Clippers Offseason Theories: Forming LeBron James’ super team
By Tim Hiley
To continue this short series of theories for the Los Angeles Clippers’ offseason, here’s Tim Hiley’s look at the dream/speculation of a LeBron James super team.
So, how is it that whenever the concept of a ‘super team’ comes up, it’s only ever where LeBron James already is, when it makes so much more sense to do it in the city of Los Angeles? When LeBron raised the possibility of forming a super team consisting of himself, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, it put the league on red — or banana boat — alert, and the conclusion that was drawn that it could be taking place in Cleveland. But outside of Lebron’s promise to bring the city a championship, it makes little to no sense to form this side in Cleveland.
The most logical place would be Los Angeles. It makes more sense from a location point of view, a basketball point of view and from a financial point of view. Anthony has said that he’d only do it if it was somewhere warm, which instantly rules out Cleveland and New York.
Even if he was joking, the location needs to be right, and Los Angeles is clearly the best location for such a team. By July, they will all own houses in Los Angeles with the intention of living there during the offseason, so why not make it a permanent move?
Obviously, LeBron and Wade would need to take pay cuts, and LeBron has said he would be willing to do that in order to play with his ‘brotherhood’.
Earlier this year, he expressed his interest to Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck:
"“I really hope that, before our career is over, we can all play together. At least one, maybe one or two seasons—me, Melo, D-Wade, CP—we can get a year in. I would actually take a pay cut to do that.”"
Firstly, the Clippers take a look at how much they’ve got on the books. Including minimum player options, they have a payroll of at least $84,376,638, plus Jamal Crawford, Luc Mbah a Moute, Jeff Green and Pablo Prigioni are unrestricted free agents.
If there was even a dream that involved LeBron and Wade taking the kind of pay cut they’d need to join the salary-cap-strapped Clippers, it would still seem unrealistic. To make it work, LeBron would have to live up to his proposed idea and pay cut and then some, along with the Clippers ditching other players and salary to rebuild their roster.
The first domino that must fall is the Clippers trading Blake Griffin for Anthony.
I was reading Tom West’s article about how the Griffin for Anthony trade will not and should never happen, and I totally agree. If you’re simply trading Griffin for Anthony, there would be absolutely no advantage in doing it for the Clippers. But if it enabled L.A. to add LeBron and Wade? There would be far more reason to make this trade.
Next, the Clippers need to shift the salary of DeAndre Jordan, while pursuing a solid center at a fraction of the price. At this stage, they need to (ideally) get a starting center who is still on their rookie deal, which seriously limits the options.
One hypothetical trade the Clippers could do is a four team trade with the Jazz, Bucks and Lakers, which would involve sign and trades and would be extremely difficult to engineer — again, this article is simply breaking down LeBron’s proposition if it happened in Los Angeles.
The Lakers receive Greg Monroe, O.J. Mayo and Greivis Vasquez.
The Bucks receive Roy Hibbert, Alec Burks, Lou Williams, Ryan Kelly, Jordan Clarkson.
The Jazz receive DeAndre Jordan and Michael Carter-Williams.
The Clippers receive Rudy Gobert and Miles Plumlee.
The Lakers can be motivated by a new offensive machine to anchor the frontcourt, plus a few veteran backcourt players to nurture D’Angelo Russell. On the other hand, the Bucks downgrade at center but welcome a possible upcoming star in Clarkson at point, as well as a sound shooting guard in Burks, who can further increase spacing alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker and Khris Middleton.
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The Jazz receive a center in Jordan who is a superior athlete and rebounder to Gobert (even though Gobert’s career trajectory is high) and a versatile point guard in Carter-Williams. Meanwhile, the Clippers receive a young, elite rim protector in Gobert to replace Jordan, a solid backup in Plumlee and, most importantly, $16 million of cap space shifted.
If this trade doesn’t happen (and it’s a major long shot), the Clippers could explore other avenues.
So, assuming the Jazz trade is accepted, the cap would be around the $60,000,000 mark, leaving the need to fill out nine roster spots including LeBron and Wade. Depending on how much of a pay cut they’re willing to take will determine the other players that the Clippers could bring in, but LeBron had said he would be willing to take less money to play with Paul, Anthony and Wade. Again, this isn’t easy when the cap is rising to $92 million and everyone is looking to get paid.
Although, when bearing in mind the monster Nike deal that James signed a couple of months ago, I doubt he’s hard up on a dollar or two.
With seven roster spots remaining, it’s now time to extend the contracts of the Clippers’ own free agents.
After Austin Rivers and Cole Aldrich opted out of their contracts, it looks like they’ll either be leaving or will simply be unaffordable with the pursuit of a dream team. As much as the team would surely love to keep Luc Mbah a Moute, he has proven to be a valuable commodity on the defensive end of the ball and may receive offers to play elsewhere. But given his lack of shooting to deter some interest, he may be able to stay on another minimum deal.
The Clippers can then offer Jamal Crawford a veteran’s minimum, and bearing in mind he’s so attached to L.A. and the organization, a pay cut isn’t out of the question.
With the season Paul Pierce has had, it may not be such a bad thing for either party if the Truth was to retire or maybe even join the coaching staff, taking a further $3.5 million off the payroll.
Now, it would be logical to create more cap room by trading J.J. Redick, but his value cannot be overlooked, and with the questionable health of Wade, it would be important to keep Redick around if possible. Next, the Clippers could offer a minimum contract to Pablo Prigioni.
So assuming all those players sign, the roster would feature Chris Paul, Pablo Prigioni, Dwayne Wade, J.J. Redick, Jamal Crawford, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Rudy Gobert, Miles Plumlee, C.J. Wilcox and Branden Dawson.
The Clippers could also trade Wilcox to create additional cap room in a sign-and-trade with Wesley Johnson to try and add a cheap power forward.
Now the roster stands at 12 and the Clippers can only really afford minimum contracts, but with a roster this appealing it could attract some notable names to take a pay cut. After that, additions in this year’s draft will be key.
So, should the Clippers decide to go down this wild and highly improbable route, the roster would be loaded to say the least. If this dream scenario couldn’t win them a championship at long last, then nothing will.
It would take a hell of a lot of manoeuvrability, seeing as the Clippers could either just keep the status quo or do a much simpler deal to tweak the bench. However, if this LeBron super team is ever going to happen, it can only really happen in LA and if it were to be successful, the sooner it happens the better.
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Yes, LeBron has said he wants to bring Cleveland a championship, but at what point does he give up on it? At what point does LeBron losing in the Finals yearly (he’s already down 1-0 against the Warriors this year) become a bigger hit to his legacy than leaving Cleveland again? Is LeBron going to be at Cleveland aged 43, after going 2-17 in the finals, saying that this will be the year? At what point does he cut his losses and chase another ring?
Well, this is the idea behind the super team theory at least. As intriguing as it may be for fans to think about, it’s fairly easy to bet that this will never happen. Too many players need to go against the rising salary cap and take pay cuts while surrendering responsibility and shots between multiple super stars.
Next: 2016 NBA Mock Draft: The current top target for each team
Instead, a far more realistic and still promising option should be taken by the Clippers: keep the core intact. Make sure to read the next episode to find out why.