The Clippers Front Office: Making The Best Of A Bad Situation
Steve Ballmer and Jerry West are more important than ever after the stunning Chris Paul trade.
The LA Clippers are in the midst of the biggest summer in their franchise’s history. J.J. Redick should be leaving for potentially $18 million per year somewhere else. Blake Griffin has strong interest from Boston and Miami, who can both offer him a fresh start, a new and possibly increased role, passionate fan bases and excellent coaching. DeAndre Jordan has been involved in some puzzling trade rumors (a swap for Andre Drummond? Seriously?)
And now, as I was halfway through writing this piece, a Woj nuke hit: Chris Paul is being traded to Houston. Chris Paul is being traded to Houston. No matter how many times you repeat it, it still feels surreal that not only did Houston suddenly overtake both the appeal of San Antonio and the extra $53 million Los Angeles could offer him, but Paul actually wanted a situation with James Harden where he won’t control the ball all the time.
Now more than ever, Steve Ballmer’s recent strong ownership of the Clippers and his front office need to continue to ease the franchise into its next era.
For a start, Ballmer make a brilliant move by paying out $4–5 million to lure Jerry West away from the Golden State Warriors as a consultant. To help Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank and take away some of Doc Rivers’ questionable decision-making role as President of Basketball Operations (a role he should be fired from), the signing of West was huge. It showed Ballmer was willing to make changes, to not let Doc do everything anymore and to place real emphasis and investment in furthering the front office’s experience, wisdom and persuasive powers with West. They’ll need him to earn every bit of his kinda-more-than-a-consultant salary now.
On top of the addition of West, the Clippers uncharacteristically took action in the draft. They bought their way into the second round by purchasing Philadelphia’s № 39 pick to draft Oklahoma State point guard Jawun Evans, before buying Milwaukee’s № 48 pick to select South Carolina shooting guard Sindarius Thornwell.
Evans led Oklahoma State to become the NCAA’s top offense by adjusted efficiency last season, showcasing his impressive management of the game and creative precision in the pick-and-roll. As for Thornwell, the 2017 SEC Player of the Year, a 6'5" frame and 6'10" wingspan give him an ideal build to enhance his tough defensive versatility, while his 39.2 percent three-point shot, feel for the game and mentality to play within his controlled two-way role are all valuable attributes to have. Simply put, two experienced, talented, well-reviewed rookies are a heck of a lot better than what the Clippers did last year in the second round with selections such as Diamond Stone (a slow-footed, old school center) and David Michineau (an unknown French point guard who may never even played for the Clippers).
Jerry West probably had a role to play in the surprisingly intelligent draft night and the choice to buy two picks, in similar fashion to the Warriors. Golden State made great second-round selections in the last two drafts (funnily enough, by purchasing the 38th pick each time) with talented, two-way guard Patrick McCaw in 2016 and versatile, defensive big man Jordan Bell this year.
The Clippers’ newest front office acquisition may only officially be in an advisory role, but for someone who’s being paid so much it’s safe to say he’s going to be an important figure in the team’s decision making. It wouldn’t be surprising if adopting the Warriors’ mentality of seeking out promising rookies while still aiming to compete, to give them experience now and develop them early on, was West’s idea. Now, Doc just needs to give his new guards some minutes. Which, despite his tendency to not favor rookies, is at least a little more likely now the team has taken a step back with the loss of Chris Paul.
Of course, it’s easy to look at the Clippers’ front office after the Chris Paul trade and focus on the loss, because it’s the biggest loss in franchise history. Ever finding a player better than CP3 is an extraordinarily difficult challenge that they’ll probably never overcome. However, West was never sold on the idea of simply bringing everyone back, splashing out for another year of “the same old Clippers” and paying a 37-year-old Paul $45.7 million in the final year of a five-year max contract. West seems to be geared up for a more long-sighted, shake-things-up approach. Especially as L.A. could now have $70+ million in cap space next summer, too, with Paul gone and DeAndre Jordan’s contract ending after 2017–18.
As ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne also added, “There was still strong internal debate on whether the team should pay $45 million in the final year of a deal to a 37-year-old player.”
The hesitation to spend so much was only reinforced by Paul’s intentions, anyway. Paul wasn’t happy with his situation and left more money in L.A. to prioritize winning, something he clearly believes he has a better chance at in Houston with James Harden. The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Paul and Harden were “determined” to play together.
So much for the obvious analysis of, “how will those ball dominant guards work together?!”
As Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times reported, Doc also highlighted Paul’s desire to play with Harden as the motive to leave:
“He left because he wanted to be with James Harden. Let’s not get that twisted. I wish him well. I have no problem with that.”
There was more than just joining a new system and the support of Harden, though. According to ESPN’s Michael Eaves, Paul frequently felt that Doc favored his son, Austin, over the Clippers’ other players, which Paul believes ultimately led to the refusal of a Carmelo Anthony trade last year that damaged Paul’s relationship with Doc even further:
But what really solidified Paul’s dissatisfaction with Doc was a proposed trade involving Carmelo Anthony last season. New York offered Carmelo and Sasha Vujacic to the Clippers in exchange for Jamal Crawford, Paul Pierce and Austin Rivers, a deal to which Rivers ultimately said no. That event led Paul to feel that keeping his son on the roster was more important to Doc than improving the team. So, ultimately, Paul lost both trust and faith in Doc. As one league executive put it, “Chris despises Doc.”
If that’s the case, it’s not hard to see why Paul was more motivated to leave than expected — from the pull to play with Harden to the push of getting away from Doc and a stagnant Clippers team — and that West or anyone else wouldn’t have been able to keep him around.
So, even though nothing makes up for the loss of Paul, the Clippers did a fantastic job by turning an unstoppable, no-return departure into a valuable mix of players and assets. Just look at how little the Chicago Bulls got for Jimmy Butler on draft night when they were supposed to be trading him for a major haul.
In return for Paul, the Clippers received Patrick Beverley (a worthy 2017 All-Defensive First Team player and starting point guard on a bargain $5 million per year salary), Lou Williams (a valuable scorer), Sam Dekker (a young, athletic forward/small-ball four with promising room to grow), Montrezl Harrell (a high-energy, physical backup center to bring some defense), a top-three protected 2018 first-round pick and filler in the form of DeAndre Liggins, Darrun Hilliard and Kyle Wiltjer. The Clippers have valuable pieces they can use right away in Beverley, Harrell and Williams, who should open the door for a trade to dump Jamal Crawford’s salary somewhere. Along with Dekker (who should get plenty of minutes) and another first-round pick, the team’s limited stock of young talent just received a nice boost, too.
The Clippers’ future will be incredibly different than expected with no Chris Paul for the first time in six years, but West can still help build something. “He has a great eye for talent,” Lawrence Frank recently said of West after he joined the team, per Bleacher Report’s Josh Martin. “He’s one of the great architects in all of sports.” If Ballmer can go one step further and bring former Cleveland Cavaliers GM David Griffin onto the team to partner with Frank and West, not to mention do what should be done and remove Doc Rivers in the process, then the Clippers’ front office couldn’t be in better shape.
As for the team itself, if Blake Griffin can be re-signed as the promoted go-to guy and orchestrator of the offense, there will be pieces in place around a newly unleashed point-forward with refreshed depth and youth to ensure that the Clippers have something to look forward to. And even if Griffin leaves, the blowing up of Lob City has at least come with an unexpected return.
There’s a lot of work to do, but the Clippers are making the best of an incredibly tough situation.
