGA, Bev

On the bench (a lot) Thornwell, Wallace

With our pick, we’d be right around the cap. And with the buyout and Gallo’s expiring deal, we’d have a max amount again in 2020-21, as well as that Miami pick. And I really like that team—it’s a tough team, with a ton of youth. I think it’s a 50 win team, maybe a little more, maybe even a first round bye team. It’s as good as the Lob City teams and totally different in psyche.

But is that enough? I mean, unless SGA really develops (like, into a borderline all-star) and Zubac can play 2000 minutes a year at the same or better level … that’s not going to punch through to the finals. And here’s the deal; the team is still guard heavy. Rome and Shamet are interchangeable; Thornwell and Wallace are fringe NBA players. We should lose at least two of those guys.

So … I dunno. Maybe package this year’s pick and Rome and Thornwell and trade exception we’ve got for … someone? Maybe Jerry can pull something out of his hat. But I keep coming back to only getting one top FA—and then needing to do something else. I’m not sure Beal is the best answer and I kind of get the concern about injuries, although I know (disclosure: I have a small connection with Beal’s family; his nephews were my students) he really doesn’t like that tag and is probably overcompensating now to overcome it. He’d be better off as a 33-35 mpg player, IMO … and on a team with SGA, Bev, and Lou, that’s where’d he’d be. Curious to see about this year—I know he wants to play as close to 82 games as possible. That’d be his third straight season with over 75 games and 2650 plus minutes. Gordon hasn’t been over 70 games or 2300 minutes in a decade. It’s a risk—but it’s a risk that could pay off.

Just my .02. But we really do need to think about what will happen if we get one, and only one, big FA. What’s the plan then?

Excellent, bro. I think the short answer is that if Kawhi wants to come home to LA, he's welcome at the max. If I were him, I would--unless something miraculous happens in Toronto. But word is he's not particularly gelling with Kyle Lowry and of course it's 2000 miles from home and the weather blows.

Getting TOR to the Finals would be a great accomplishment, fair dinkum--and that's exactly what he said tonight!

Read on Twitter

Then walk away clean. Go home to LA. Follow your heart, an Unrestricted Free Agent, all debts paid.

And frankly, if I'm the really really shy guy that Kawhi clearly is, who needs the Laker circus? Especially doubled and quadrupled with LeBron [and his legacy bullsht] as part of the act.


The LA Clippers are drama-free. As we're discussing this, I'm thinking that's also a big part of what Steve Ballmer and Jerry West and Coach Doc are building and have built. This is a place to come do your job, play the game right. Win.

Tobias had a great time here, and continued his career progress.


I agree with all your choices to stay, and also your bet on somebody like Oubre. Oubre isn't going to learn anything in Phoenix, which is still a fustercluck. The one thing I'll agree with "Quake Griffin" about is that you can learn a lot about what NOT to do in 3 years of playing. And failing.

Steve Ballmer's LA Clippers are not the G-League, not Daddy Day Care. And although I don't think Kawhi is a battlefield leader in the Pat Bev blood-and-guts sense, I'd be very surprised if a team with Kawhi Leonard on it ever finished under .500. He leads, in his own weird but thoroughly professional way.

[esqtvd]

The aim is to maximize our asset management in order to put together the best team possible. Signing max-worthy free agents and complementing them with our draft assets along with current roster players would be an ideal approach, but trading away draft capital to obtain premium players is obviously a consideration, but one I feel should only be exercised as a sort of last resort.[/color]

Well said. I wonder if anyone ever thought of this before. Somebody notify Jerry and the rest of the NBA.

[esqtvd]

You do realize GM Doc's legacy is never changing no matter how many times you try to revise history with your walls of text, right?

GM Doc will forever be the guy who traded Bledsoe for Dudley, drafted Reggie Bullock over Rudy Gobert, chose Jared Cunningham over Joe Ingles, gave Jamal Crawford an outrageous $42 million contract, and created a nepotism issue by bringing in Austin. He never won a trade, never drafted an impact player, and gave away draft picks like candy. End of story.

When you unpack the details, every one of these attacks on GM Doc is phony except the Ingles thing and even that was a close call because it was Doc who brought in Ingles in the first place, and Joe had had a horrid preseason. Plus we were short a guard because Farmar got injured.

Without the specifics, it's just the same old rhymes.

