Trading away Blake Griffin would mean a sharp change of direction for the Clippers, writes Dan Woike of The Orange County Register. Rumors of a possible Griffin deal surfaced Thursday when Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported that the Celtics have targeted him and that there’s a feeling around the league that Boston is ready to make a major move. Deveney cited a possible three-team trade that would send Griffin to the Celtics and Rudy Gay from the Kings to the Clippers, but Woike sees a team built around Gay, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan as less likely than the current roster to be a contender in the West. Griffin has two seasons and about $41.5MM left on his contract.
There’s more news out of Los Angeles:
- The Clippers made a much-needed move to clear some cap space Thursday when they traded C.J. Wilcox to Orlando, according to Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com. Wilcox played just 268 minutes in his two seasons with Los Angeles and was owed more than $1.2MM next season with a $2,183,328 team option for 2017/18. In return, the Clippers received a second-round draft pick in 2020 and Devyn Marble, whose contract is non-guaranteed until today at 5 p.m. Eastern time. Waiving Marble would open up money to sign Raymond Felton, who agreed to terms with L.A. on Thursday.
- The Clippers are right against the luxury tax line with 13 players on guaranteed contracts, tweets Bobby Marks of The Vertical.
- Clippers guard J.J. Redick responded to Commissioner Adam Silver’s warning about “super teams” being bad for the league, writes Kurt Helin of NBCSports.com. In a series of tweets, Redick notes that five teams have won titles since LeBron James joined the Heat in 2010, that the Celtics formed their dominant team through trades and that free agents have earned the right to decide where they want to play. Redick, who has been with the Clippers since 2013, is entering the final season of his contract.
Pretty sure the Clippers have 14 players under contract.
Edited to clarify that Marks was referring to guaranteed contracts (Dawson is non-guaranteed).
The only way to keep players from forming super teams is to lower the salary cap. IMO, teams should be allowed to spend more on contracts for current players, and less for FA acqisitions. Under the current system, there is no competitive balance in the league. Durant going to the Warriors screws over 95% of the other teams struggling to acquire or keep the very few star players available.
the issue is these teams being forced often into sign and trades in the past. now you have trade exemptions. the problem comes down to the tax. basketball could take a hard-line stance like hockey and say there is a hard cap no going over but difference is the league is making money. the system is only broke in competitive balance but if owners are getting paid, it doesn’t really matter to the league.