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Hypothetical scenario: Helping the Clippers land Kevin Durant if it netted the Rockets Blake Griffin

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by Clips/Roxfan, Jun 27, 2016.

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  1. Clips/Roxfan

    Clips/Roxfan Member

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    Clippers Off-Season 2016: Kevin Durant Scenarios

    By Lucas Hann  @LucasJHann on Jun 25, 2016


    Move Blake or DeAndre to a Third Team, Sign KD

    If the Clippers get a commitment from Durant that he'll sign with them, they could opt to maximize their value by trading Blake Griffin or DeAndre Jordan into a team's cap space, renouncing their bird rights free agents, and signing Kevin Durant outright. When you remove Griffin or Jordan's salary and the cap holds of Rivers, Crawford, and Green from the Clippers' cap sheet, you're left with enough money to sign Durant with room, and have some left over to get some supporting guys in return from the Blake trade.

    For example, the Clippers could send Blake Griffin to Boston for Jae Crowder, Jaylen Brown, and some combination of assets that don't come with a cap hold (unsigned rights to second round picks, future picks, or Ante Zizic/Guerschon Yabusele, whose cap holds go away if they agree to stay in Europe their rookie year). In this instance, they'd take back enough salary that they'd be left with less than a full max slot for KD--he'd have to take a paycut of about $108,000, which isn't too unrealistic.




    The best part is that Boston wouldn't be able to hold the Clippers hostage, because tons of teams have room to add Blake Griffin, and the Clippers can let those bid against each other. If Boston's holding out, the Clippers can go talk to Philadelphia, Minnesota, Orlando, Utah, Milwaukee, Phoenix, or any number of teams--as long as their packages don't give the Clippers too much money back. How much can they take?

    When calculating cap room, teams have to factor in "roster holds", which are minimum-salary slots for every empty roster spot under 12. If Paul Pierce retires, and Branden Dawson is waived, the Clippers will have Paul, Redick, Griffin, Jordan, C.J. Wilcox, and Brice Johnson on the roster--leaving 6 roster holds valued at $543,471 eating into their cap room. Losing one of Griffin/Jordan, but adding Durant, is a wash. How much salary they can take back in trade depends on how many players they take back, because each additional incoming player eliminates one more roster hold, increasing the amount by $543,471 (unsigned second-round picks or stash guys who don't have cap holds don't take up a roster spot and therefore don't eliminate roster holds). Here's the chart for Blake trades:

    Players Incoming Salary Allowed
    1 $9,586,479
    2 $10,129,950
    3 $10,673,421
    4 $11,216,892
    5 $11,760,363




    Here's the chart if the Clippers move Jordan:

    Players Incoming Salary Allowed
    1 $10,611,315
    2 $11,154,786
    3 $11,698,257
    4 $12,241,728
    5 $12,785,199



    Jordan's numbers are all about a million more than Griffin's, because he has a higher salary than Blake, but Jordan will also likely bring less talent back in return, no matter how much salary comes in. Any leftover room can be used in free agency, possibly by keeping Austin Rivers' bird rights ($5,910,512 minus one $543,471 roster hold = $5,367,041 needed to keep his bird rights) and/or Branden Dawson's non-guaranteed contract ($874,636 minus his $543,471 roster hold = $331,165 needed to keep his bird rights). The Clippers would then have the room mid-level exception ($2.898 million starting salary for up to 2 years) to lure a veteran who is willing to take a paycut.

    All of this is contingent on Paul Pierce retiring. If he stays for another season, all of the "incoming salary allowed" numbers in those charts go down by $2,984,449 (Pierce's $3,527,920 salary minus his $543,471 roster hold), which severely limits the Clippers' options but doesn't deplete them, especially given the reality that the team would ultimately settle for an imperfect deal if a Kevin Durant signing was pending.

    Here's your task in the comments: search around the league and find the best packages for Blake that fit within those salary constraints (realistic, please: no trading Blake for Andrew Wiggins AND Karl-Anthony Towns). Turning Blake Griffin into Kevin Durant is a talent upgrade for this roster, but can the Clippers get enough of a return for Blake to make renouncing Rivers, Crawford, and Green worthwhile? I think so, and I think that multiple teams present options to make that worthwhile


    http://www.clipsnation.com/2016/6/25/12031812/clippers-off-season-2016-kevin-durant-scenarios
     
    #1 Clips/Roxfan, Jun 27, 2016
    1 person likes this.
  2. Clips/Roxfan

    Clips/Roxfan Member

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    It would be a win-win for my two favorite teams.
     
    #2 Clips/Roxfan, Jun 27, 2016
  3. Aruba77

    Aruba77 Member

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    Blake would fit in great. Creative idea!
     
    #3 Aruba77, Jun 27, 2016
  4. Clips/Roxfan

    Clips/Roxfan Member

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    Cant take credit for it, I just copy pasted the article from a Clipper blog. But it would be ideal for both the Rockets and Clippers...
     
    #4 Clips/Roxfan, Jun 27, 2016
  5. Cashmoney

    Cashmoney Member

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    Why would the clippers offload Griffin to us for free? We have zero assets. I get they will want to make space if Durant comes but it doesn't make sense
     
    #5 Cashmoney, Jun 27, 2016
  6. kjayp

    kjayp Member

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    other teams will have better assets to offer...
    and if it comes down to a straight salary dump... you'd deal them to an eastern conference team first...
    love the idea... just dont see it happenin for us...
     
