Clippers still aiming to trade Lance Stephenson, Josh Smith

The Los Angeles Clippers are reportedly still aiming to trade Lance Stephenson and Josh Smith, and Rudy Gay could be the player they want to go after.

The Los Angeles Clippers are now 27-14, with the even more impressive element of their record being the fact they have gone 10-1 since losing Blake Griffin. However, with certain players (we all know who) that have essentially fallen out of Doc Rivers’ rotation, the chance of a trade before the February 18 deadline seems increasingly likely.

Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report has discussed some of the trade pieces the Clippers are working with right now, and has said they’re still planning on moving Lance Stephenson and Josh Smith:

"The Clippers, I’m told, simply want to go with addition by subtraction. With both Lance Stephenson being there and Josh Smith. They would just like their chemistry to be better. Those guys are dissatisfied with their roles. They feel like if they could possibly move them along that it would make them better in the long run, particularly in light of what their goals are. They are looking to play for a championship and we know how important chemistry and having everybody pull on the rope is to that sort of pursuit."

Precisely as Bucher said, the Clippers need everyone to contribute if they want to pose a real threat to claim a top four or three seed in the Western Conference and continue to be a danger in the playoffs.

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Even if it seems like it’s impossible for anyone to compete with the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs this season, the Clippers’ elite core is still intact and they’ll be better off going forward with a full roster they can utilize. With that in mind, it seems more and more likely that trading Stephenson and Smith is the way to go, now that they receive a DNP more often than they enter a game.

As my fellow editor Trisity Miller has discussed, the Clippers have been linked to Sacramento Kings in a potential deal for Rudy Gay (per Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee). As Miller has pointed out, Gay could help take the Clippers to another level, but it may take the Kings aiming to clear cap space to splash out in free agency to make a deal work (read in full here):

"In theory, Gay is the wing the Clippers need to bunch themselves into the same category — or close — as the Thunder, Spurs, Cavaliers, and Warriors. Rudy’s presence allows the burden of carrying the offense to drop completely off the shoulders of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and J.J. Redick, and would be an immediate improvement from whichever body Doc Rivers is employing at small forward on a game-by-game basis, from Luc Mbah a Moute to Wesley Johnson to the banished Lance Stephenson, etc…The real issue in this scenario would be what the King want in return for Gay. The Clippers don’t have a lot to offer the Kings, or anyone else for that matter, outside of expiring contracts. If that’s the way Vivek Ranadive and company want to go, clearing the books in an attempt to make a splash next summer, something like Stephenson ($9 million, team option next summer), Crawford ($5.6 million, UFA next summer), Smith (<$1 million, UFA next summer), and a low-end pick (maybe the team’s BK second) for Gay and Caron Butler works out financially."

Next: Watch J.J. Redick drop career-high 40 points and 9 threes

As long as Stephenson and Smith are around and spending all their time on the bench, the Clippers certainly aren’t going with the mindset of every player chipping in. At the very least, they have $9 million completely wasted by keeping Lance on the bench.

If they really want a contending team from top to bottom, pursuing a trade like the one discussed above seems like the best option available to them.

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