Clippers making multi-player trade seems more likely now

Now that C.J. Wilcox is reportedly available for trade and Lance Stephenson and Josh Smith are glued to the bench, it seems more likely the Los Angeles Clippers will make a multi-player deal before the February 18 deadline.

The Los Angeles Clippers, who have experienced so many struggles this season, could have spiralled out of control after losing Blake Griffin. Yet, with six straight wins after his injury to extend their current win streak to seven, they’ve starting getting themselves together. However, as certain players continue to receive DNPs and another player has been added to the mix of trade rumors, it seems more likely that Doc Rivers might create a multi-player deal before the February 18 deadline.

Most recently, it’s been reported by Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that C.J. Wilcox could be available for trade. He’s currently with the NBA D-League’s Canton Charge, and has averages of 17.6 points on 44 percent shooting, 4.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists per game with a 42.2 percent three-point stroke in his time there.

Now that Wilcox is supposedly available for trade, the likelihood of a package combining two or three players has only increased. Before even considering Doc’s rotations and demotion of certain players, the availability of Wilcox is interesting, simply because he won’t be shopped by himself. While he does have talent as a shooter and a little potential to be a role player, somewhere, some day, no team is going to be highly pursuing a trade for him alone.

Next, there’s the matter of Josh Smith and Lance Stephenson being demoted that hasn’t gone away or eased up at all.

For the latest example of what Doc’s doing with Smith and Stephenson, let’s consider the Clippers’ last game against the Portland Trail Blazers (a 109-98 win) on Wednesday night. They won thanks to a strong first half (63-40 lead at halftime), some hot shooting, and a typical point-god performance from Chris Paul, who had 21 points and 19 assists — his highest assist total in a game since joining the Clippers.

Austin Rivers and Paul Pierce did their part too, shooting 7-of-10 for 16 points and 5-of-9 for 17 points, respectively. If those two can somehow combine for 7-of-8 three-point shooting more often, then strong perimeter play can keep carrying the offense while Griffin is out.

The fourth quarter wasn’t as conniving, but considering how well they played over the first half, you’d think that Doc may have at least put Stephenson or Smith in for a few minutes. Oh, how wrong you’d have been to think that, though.

Neither of them set foot in the game, meaning they now have a combined total of 10 DNPs this season. Stephenson has been the most active of the two, and he still has three games with less than 10 minutes playing time and two DNPs in the Clippers’ last six contests.

They may both have something to offer on defense and Stephenson can bring real energy to the offense with his driving ability and passing, but in fairness to Doc, the Clippers are winning without them. Lance hasn’t played many minutes at all in this win streak and has a negative +/- in every game except the Philadelphia 76ers 130-99 blowout, and Smith has received a DNP for five of the seven games.

Those numbers speak for themselves, and what matters most is that the Clippers are winning. Even if players like Pierce and Rivers don’t stay as hot as they are right now, the team has still been fine without Stephenson and Smith. Which, of course, is only going to provide Doc with more reason to trade them.

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Jamal Crawford can’t be totally dismissed as a possible trade piece either, due to the fact he always seems to be involved in rumors and he has no real value when his shots aren’t falling. He has his moments, but his defense and inefficiency could be sent elsewhere if a team desperately needs a shot-creator off the bench. Doc’s loyalty to him gives the Clippers less urgency to trade him instead of others, though.

Meanwhile, players like Smith and Stephenson were probably always going to be packaged together by the Clippers as they simply don’t have enough value individually. That being said, now that Wilcox has emerged as an available trade piece and Doc couldn’t make it more clear that Smith and Stephenson are at the very bottom of his rotation, the chances of the Clippers creating a package deal to bring in someone new seems even higher.

Next: 4 reasons the Clippers should trade Josh Smith

Regardless of how busy their summer was, it looks like something may happen again before the February deadline. If that’s the case, we’ll just have to wait and see who Doc may throw together and who he wants to go after.