    #6 kjayp, Jun 27, 2016
  7. ThatBoyNick

    ThatBoyNick Member

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    Many teams would offer better trade packages then the Rockets. Suns, Celtics, Nuggets, Lakers

    Basically any team with good players on rookie contracts, all we have is Capela, he's good but he's not netting us anything like Griffin or Jordan.
     
    #7 ThatBoyNick, Jun 27, 2016
  8. peleincubus

    peleincubus Member

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    I figured it would go without saying why would Durant go to the Clippers without Blake and Jordan.

    Chris Paul will be 32 by the time the playoffs start next year. He is the player they need to move on from if they want a future.
     
    #8 peleincubus, Jun 27, 2016
  9. OTMax

    OTMax Member

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    Hell no.
     
    #9 OTMax, Jun 27, 2016
  10. Yung-T

    Yung-T Member

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    What assets do we have, Curry "Jordan" Brewer?
     
    #10 Yung-T, Jun 27, 2016
  11. jsingles

    jsingles Member

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    Of course he's still a top tier PG, but why would anyone choose to play with Paul? What team success has this guy ever brought to either of the franchises he was a corner-stone for? He'll retire with the furthest he'll ever make it in the playoffs is a soul crushing Game 6 loss to the Rockets and a whopping in Game 7.
     
    #11 jsingles, Jun 27, 2016
  12. malakas

    malakas Member

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    I think it's much more possible they trade DJ and replace him with a cheap shotblocker and I also think this thread is not THAT far fetched.
    The far fetched here is that Durant actually chooses the Clippers. If that happens then Houston can certainly help and make a good offer for jordan. At least we make a competitive one.

    The total sum must be around 10 million and not many teams can offer good pieces for benches because most really cheap players are rookies that won't help the Clips.

    We could offer Beasley, Bev, Capela and Harell. That's almost a whole bench right here.

    Celtics could offer Olynyk,Hunter and Smart. Doubtful that Ainge includes Crowder.

    Portland could offer Aminu and Plumlee + some cheap scrub which is imo the best offer.

    There wouldn't be many options for the Clippers.
     
    #12 malakas, Jun 27, 2016
  13. FTW Rockets FTW

    FTW Rockets FTW Member

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    Rockets have absolutely nothing to trade for an all star like Griffin besides Harden. No one is taking Corey bricky Sewer or Samuel busty Dekker or the two China guys or any combo of our other scrubs for a Griffin. We're a hot mess right now. Thanks Mauri.
     
    #13 FTW Rockets FTW, Jun 27, 2016
  14. Sanity2disChaos

    Sanity2disChaos Member

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    Great idea and I would love it to come to life but the Rockets have no players anybody would want. We have done a horrible job collecting Assets..........as they say.smh.

    This years free agency will separate the boys from the men in the GM world. Who are buyers and who are sellers...The Rockets will be buying.
     
    #14 Sanity2disChaos, Jun 27, 2016
  15. DaDakota

    DaDakota Arrest all Pedophiles
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    Yes.

    DD
     
    #15 DaDakota, Jun 27, 2016
  16. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Member

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    In this scenario, the Clippers wouldn't want any asset with a salary attached. They'd want future draft picks and Eurostashes. We have some of those. I'm not sure how we compare to the market in terms of the quality of our Euro players and future draft picks. I think Boston just stashed 3 guys from the last draft and have some picks owed to them too. Sixers would also make sense because I think they have a lot of picks coming, and their own pick will be better quality than Houston's own.
     
    #16 JuanValdez, Jun 27, 2016
  17. JayZ750

    JayZ750 Member

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    As has been pointed out, why joine Clippers without Blake or DJ?

    While I value Blake over DJ, even moving DJ would be a huge problem. He's their defensive anchor, and FT shooting aside, is EXACTLY what you want in a big these days.

    I'm not a cap expert, but I feel like they'd be able to make room by moving Reddick and Pierce. And if they can't do that "for free", they can add a couple of second round draft picks. Reddick is a dead eye sharp shooter and underrated defender, but from a pure roster balance perspective, you'd much much much rather have

    CP3, Durant, Blake, DJ
    than
    CP3, Reddick, Durant, DJ

    http://hoopshype.com/salaries/los_angeles_clippers/

    Reddick and Pierce make a combined $10.8 million. $78.3 - $10.8 = $67.5 million. With a $95 million cap, that leaves them $27.5 million, which is enough to max KD.

    This is the reason why I think the Clippers are possibly the best non-OKC option.

    #1 - Reddick/Pierce should be moveable. As a Rockets fan, I'd take both depending on circumstance. Plenty of other teams could be intereted. Reddick is such a great 3 point shooter.

    #2 - The Clippers is not coattailing.

    #3 - Its LA... even if you think LA sucks, you recognize a lot of other people, including NBA stars rolling in cash, love to live there.
     
    #17 JayZ750, Jun 27, 2016
  18. Awesome

    Awesome Member

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    Players can live in LA regardless of who they play for.

    They do have months of downtime
     
    #18 Awesome, Jun 27, 2016
  19. JayZ750

    JayZ750 Member

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    Yeah... there's a difference.
     
    #19 JayZ750, Jun 27, 2016
  20. Liberon

    Liberon Rookie

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    Hardworking guy. Heard him and Westbrook were buddies that trained together often by running up the San Pedro sand dunes. I think they just swap Durant and Griffin.
     
    #20 Liberon, Jun 27, 2016
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