Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank says that retaining James Harden is the front office’s “first priority” this offseason, according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times.
Harden has a $36.3MM option on his contract for next season. He must decide whether to pick it up before the free agent period begins. If he doesn’t, Frank will look to re-sign Harden to a multiyear deal.
“Because James has a player option, it would be irresponsible for me not to have contingency plans with it,” Frank said. “But I’m going in with the intent that if he doesn’t pick up his option, that we’re going to be able to reach an agreement that works well for James and works well for the Clippers.”
Frank lavished praise on Harden despite the veteran guard’s underwhelming playoff performances against Denver. Frank noted that Harden appeared in 79 regular season games, played the fifth-most total minutes in the NBA (2,789), was fifth in the league in assists per game (8.7), while also averaging 22.8 points per game.
“We really asked James to do a lot,” Frank said via Zoom. “And at his age to deliver what he did…[He played in] 79 games, and he does that time and time and time again. We have a deep appreciation for that sort of availability and to be able to deliver and do what he did…We have a great level of appreciation for what James did this year.”
Frank plans to continue to build the team around Kawhi Leonard and Harden. Leonard appeared in 37 regular season games this season after returning from a knee ailment that delayed his season debut until Jan. 4.
“There’s another level for him out there that he’s going to get to next year,” Frank said, per Beth Harris of The Associated Press. “I think looking at next year that we can be better with more games from Kawhi.”
Here’s more from Frank’s press conference:
- Despite the Game 7 meltdown against the Nuggets, Frank is optimistic the core of the roster can produce better results in the postseason. “It was great that we were healthy for the first time in a long time, but that doesn’t mean you only get one shot at it,” he said. “We’ll keep on taking cracks at it, and at the same time we’ve always been open-minded and learning the errors of our way and finding areas where we can correct and get better.”
- Nicolas Batum has a $4.9MM option on his contract and Frank hopes the veteran forward picks it up. “Yes, 1,000 percent, we hope that Nico comes back,” he said.
- He admits the team needs some younger bodies. “We’re the oldest team in the league,” he said, per Janis Carr of the Orange County Register. “Always the quandary that we’ve had is you that can have youth, but if the deck is stacked … if you have a bunch of veterans ahead of ’em, when does the youth really ever get in the game?”
- While the Clippers generally lack financial flexibility, Frank feels he can round out the roster with some lower-cost options. “We have the non-taxpayer mid-level, which is the same tool that was used to sign Derrick Jones Jr. last summer,” he said. “We also have some trade exceptions and we’ll always be an attractive place at the minimum market based on our history of not just how the guys making the minimum have played, but how we’ve taken care of ’em and rewarded ’em.”
Balmer will never rebuild.
Yes Clippers out performed expectations, Lue is a hell of a coach but they can’t win it all. They have no young talent, no one believes Kawhi would stay healthy for a finals run. No one believes Harden can dominate through a finals run when it matters.
The thing is this is probably the perfect time to do a quicker rebuild. Kawhi looked better than he has in a while and probably has more value than he has in a bit. Powell had his best season by far. Zu would be worth a pretty good return at his salary. I mean you could make an argument that this is the perfect time to tear it down and waiting till next year could turn a bunch of those guys into bad money you would have to pay to get off. At least now you have some pieces with value to start the rebuild and you could use your cap space well to try and turn it around quick.
The Thunder own their pick for next season so there is no point in rebuilding. You could argue that this is a good time to trade Powell but no one is giving you good enough value for Kawhi and he is the team leader and trading Zu wouldn’t be smart. They were smart letting Paul George walk I would let them run it back, and trade Powell for some younger rotation players.
Is Lue REALLY a hell of a coach? I think he rode LaBrons coattail to a lucrative coaching career with mediocre results.
He manages to get the Clippers in the playoffs not the play ins. Kawhi plays 50-65 games at best. He had PG who was hurt for times too. Basically had Harden and Powell as the guys to help get to playoffs along with Russ for 2 seasons. I don’t know if he can develop guys though because they never seem to have young talent on any of his teams.
Doubling down on failure – love it.
Such a waste of everyone’s time. Harden will never win a ring in this league.
Counting James Harden to not gag in the playoffs is like counting on the sun not to come up tomorrow. Let me know how that goes.
Yeah, things aren’t getting any better for Clippers in the near future. They’re probably stuck with Harden, and clearly ownership and the front office are worried about his fragile ego, so they won’t publicly challenge him to actually show up in big games. Which basically means, more first round exits.
You reap what you sow.
Harden is worse than old playoff Kershaw. Genuinely the worst playoff performer in sports and no team should have him as the 2nd highest paid player
It is more of the close out games like 7 or if they are possibly eliminated in 6. He has solid overall playoff performance, besides that finals series.
I don’t see what their alternative is short of blowing everything up.
