The Clippers are hopeful of bringing back their core group despite the team’s first-round loss to Dallas, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank told assembled media during a Monday press conference.
Kawhi Leonard has already signed a three-year extension but the team’s three other big stars could all depart. Paul George has a $48.8MM player option on his contract for next season, while James Harden will be an unrestricted free agent. Russell Westbrook holds a $4MM option on his 2024/25 contract.
The Clippers and George chose to defer extension talks around the All-Star break, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
“We’d like to be able to bring back and retain Paul and James,” Frank said. “We’re hopeful we can, but also understand and respect the fact that they’re free agents. Paul has a decision with his option. James will be an unrestricted free agent, so our intent is to bring him back, but also realize that they’re elite players and they’ll have choices.”
The Sixers and Magic are expected to pursue George if he opts out, Janis Carr of the Orange County Register writes.
George is eligible to sign up to a four-year, $221MM extension, though it’s reasonable to assume the Clippers are pursuing a lesser amount, considering that they failed to reach an agreement during the season. Shams Charania of The Athletic confirmed on FanDuel’s Run it Back show (Twitter video link) on Monday that L.A. has offered George less than his full max.
“We want Paul, we value Paul,” Frank said. “Paul’s done some tremendous things here. He’s an elite player, and our biggest thing is we always want to be able to treat players well and pay them fairly, and we also have to build out a team, especially, this is a new CBA. But in terms of the exact money, I would never go into details other than we’ve had really, really good conversations over the course of the year and hopeful that we can get him to remain a Clipper.”
Harden said right after the series that he “hadn’t even thought” about his free agency.
As for Westbrook, Frank said he’d hold discussions with the former MVP regarding his role next season, if he decides to opt in. Westbrook was the team’s sixth man for a majority of the season.
“I’ll sit down with Russ. (Tyronn Lue) will sit down with Russ, talk with his representatives and you kind of outline what the role is going forward,” Frank said, per Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. “It’s very similar to when Russ came last summer. Like, we explained to him exactly what his role is, what it could be, the different guys that we’re looking at and then Russ has a decision to make. And so we’re kind of going through the process. So, I’m not going to speak for any player in terms of what they’re thinking, but that’s our process.”
Frank said he’ll also pursue extensions with center Ivica Zubac and wing Terance Mann, per Carr, then look to make marginal improvements if he’s able to retain his stars.
Bye bye Russ
Like he cares.
fail fail fail, keep it together. makes sense
The goal is to sell tickets. Clippers are turning a profit in a town that demands stars. They are succeeding.
Kawhi has injury problems again right now. But all in all this season he was as healthy as you can reasonably expect at this stage of his career and played great when he was healthy. Same with PG, most games since 2018-19. Harden also healthy.
And they still lost in the first round. It’s just not going to happen anymore.
If they want big names on the court and fill the seats, sure, run it back. If you want to win something, change something.
Keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result….
Definition of insanity for the Clippers. Really shows you that the first priority isn’t a title. A year older, a year more injury-prone, and they think it’ll work out? Someone will get injured at an inopportune time again. 2021 was as close as this team was ever going to get.
I’m with you guys who think the Clippers are insane for resigning all these guys but you have to be delusional to think it’s a good idea to not do it. At this point, they have no other choice. There is a new arena and the only hope they would have at winning is to bring back PG and Harden. If they don’t sign these guys, they would probably have the worst record in the NBA and no future to build towards. The best option is to bring back Harden and PG, lower their playing time, and see what happens. If it doesn’t work out, trade them half way through the season for whatever they are worth. I’m in the camp that you trade Kawhi too if someone actually wants him. But again, wait until next season and see if any of these guys will increase their trade value and go from there. It’s not completely insane to build youth all around those three guys and be able to win a lot of games. They did it this year. But a championship is out of the question. You’d have to be drastic and shelve Kawhi all year until after the all star break and then hope he can return to what we saw earlier this year.
I don’t think you can go whole-hog either way. Kawhi is already locked up, so a tear-down wouldn’t work. But they can S&T Paul George, the only guy who looked 100% ready for the playoffs of the stars, to the Magic for some young guys; try and get Franz Wagner or Jalen Suggs so you can bank on the defense and shooting. I really don’t think straight-up running it back is the right idea. It’s a turn-off to fans much like losing the stars, given their constant ineptitude/injuries. Give them something to dream on like the 2018-2019 Clippers did, and the fans will flock.
Agree with you that the Clippers shouldn’t tear it down. The Magic aren’t going to trade Suggs and Wagner. Suggs and Wagner are two of the main reasons why the Magic had a successful season.
Or, definitely not both.
And I don’t think they would either (I wouldn’t if I was their GM), but Wagner might be on the outs with some. He laid an egg in Game 7, and was really inconsistent game-to-game. Two great games, two okay games, three bad games.
Also, the Magic have made questionable decisions with personnel like clockwork for their whole history. It’s not like it would be a new thing for them, especially if the owner wanted to push in his chips for a playoff window right away. Cavs did a similar thing with the Mitchell trade. Same with the Pacers and Siakam.
Why don’t they make a run at Jerry West?? Since the Clippers like em old, he could play point guard and get Kareem Abdul Jabbar to play center. Jabbar would have to reduce his minutes, because of his heart trouble. Oh, and then there’s Pete Maravich, no, he’s dead.
Clippers are pot committed. What else can they do? Give away high draft picks to OKC and Philly over the next 6 years?
Crazy how there’s people in this world that have so much money they are willing to literally burn it for nothing. Or Ballmer just likes doing charity for millionaires.
Frank: Clippers Happy To Lose In First Round Again
Bingo night is going to be electric!
He should redo going into new arena. Go with youth. Trade George and let Harden Walk or do a sign-n-trade. Get young talent back and picks.
So much confusion here. The primary goal of NBA teams is make a profit. Success is measured by ticket sales and media contracts. Only one team wins a title each year, and as such it is unrealistic to expect that winning is what defines success. Not sure why casuals can’t figure this out.
Who the heck monitors and cheers for team ticket sales and revenues ?
Harden said right after the series that he “hadn’t even thought” about his free agency.
I’m calling BS here!