So let me repeat--AGAIN--Doc had zero staff and zero money.
And let me repeat--AGAIN--Doc is not the right man for the GM job now.


Because of Ballmer's billions, there are at least 6 people now doing the job Doc was doing singlehandedly under Sterling. PLUS coaching the team. Let it go.


______________________________________________________

ADD: And why you chose to disrupt this very good discussion about the Clippers future to douchebag Doc is the real disappointing part and why you should let it go--even if you're right.

Folks around here need to update their software.

[TrueLAfan]

The question of who is in charge and how they’ve done things before is … um, interesting, but not (IMO) relevant to what can or might be done this summer and in the near future. I think the trades in the last 15 months show that we’re going to be a far more aggressive organization and have a (very) different perspective and plan of action than we had. Whether that’s because we did or didn’t do things right before is kind of moot; we could hash it out again and again, but it seems a bit pointless. We’ve got different people making different decisions now, so I think we should be looking forward.

At the same time, I think we should be talking about potential moves. It’s a discussion board. I don’t discussions to begin and end with “I trust Jerry West!” I largely trust the logo too—but I want to talk about what he and the Clipper organization might do or can or should do. That's the fun of this, man.

[QRich3]

It's gonna be interesting to see what they do with capspace once it's apparent they're not gonna form a free agency super team. Say they get Kawhi, they'd still have at minimum $10M more, or $19M if they let go of Beverly. That jumps to over $50M if (when) they don't get any max guy. They should be renting their capspace for future assets, hopefully a team like the Blazers or the Thunder will be looking to lessen the tax impact and paying for it.

Or maybe get a guy on a cheap tradeable contract? bring back Aminu? a bench shooter like Ross or Hood? package the capspace with a pick to get some young guy that can be undervalued, and we could build back up and flip up later? (I'm thinking of guys like Taurean Prince or Ingram). Having so much flexibility opens up a bunch of interesting opportunities.

[esqtvd]

It's gonna be interesting to see what they do with capspace once it's apparent they're not gonna form a free agency super team. Say they get Kawhi, they'd still have at minimum $10M more, or $19M if they let go of Beverly. That jumps to over $50M if (when) they don't get any max guy. They should be renting their capspace for future assets, hopefully a team like the Blazers or the Thunder will be looking to lessen the tax impact and paying for it.

This was the other half of Sam Hinkie's strategy, the more clever half. [Any mook off the street can build a roster of rookies and retreads to tank with and head for the bottom of the lottery.]

He got picks for eating the toxic contracts of guys like Carl Landry/Nik Stauskas [Kings], JaVale McGee [Nugs], AK-47 [Nets], Travis Outlaw [Knicks] and Marcus Teague [Nets]. All but Landry/Stauskas were waived immediately or nearly so.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/executives/hinkisa99x.html

The Stauskas deal was the sweetest, netting a swap of first-round picks [moving up from 5 to 3] and getting the Kings' 2019 FRP [non-protected].

[TheNewEra]

You do realize GM Doc's legacy is never changing no matter how many times you try to revise history with your walls of text, right?

GM Doc will forever be the guy who traded Bledsoe for Dudley, drafted Reggie Bullock over Rudy Gobert, chose Jared Cunningham over Joe Ingles, gave Jamal Crawford an outrageous $42 million contract, and created a nepotism issue by bringing in Austin. He never won a trade, never drafted an impact player, and gave away draft picks like candy. End of story.

When you unpack the details, every one of these attacks on GM Doc is phony except the Ingles thing and even that was a close call because it was Doc who brought in Ingles in the first place, and Joe had had a horrid preseason. Plus we were short a guard because Farmar got injured.

Without the specifics, it's just the same old rhymes.

So let me repeat--AGAIN--Doc had zero staff and zero money.
And let me repeat--AGAIN--Doc is not the right man for the GM job now.


Because of Ballmer's billions, there are at least 6 people now doing the job Doc was doing singlehandedly under Sterling. PLUS coaching the team. Let it go.


______________________________________________________

ADD: And why you chose to disrupt this very good discussion about the Clippers future to douchebag Doc is the real disappointing part and why you should let it go--even if you're right.

Folks around here need to update their software.

