Los Angeles Clippers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Lou Williams Tries To Fill Jamal Crawford Role

October 1st, 2017 at 9:39pm CST by Austin Kent

The Clippers had their work cut out for them replacing Jamal Crawford this season but fortunately had already landed Lou Williams, Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times writes. Williams has carved out a successful career being one of the league’s best reserves.

Williams came over as part of the massive Chris Paul trade and will take on an even larger share of the Clippers’ offensive load than he may have initially expected now that Crawford has been bought out and signed with the Timberwolves.

The Clippers guard may not have three Sixth Man of the Year Awards to his name like Crawford does but he does at least have one. So far.

Clippers Discussing Extension With DeAndre Jordan

September 30th, 2017 at 5:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

DeAndre Jordan‘s extension talks with the Clippers haven’t reached the point of discussing numbers yet, according to Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times.

The 29-year-old center will make $22.6MM this year, then has a player option for 2018/19 worth $24.1MM. Jordan is heading into his 10th NBA season, which makes him eligible for 8% annual raises next summer if he stays with the Clippers.

If he decides to opt out and re-sign with L.A., he could get more than $207MM over five years. If he goes to another team, he would be limited to four seasons with 5% annual increases.

“That’s what they’ve got to do, is talk about how we can get it done,” Jordan said. “If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be doing what’s for their best interest. But they know I’m looking for what’s best for me and my family. It’s cool. We’ve talked about it, but obviously nothing has happened yet. We’ll see where it goes.”

There’s no hurry to get a deal done, as the extension deadline isn’t until June 30, the day before free agency begins. Because he doesn’t have an agent, Jordan is handling his side of the negotiations.

“Obviously we want DJ and we want DJ to finish his career with the Clippers,” said president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank. “But there’s no news to report. That’s kind of where it’s at right now.”

Blake Griffin Will Do A Bit Of Everything

September 29th, 2017 at 9:59pm CST by Austin Kent

Don’t rule out seeing Blake Griffin spend time as the Clippers‘ tallest man on the floor, only to turn around and bring the ball up the court, Doc Rivers tells the Associated Press. Quite frankly, the 28-year-old will do a bit of everything now that Chris Paul is with the Rockets.

Willie Reed Files $13.5MM Arbitration Claim Against Andy Miller, ASM

September 29th, 2017 at 10:40am CST by Luke Adams

10:40am: The Heat deny making a three-year, $15MM offer to Reed, tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel.

8:46am: Multiple players are parting ways with agency ASM and agent Andy Miller, and Willie Reed has filed an arbitration claim seeking $13.5MM, league sources Jeff Goodman and Chris Haynes of ESPN.com. Reed alleges he was defrauded by the agency.

The agency’s troubles are related to former agent Christian Dawkins, who was one of 10 people arrested this week in the FBI’s probe into fraud and corruption in NCAA recruiting. Dawkins was reportedly let go by ASM back in May after racking up more than $40K in charges on a player’s Uber account. An investigation by the National Basketball Players Association determined that worked out to 1,865 Uber rides, and “all but a small number” of those charges were made without the player’s permission.

However, despite no longer being certified, Dawkins remained the primary ASM representative for multiple players, including Reed, Edmond Sumner, and Justin Patton. All three of those players have now severed ties with Dawkins, Miller, and ASM, according to Goodman and Haynes, who note that Reed left the agency in July, while Sumner and Patton have done so this week.

Sources tell ESPN that Dawkins advised Reed to turn down a three-year, $15MM offer from the Heat this summer, suggesting he’d receive more lucrative offers. The big man ultimately signed a one-year, minimum salary deal with the Clippers that will pay him about $1.5MM, which explains why his arbitration claim is worth $13.5MM.

While Miller has until October to respond to Reed’s claim, it remains to be seen whether the agency will retain all of its higher-profile clients in the wake of a federal raid on ASM’s offices. Miller and ASM represent dozens of NBA players, including big names like Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, Myles Turner, and Kristaps Porzingis.

Austin Rivers Finds Opportunity Post-CP3

September 28th, 2017 at 5:34pm CST by Austin Kent

If Austin Rivers is going to silence naysayers who claim his career has been propped up by his head coach father, now is as good an opportunity as any. Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times spoke with the 25-year-old Clippers guard about life after Chris Paul.

Rivers averaged 12.0 points per game in 74 games for the Clippers last season but drove that up to 16.1 in 29 games as a starter. With Paul and shooting guard J.J. Redick no longer with the squad, he could see a lot more time as a primary scoring option.

Rivers also spoke about the rumor that Paul requested a trade because Doc Rivers, then still the president of basketball operations, refused to trade his son in an effort to bring Carmelo Anthony to the Clippers.

Clippers Sign LaDontae Henton

September 28th, 2017 at 8:29am CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 28: Henton’s deal with the Clippers is now official, according to RealGM’s log of NBA transactions.

AUGUST 24: The Clippers have reached an agreement with veteran forward LaDontae Henton and will sign him to a training camp contract, a league source tells Chris Reichert of 2 Ways & 10 Days (Twitter link). According to Reichert, the deal will include an Exhibit 10 clause, meaning it’ll be a one-year, minimum salary contract.