Bogdanovic, Kendall Brown and the 30th overall pick for Kyle Kuzma
Norman Powell for Vando, Knetch, Milton and a future first
Dunn Harden Kuzma Leonard Zubac
Milton Knetch Batum Vando Eubanks
Plus a future first
Loaded up on cheap depth, Kuzma replaces Powell but you’ve gotten younger and deeper.
Ps Lakers would look great
Did you see Kyle Kuzma in the playoffs? Dude had 34/20/50% shooting splits.
Yeah but I don’t think that’s a great reflection of him as a player overall.
I don’t think he was a great fit on or off the court, it was a last season trade and clearly he wasn’t able to adjust. He was really bad but that’s why it would make sense for a team to trade for him while the values low if you like him or see something there.
Kuzma in reality is a 15-20 points per game guy, 5/6 rebounds, good not great defence, likes to feel valued and liked, very much a confidence player and big city personality.
Occasionally he might pop off for a 30 bomb but overall he’s going to be slightly more inefficient than what you’d like and managing consistency is crucial.
He won a ring with the Lakers, as a rookie averaged 16-6 and he’s had multiple seasons averaging over 20. He’s somewhere in around Kelly Oubre and Tobias Harris.
I think being back in LA would be huge, it’s a much nicer and warmer place to live. His wife/partner is based out of LA so life off the court would be a lot better. On the court he’d be playing with one of the best playmakers in the league in James Harden. He’d be playing under a real good head coach in Tyrone Lue.
Alongside one of the best two way forwards of all time Kawhi Leonard.
In that group he’d be asked to get them about 15/20 points as the third/fourth option. Defensively Kawhi would take the best forward, Zu the best big and Dunn the best guard making his defensive assignments a lot easier.
I think the happiness off the court would translate onto the court and he’d have a really good bounce back year. I mean even if he doesn’t what have you lost? Bogdanovic, only averaged 11-3-3, Brown only averaged 4 minutes a game in 15 games and then the 30th overall pick which wouldn’t have amounted to anything going off the clippers most recent draft picks.
Lol @ you acting like Kuzma is better than his career indicates.
As far as “winning a ring with the Lakers”, in the 2020 *playoffs/Finals, he averaged 10 pts on 8.5 shots 3.1 reb 0.8 ast to 1.0 TOs and a +/- of 0.8.
And that was playing with a younger Lebron and healthy AD!
Kuzma is a great role player. He works best as the #5 option.
@ Captain K-Mid
Hard to tell if this is sarcasm – but his play with the Bucks in the playoffs was far from it.
5.8 ppg on 34%/20%/50% splits with 2.2 reb 0.8 ast 0.2 blocks 0.6 TO and a team worst avg +/- of -8.3 while starting 4 of the 5 games
He may not get another contract.
Forcing someone like Kuzma to be your #2 option doesn’t work. Kuzma is a role player. There are plenty of guys in the league that would be thought of as trash if they had the other teams best defenders on them constantly.
Awe fantasy trades that only help your team. Cute
What an absolutely awful move. Kuzma? In 2026?
Simmons>Russ, you don’t ball with this one. What crack did you smoke this morning that made you think Kyle f’n Kuzma is any type of an answer??? He sucks.
Suddenly you became like that Luke guy that was throwing non-sense trades for the sake of it. Kuzma’s current value is at an all-time low. He is not worth Bogdanovic straight up, is really that bad after last year. No one will request him, is more than MIL is selling him in a package
Only 1 team can win it all every year. It’s really a crapshoot every round, especially when you get to a game 7. Seed means less these days considering how well built all the playoff contenders are.
Clippers sold out a seasons worth of tickets and got a handful of home playoff games. From a business perspective a very successful season. They know the bed they are in, an oft injured star and an aging, unpopular star. They are making it work.
“Clippers will continue to exit playoffs in R1 unless they are a lotto team with injury and big belly retirement of Leonard and Harden.”
Trade for Cam Johnson or Derozen…
I really hope some team wants DeRozan. Kings never should have signed him. Didn’t fit at all.
“Clippers have no choice but to build around Leonard, Harden”
I’m sure Morey will trade PG13 for Harden lmao
I don’t know how you can improve on this last season. So you bring in one guy on that mid-level? I don’t think it changes much.
The best hope is you are at least as successful as this year.
But I suppose, as the fellow says, from a business standpoint, you keep this thing rolling as is.
lol, this is so much of a clippers thing to do. In the nba so many teams don’t even try to win championships. The league has too many teams
Remove the Wizards and Hornets. Move either Memphis, Minnesota, or New Orleans to the eastern conference.
The Thunder have their first round pick for next year so what is the point of rebuilding now? No one is giving you good enough value for Kawhi either. Trade Powell for some younger rotation players and then re-asses after this next season.
*The league has too many team owners who aren’t interested in winning at all.
The amount of teams is fine, the owners MUST be regulated into doing the right thing (do anything to win).
Very Clipperish to build around a 34 year old who likes to sit on the sidelines & a 36 year old ball hog who suddenly disappears in every huge game in his career.
I’m not sure Leonard “likes” to be injured. People like you are bad fans. You are correct about Harden though.