Tobias Harris is one of the leaders of a surprising Clippers team that is near the top of the Western Conference, but he still isn’t immune to trade rumors. Harris checked with management after he heard his name floated as part of a package to acquire Jimmy Butler from the Timberwolves, writes Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. It turned out that the Clippers were interested in Butler, but they envisioned using him and Harris together.
“It is hard, but you have to be honest and there’s times when you tell [players], ‘I can’t tell you.’ I tell guys that,” coach Doc Rivers said. “But with Tobias it was easy. I was pretty confident he wasn’t going anywhere. That one wasn’t that hard for us. We love Tobias. And we think he’s part of our future here.”
Harris, who has been with four teams in his eight NBA seasons, is headed for free agency next summer and can expect a significant raise from the $14.8MM he is making this year. Whether he stays in L.A. or not, he already has plenty of experience with the business side of basketball.
“It didn’t bother me. It was funny,” Harris said of the trade rumor. “At the end of the day, I’m so well-equipped and well-suited for whatever’s next that nothing will ever surprise me.”
There’s more today out of Los Angeles:
- With cap room to offer at least one max contract, the Clippers are expected to be a major player in free agency and Rivers believes the organization has a unique selling point, relays Martin Rogers of USA Today. “Coming to the Clippers and turning them into a team that wins a title? It hasn’t been done,” Rivers said. “For a lot of these players, it is the chance to go to a franchise and ‘be the man,’ be the one that gets them to something [we’ve] never done in the history of the franchise.”
- The Lakers have tried several options to run the second-unit offense with Rajon Rondo injured, and it appears that job may fall to Lonzo Ball, according to Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register. Ball played more minutes with the reserves in Sunday’s win in Miami and may get that role on a long-term basis.
- Head coach Luke Walton has heard that his job is in jeopardy several times since taking over the Lakers, but he has a supporter in Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who coached LeBron James under similar circumstances, Goon adds in a separate story. “If you look at his whole professional career, all of [it] he has been involved with are teams like this with great expectations, with a lot of pressure and a lot of noise,” Spoelstra said. “He doesn’t know any different. I don’t think you can find a better fit than to coach that team.”
Let’s face it, Walton is all LA has going for it.
He’s pretty far down on that tottem pole.
Remember a month ago when people called me an idiot for picking the Clippers to make the playoffs in the 6-7 seed range? Lol they’re not surprising to me
I remember someone very confident in the Clippers and kind of surprised they had such doubters. So I believe it.
I was concerned they had too many guards and were being too casual about Harrell and were going to bury Alexander. But that Gortat-for-Rivers trade was perfect.