This man traded Stephenson and a first for Jeff “hot and cold” Green and benched him a few months later and didn’t bring him back. Doc deserves every ounce of criticism he treated draft picks and prospects like a joke and wasted PT on guys that burned out in his system.

[TheNewEra]

I trust the Logo and our front office to find ways to build depth around multiple stars. These guys know what they're doing, unlike GM Doc.

GM Doc had zero budget. No sal cap room. And no scouting staff. People forget the underlying facts. The Sterling era was grim.

He had to weedle and deedle and beg and cajole and promise PT to minimum wagers to come play here. His job was to win now, with CP and BG's free agency looming and the clock ticking on our 2 "superstar" Golden Age. Collison, Luc, Barnes, Speights.

He guessed right on JJ. Guessed wrong on Jared Dudley and Spencer Hawes. All the other moves followed from the latter 2 bad bets. We had no flexibility. CP, BG and DJ ate up the majority of our sal cap. Doc Rivers did not pick his Big Three. In fact he tried to let DJ quietly slip off to Dallas.


This is not to say Doc should be the GM for a rebuilding [retooling, LOL] team. He doesn't have the interest or inclination to watch 1000s of hours of video of Bulgaria vs. Rwanda Under-19s or last night's East Stroudsburg St. game. But d-bagging Doc's GMship is not only lazy but moot.


The most important thing GM Doc did was not sell out our future while doing his appointed task of trying to put CP-BG over the top. Many GMs have left nothing but wreckage behind as they got more and more desperate to saved their wrinkled asses. [Thank you, Stan van Gundy.]

Lottery-protecting the Jeff Green pick is something that all his attackers give him zero credit for. If we lose it, it's the 17th pick or worse. Not the 3rd, not even the 12th or 16th. The 17th. The 17th pick in the NBA draft is not a needle-mover.


Doc Rivers as GM won 50+ games a year and did no long-term harm. And as President of Basketball Operations, he built/rebuilt the organization we have today. Give him his gold watch and find another scapegoat.

Revisionist history completey he drafted players that were suppose to be ready to go day one and still didn’t play them. You don’t give a first rounder to swap expiring contracts. Jerry West cleaned up the crap that Doc Rivers left behind and he was a joke of a GM and his lies and snake salesmen approach often left players calling him out for his hypocrisy.

It was a terrible experiment and he only has himself to blame for making the clippers a 2nd round at best and done

[esqtvd]

You do realize GM Doc's legacy is never changing no matter how many times you try to revise history with your walls of text, right?

GM Doc will forever be the guy who traded Bledsoe for Dudley, drafted Reggie Bullock over Rudy Gobert, chose Jared Cunningham over Joe Ingles, gave Jamal Crawford an outrageous $42 million contract, and created a nepotism issue by bringing in Austin. He never won a trade, never drafted an impact player, and gave away draft picks like candy. End of story.

When you unpack the details, every one of these attacks on GM Doc is phony except the Ingles thing and even that was a close call because it was Doc who brought in Ingles in the first place, and Joe had had a horrid preseason. Plus we were short a guard because Farmar got injured.

Without the specifics, it's just the same old rhymes.

So let me repeat--AGAIN--Doc had zero staff and zero money.
And let me repeat--AGAIN--Doc is not the right man for the GM job now.


Because of Ballmer's billions, there are at least 6 people now doing the job Doc was doing singlehandedly under Sterling. PLUS coaching the team. Let it go.


______________________________________________________

ADD: And why you chose to disrupt this very good discussion about the Clippers future to douchebag Doc is the real disappointing part and why you should let it go--even if you're right.

Folks around here need to update their software.

This man traded Stephenson and a first for Jeff “hot and cold” Green and benched him a few months later and didn’t bring him back. Doc deserves every ounce of criticism he treated draft picks and prospects like a joke and wasted PT on guys that burned out in his system.

People forget that Jeff Green was brought in to play SF but Blake promptly got injured, so Green had to play out of position at PF all spring. A 6'9" SF instead of Lance at 6'5" would have been really cool. Plus Lance was a cancer who had to go. People forget that after Doc gave him a 2nd chance after the infamous infantile in-game "slap fight" with fellow knucklehead Josh Smith, Lance pulled a stunt in February, loudly and derisively clapping when they didn't pass him the ball.

In the end, we went 53-29 despite Blake missing 47 games. Pretty tall accomplishment.

