Jeff Green is not the solution for the Clippers

Jeff Green’s impending free agency

Green isn’t locked up to some reasonable contract moving forward. This is the last season on his contract and the Clippers will have to pay him handsomely, again, with a salary cap growing an estimated 30 percent this summer.

Luckily, the Clippers do have Bird rights on Green, which means they can exceed the salary cap to re-sign him. This is actually quite important for the team this summer, because even if Green signs with a new team the Clippers won’t have enough cap space to replenish whatever they might lose from this roster.

In fact, in order for the Clippers to have any sort of reasonable cap space ($8-12 million), Green would need to sign elsewhere or be renounced and the team would also have to renounce the rights on all their free agents. That means releasing Bird rights on Jamal Crawford and Austin Rivers, while the team would lose Non-Bird rights on Cole Aldrich and Wesley Johnson.

Essentially, the Clippers would have a rotation of Paul, Pierce, DeAndre Jordan, Griffin and J.J. Redick. They would have limited cap space (nearly half the league has enough space for a max contract), their mid-level exception and the bi-annual exception.

Oh yeah, use a majority of the mid-level and all of the bi-annual and the Clippers are hard capped again.

Hopefully, Rivers will be able to negotiate reasonable terms with Green this summer because of their time spent together in Boston. Unfortunately, Green and his agent know the Clippers can’t let him walk, because they need his salary on their books in order to stay over the cap, allowing for more financial flexibility moving forward (trade exceptions, matching salaries, tax exceptions, ect.).

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Basically, if you can’t tell, I am not fond of this trade for multiple reasons. Green isn’t much of an improvement statistically, but hopefully he can fit in and fill a role the Clippers desperately need him to play.

Value wise, the Grizzlies fleeced the Clippers. They cut bait on a guy they weren’t going to re-sign and picked up a first-round pick that, seemingly, nobody was offering for Green.

Looking at it from a micro point of view, Green is unlike any other swing man the Clippers have had in nearly a decade. There won’t be nearly as much offensive responsibility weighing him down, which might allow him to flourish with the team’s overall talent.

Next: How the Clippers missed trading for Channing Frye

However, if the Clippers don’t make the Conference Finals the team might get blown up anyway. This move looks like a last grasp for the crown.

Ultimately, I don’t think Green is capable of solving enough of the Clippers’ problems, if any.