Clippers Free Agency: Cole Aldrich likely to leave for big deal

With the increased salary cap and several centers receiving massive contracts, Cole Aldrich is starting to look even more unaffordable for the Los Angeles Clippers in NBA free agency.

Jeff Green has agreed to a one-year, $15 million deal with the Orlando Magic. It’s not so much that him no longer being the best small forward option for the Los Angeles Clippers frustrates fans, but rather the fact that Doc Rivers traded (along with Lance Stephenson) a 2019 protected first round pick for him to play a measly total of 27 games. The Clippers dealt a first round pick for 709 minutes of Jeff Green, falling back on the expectation that they would be able to re-sign him in free agency to help out with their tough salary cap situation.

Now, that’s obviously not the case and Doc essentially dealt that draft pick for nothing. The Clippers’ options at small forward are decreasing after Green (and his valuable bird rights) departed and rumored target Luol Deng signed with the Los Angeles Lakers for a whopping four-years and $72 million.

At least the Clippers can hang onto “blowing away” Kevin Durant with an impressive presentation, right?

That’s another discussion for another time, though, one that may finally have an answer soon when Durant makes his decision.

Another free agency concern for the Clippers is the increasingly weak chance of being able to keep Cole Aldrich. As a matter of fact, that may be too positive; keeping Aldrich seems like wishful thinking now.

Already, after an impressive season in which Aldrich saved so many poor Clippers’ bench lineups with his effort, rebounding, and rim protection, keeping Aldrich was going to be costly. The best bet was most likely using the mid-level exception to offer him around $5.6 million (he made the minimum of $1.1 million in 2015-16), although questioning whether or not that was the Clippers’ best option was easy to do.

If there was any way they could save their best tool of adding new talent to pursue a big man such as Darrell Arthur (now re-signed with Denver) or Jon Leuer (now signed a four-year, $42 million deal with Detroit), perhaps that would be a wise choice. At the very least, it would be worth a try.

must read: Jamal Crawford could be worth $12-16 million

With excellent averages of 14.8 points, 13 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 3.1 blocks per 36 minutes with 59.6 percent shooting and a 21.3 PER, Aldrich certainly did enough to put himself in the category of players who could be overlooked by fans and easily pick up a hefty contract by teams in need.

While Joakim Noah is obviously a far more high-profile, experienced and proven starting center than Aldrich, and Timofey Mozgov has his previous support to the Cleveland Cavaliers going for him, let’s consider their contracts.

Heading for a starting role with the New York Knicks, Noah agreed to a four-year, $72 million deal.

For the Lakers, who made Mozgov their first call in the first hour of free agency, bypassing other centers they expected wouldn’t even be interested, a four-year, $64 million deal was the price. Especially for his lack of playing time in the NBA Finals this year, limited offensive ability and hardly elite defense, $64 million for someone who’s clearly a backup center looks like one of the worst deals in free agency so far, despite the rising cap.

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Mirza Teletovic got paid a large sum (yet still reasonable for the market) as well, receiving a three-year, $30 million deal from the Milwaukee Bucks.

Everyone is getting paid, and even though a three-year, $10 million deal to talented post scorer Al Jefferson from the Indiana Pacers may indicate that a backup such as Aldrich will receive less, it can’t be ruled out that he’ll receive something similar. If other more notable names are taken, the chance of teams looking to Aldrich and over spending could increase his already expected pay rise.

As of right now, no rumors have really emerged to indicate what’s in store for Aldrich. If the Clippers struggle to find new talent and have to accept that a mid-level exception won’t bring them much this summer, they’ll be hoping that Aldrich is somewhat forgotten by others, his value dips, and they can try to retain him as cheaply as possible.

Next: Kevin Durant 'blown away' by Clippers' free agency pitch

If that’s not the case, Cole Aldrich is about to receive one of the many big contracts flying around and leave Los Angeles. Around $10 million per year could be coming his way, and the Clippers can’t match that at all.

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