Henton, 25, went undrafted in 2015 after playing his college ball at Providence. Since then, the 6’6″ small forward has spent time with teams in Spain and the Philippines. He also played for the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League last season, averaging 13.6 PPG and 5.3 RPG with a .402/.383/.735 shooting line in 37 games.

Because Henton played for Santa Cruz last year, the Warriors’ G League affiliate will still hold his returning rights heading into the 2017/18 season. The Clippers’ new G League team, the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario, will have to trade for those rights in order to make him an affiliate player this fall. Convert Henton’s Exhibit 10 contract to a two-way deal would be another way L.A. could hang onto him.

Once the Clippers officially finalize their reported agreements with Henton and Marshall Plumlee, the team will have 19 players under contract, one short of the 20-man offseason limit.

Hawks Acquire, Waive DeAndre Liggins

September 25th, 2017 at 11:19am CST by Austin Kent

SEPTEMBER 25: In a pair of press releases, the Hawks confirmed today that they’ve acquired Liggins and cash from the Clippers in exchange for draft considerations, and subsequently waived Liggins.

Per Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constutition (Twitter link), the Clippers actually received a 2018 second-round pick in the swap, but it’s protected from 31-55, meaning it almost certainly won’t change hands.

SEPTEMBER 24: The Clippers have traded DeAndre Liggins and cash to the Hawks, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN writes. The deal will create a $1,577,230 trade exception.

Going back to the Clippers will be the draft rights to an as yet undetermined player.

The Hawks will turn around and waive the veteran Liggins, who they initially acquired from the Rockets ahead of the Chris Paul deal this summer.

By unloading Liggins today, the Clippers have managed to sneak to $122K below the luxury tax line. Had they waived and not traded Liggins, they would have been on the hook for an additional $26K.

Clippers Have Work To Do Just To Maintain Status Quo

September 24th, 2017 at 7:57pm CST by Austin Kent

It won’t be easy for the Clippers to maintain their status as a 50-win team in the Western Conference, Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register rights. This offseason the roster saw a substantial amount of turnover.

Willie Reed's Arraignment Hearing Set

September 21st, 2017 at 9:12pm CST by Austin Kent

The arraignment hearing for Willie Reed has been scheduled for October 2 in Miami, Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel writes. The Clippers center was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery last month.

NBA Teams That Can’t Offer More Than The Minimum

September 20th, 2017 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

At this point in the NBA offseason, most free agents who remain on the open market will have to settle for minimum salary contracts, if they receive an NBA offer at all.

There are some exceptions, particularly on the restricted free agent market, where Mason Plumlee just signed a three-year, $41MM deal with the Nuggets. Within the last week or two though, we’ve seen top remaining unrestricted free agents like Shabazz Muhammad, Tony Allen, and Andrew Bogut settle for minimum salary contracts.

That’s good news for several teams who have used all their available cap room and/or exceptions and can only offer minimum salary contracts for the rest of the 2017/18 league year. They won’t necessarily be at a disadvantage when it comes to signing free agents if those players aren’t being offered more than the minimum by teams with the means to do so.

In some cases though, an inability to offer more than the minimum can handicap a team. Dante Cunningham‘s free agent decision this week reflects this — according to multiple reports, the deal Cunningham agreed to with the Pelicans is actually worth $2.3MM, which is more than his minimum salary of $2.1MM. While we haven’t seen the official terms of Cunningham’s new contract yet, it’s possible that the $200K difference was one reason Cunningham chose New Orleans over a suitor like the Timberwolves, who could only offer the minimum.

Teams with the flexibility to offer more than the minimum could also benefit later in the NBA season. For instance, if Dwyane Wade negotiates a buyout with the Bulls and considers which team to join as a free agent, the fact that the Heat have retained their $4.328MM room exception could be a factor — it would allow Miami to make a stronger offer than the Cavs could.

With that in mind, here’s a breakdown of the teams that currently don’t have the ability to offer more than the minimum salary, which is $815,615 for a first-year player:

Boston Celtics
Detroit Pistons
Golden State Warriors
Houston Rockets: $350 of mid-level exception available
Los Angeles Clippers: $774,770 of mid-level exception available
Memphis Grizzlies: $1,440,385 of mid-level exception available, but will use at least $815,615 to sign Ivan Rabb.
Minnesota Timberwolves
New York Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder

Meanwhile, the following teams have less than $3.29MM (the value of the bi-annual exception) to offer to free agents:

Cleveland Cavaliers: $2,549,143 of taxpayer mid-level exception available
Utah Jazz: $1,128,000 of room exception available
Washington Wizards: $1,902,000 of taxpayer mid-level exception available

Of course, just because a team has an exception available, that doesn’t mean the club will be eager to use it. Teams like the Bucks or Pelicans, for instance, still have various MLE and BAE exception money available, but their proximity to the luxury tax threshold will make them reluctant to offer more than the minimum salary to anyone the rest of the way.

For a full breakdown of how teams have used their mid-level, room, and bi-annual exceptions for the 2017/18 league year, be sure to check out our MLE tracker and BAE tracker.