Courting Kevin Durant will be among the Clippers‘ top priorities this offseason and Los Angeles is set up to provide him—or any star—with a situation that’s going to be hard to turn down.
“L.A. is a desired place of living — guys like to be there during the offseason,” an NBA agent told Jovan Buha of The Athletic. “And [The Clippers] have stuff that sets them apart from like the Lakers: continuity, cohesiveness. They have an owner who will do whatever it takes that’s possible.”
“…If you’re a star and you come in, they already have guys who know their roles. In other situations, you try to bring in role players and have to deal with role allocation and adjustments. I think any star would be a seamless fit with the Clippers.”
The Clippers are an attractive basketball situation, not just for their ability to offer max contracts but also for their ability to immediately surround any star with a full team, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com explained in a piece where he supplies a blueprint for coaching LeBron James and examines the two Southern California basketball franchises. Having so many quality players on low-cost deals means the Clips won’t have to gut their roster to accommodate superstar additions.
Lou Williams, who unanimously won our staff’s Sixth Man of the Year award, is on Los Angeles’ books for just $8MM next season. The core of Williams, Montrezl Harrell, Landry Shamet, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will account for slightly less than $20MM.
The franchise plans on pursuing both Durant and Kawhi Leonard this summer. Landing either would be a win. Landing both without sacrificing depth, as we saw during James’ first season in Miami, is possible because of the front office’s ability to extract value from free agency and trades.
Durant, Leonard or any of the other top stars could shun the Clippers and sign elsewhere. Talk within some league circles would lead you to believe Durant-to-the-Knicks is already a done deal. Though if the Clippers strike out on the top stars, they won’t be hasty with their cap space.
“They’re gonna be disciplined this summer,” the agent tells Buha. “They have primary targets and won’t eat into their cap space just to eat into the cap. They’re developing their young players: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Landry Shamet. Getting the most bang for their buck with Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell. Pat Beverley and Ivica Zubac should be back. A lot of good aspects.”
I hate all this attention only cause what if Clips strike out? Guess we’ll know come July 1st. Maybe sign Kawhi then nab a a power forward either FA like Randle or trade. I like Davis but it would cost SGA or Shamet and those two are foundation pieces.
No chance they will strike out and im a Lakers fan.
It would cost SGA, Shamet, and multiple 1sts not “or”
Yeah it would take a kings Ransome for that AD, but it wouldn’t be worth it. AD must have stars to be a winner and Clips don’t have that, plus you only get him for 2/3rds of a season and you don’t know if the games he will be healthy for will be the ones you need him for.
better if clipers keep sga and shamet.sign kahwi and randle or mirotic.
Durant has a brother? LOL Hoping the Lakers can get one of them if not we need to trade LBJ
Durant had a brother. link to foxnews.com
I think Kawhi would be an excellent fit for the Clippers. Bring in D Rose to come off the bench and maybe a sniper like Wayne Ellington and boom. Could see that team being a semi final/conference finals caliber squad.
Highly doubt it.
That would actually be a heck of a team, I really like the idea of brining in Rose, he played 51 games this year which puts him in line with a lot of talented/effective guys who deal with injury.
They already have Lou Williams for the DRose role!
They’ll have ab 59M commited with general cap holds if they renounce everyone. So 1 max guy and 1 veteran non max guy?
Clippers have the opposite problem of the problem they used to have. Great role players, absolutely no star. If they can’t get someone it looks bad.
The fit will be substantially more seamless if it is a forward fitting in. Which is likely.