Then Blake made it back for a few games before the playoffs but then was promptly injured while we were up 2-0 on Portland. For his part, Green played OK throughout, including 10 ppg, 45%/40% in those misbegotten playoffs.


Those are the facts. History gets 'revised' all the time, when additional facts come in, and are reviewed outside the heat of the moment. The [possible] loss of the lottery-protected Jeff Green pick is not nearly the tragedy it's been made out to be, and Green himself played OK in an experiment that never actually got to take place. And Doc didn't dump him so much as the Magic gave JG $10 million, and to match that would only double down on what turned out to be the next-to-last gasp for the Clippers Golden Age.

The [possible] loss of the 17th or worse pick will have no palpable long-term negative effect on the franchise. I'm fine with Doc moving out of the GM chair and I thank him for not leaving an empty cupboard or a passel of long-term albatross contracts, as so many failed GMs do.

[madmaxmedia]

Well, regardless I don't think anybody here is sad that GM and POBO positions were split up, and Jerry West is now helping run basketball operations? I agree with TrueLA, it's not worth rehashing and we are all optimistic about the future anyway-

I really like the current squad and would love to see most of the pieces return, in addition to of course improving the team. So I would love to sign a big FA and perhaps make 1 or 2 other trades, but am not wanting a slash-and-burn operation to try to make a superteam.

Honestly. I'd be pretty happy if we 'only' signed one big FA such as Kawhi and re-signed guys like Beverly and Zubac, along with maybe a couple of other small tweaks. I would look forward to seeing how much improvement we make next year, rather than bemoan the fact that we probably wouldn't be favored in the West.

I think I'm not the only one here who genuinely enjoys sitting down and watching this Clipper team right now, regardless of what the overall prospects are for the season. So more than anything I want that to continue next year. Besides that, I think our FO will always be on the lookout for incremental or bigger trades that improve the team, while still maintaining some flexibility for future moves.

[esqtvd]

Well, regardless I don't think anybody here is sad that GM and POBO positions were split up, and Jerry West is now helping run basketball operations? I agree with TrueLA, it's not worth rehashing and we are all optimistic about the future anyway-

I really like the current squad and would love to see most of the pieces return, in addition to of course improving the team. So I would love to sign a big FA and perhaps make 1 or 2 other trades, but am not wanting a slash-and-burn operation to try to make a superteam.

Honestly. I'd be pretty happy if we 'only' signed one big FA such as Kawhi and re-signed guys like Beverly and Zubac, along with maybe a couple of other small tweaks. I would look forward to seeing how much improvement we make next year, rather than bemoan the fact that we probably wouldn't be favored in the West.

I think I'm not the only one here who genuinely enjoys sitting down and watching this Clipper team right now, regardless of what the overall prospects are for the season. So more than anything I want that to continue next year. Besides that, I think our FO will always be on the lookout for incremental or bigger trades that improve the team, while still maintaining some flexibility for future moves.

It's hard not to love the players we have now. And 2 monster FAs puts us right back where we were in the CP-BG days, who along with DJ ate up the majority of the cap space and we [Doc] was forced to go dumpster diving to fill out the roster. Year after year our starting crew was in the top 3 or 5 statistically, and the bench was without fail one of the worst in the league. This also forced Doc to overplay the starters, and the constant injuries were at least partly due to that.

But what could you do? We used to routinely build up double-digit leads and have the bench promptly piss them away in the first 3-5 minutes of the 4th quarter, bringing the starters in night after night to play the last 8 or 10 minutes. [When the starters could rest until the 6-minute mark, it was almost always a W. And 50+ times a year, it was.]

We should learn that lesson from that era too. Second unit points count just as much as the starters'. [Keep an eye on the Sixers. Sensational starting 5, bupkis after that.]

[LakerClipperFan]

Clippers have never looked better coming into a Summer....guys this is flat out exciting!! We end up with the 6 or 7 seed, that looks attractive to guys like a #Kawhi or #KD.

Let's do this!

[Mamba4Goat]

Random question--say you guys use up your cap--would you rather have Bevs cap hold and whatever you could get for Lou or Lou Williams?

[Captain Ballmer]

Random question--say you guys use up your cap--would you rather have Bevs cap hold and whatever you could get for Lou or Lou Williams?

We might need to know how we used our cap space before answering this question.