The Los Angeles Clippers cheated, lied about it, and got banished to the NBA shadow realm for their misdeeds. Adam Silver had no choice but to give the Clippers perhaps the most significant punishment in the history of American professional sports for their cap circumvention scandal with Kawhi Leonard. Top-rated law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz simply found too much evidence that the Clippers dangled business partnerships in exchange for endorsement deals for Leonard, and now they’re out five future first-round picks, among other things.
This is essentially an NBA death sentence. First-round picks aren’t just an opportunity to add top young talent on a cost-controlled contract, they’re also the currency that drives trades. Even if the Clippers create max cap space in free agency, what star is signing up to go to a team that has limited avenues for improvement?
The Clippers are screwed, to put it plainly. It’s not a stretch to say this team has no hope of winning a championship within the next 10 years after this penalty. Still, the basketball will continue, and the Clippers must trudge on. They have a potential rookie star on the roster in No. 5 overall pick Keaton Wagler, and they’ll have some salary cap flexibility over the next couple of years. Even if a title is off the table, it’s still possible for the Clippers to build a scrappy team that can make a few playoff appearances and entertain the fanbase. Here are a few free suggestions for how the Clippers can continue to build out the team even after these devastating sanctions.
Get aggressive for restricted free agents
Teams are finally starting to realize their power in restricted free agency lately, and they’re using it to drive down salaries for some of their best young players. The Detroit Pistons’ ongoing clash with Jalen Duren is a premium example: Detroit is offering him about $35 million per year, Duren wants $40 or $41 million, but there’s not much he can do other than take a massive risk (and one-year paycut) by playing on the lowly qualifying offer to become an unrestricted free agent a year from now. It’s rare that a team will go after another team’s restricted free agents, in part because they don’t want their cap space on hold for a few days while they wait to hear if their offer was matched. The Clippers don’t really have a choice. Next year’s free agent class could feature the following restricted free agents if they don’t reach an early extension: Brandon Miller, Ausar Thompson, Scoot Henderson, Cason Wallace, Anthony Black, Brandin Podziemski, and more. The following year’s restricted free agent class could feature Stephon Castle, Donovan Clingan, Matas Buzelis, Ron Holland, Kyshawn George, Zach Edey, and more. It would behoove the Clippers to throw a super rich deal at one of these guys in hopes of stealing a top young talent.
Churn the bottom of the roster until you find real contributors
One benefit of being a bad team is the ability to churn spots at the bottom of the roster to keep giving new players a chance in hopes of finding a diamond in the rough. The Process era Sixers were known for their shameless tanking, but they also uncovered some really nice future contributors like Robert Covington, TJ McConnell, Jerami Grant, Richaun Holmes, and Christian Wood who may not have ever gotten an opportunity on a more competitive team. The key for the Sixers will be finding some good young role players like these guys, then locking them up on cheap extensions before they hit free agency.
Buy early second round picks
The conventional wisdom right now is that the NIL killed the second round of the draft. The Rockets traded up to the first pick of the second round (No. 31 overall) this year to take Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton by giving up only picks No. 39, No. 53, and a 2029 second-rounder. Arkansas guard Meleek Thomas also fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round and then had an awesome summer league. The Chicago Bulls straight up sold the No. 38 overall pick this year (the second-round swaps they got in return still result in a net loss of a draft pick). I reject the notion that the second-round of the draft is completely worthless. There’s always good players available, and you could build a pretty solid team just with the best second-round picks of the 2020s so far. The Clippers should get in the mix and be aggressive in second-round trade ups to try to land some of the best players who fall out of the first-round. Even if you hit on one or two guys, it could make a big difference in building out the overall talent of the roster around Wagler.
Take on any bad contract in return for picks
We haven’t seen teams give up first-round picks just to shed salary this offseason, but that doesn’t mean it’s never going to happen again. There are more than a few examples of teams trading conditional first round picks just to dump some bad money in trades, and the Clippers need to be all over those types of deals.
Take a chance on distressed stars
The Clippers are going to need pure upside swings going forward, and going after stars who are suddenly on the outs with their teams is a great way to do this. If the Pelicans eventually want to get rid of Zion Williamson, the Clippers are in a unique position to go after him and give him a starring role. If the Spurs eventually want to dump De’AAron Fox because he makes too much money, but the Clippers could pick him up for cheap. If Ja Morant is looking for a new home shortly after joining the Blazers, the Clippers might as well have interest. Hell, even Karl-Anthony Towns was kind of in this situation a few years ago with Minnesota, and I think the Knicks like how that one turned out. The Clippers might as well throw caution to the wind to try to find a veteran co-star next to Wagler over the next few years.
Get creative with front office hires to try to find the next team-building edge
Professional sports have become one big game of looking for the next market inefficiency. Just over 10 years ago, teams were still catching up to the idea that it’s good to take a lot of threes. These days, everyone is obsessed with the possession game, valuing low-turnover players who rebound well for their position and get to the foul line. The war on analytics is over within front offices, and analytics won, but the hunt for the next edge will still continue. There’s no salary cap for staff, so the Clippers should invest heavily in their front office by hiring people from different backgrounds. Maybe that means people who are doing cutting edge data science or mathematics. Maybe that means taking a chance on a few young scouts from Draft Twitter. Maybe it’s trying out a strategy from someone coming from another sport. The Clippers have nothing but time on their hands as they wait to get some first-round picks back, and in the meantime they can afford to make some nontraditional hires in search of their next edge.
Make the tickets, concessions, and merchandise much more affordable
Clippers fans have to feel completely defeated right now. Like, more so than their typical level of defeat. The organization needs to get the fans back on its side, and the best way to do it is to slash the prices of everything it takes to support the team. Want to pay through the nose for tickets and a t-shirt? Go to a Lakers game. The Clippers should be the team of the people with cheap seats, drinks, and merch. This is a non-negotiable.
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