Clippers Rumors: L.A. made an offer to Lance Thomas

Their first offer was rejected, but the Los Angeles Clippers have reached out to New York Knicks free agent forward Lance Thomas.

News surrounding the Los Angeles Clippers over the start of NBA free agency has focussed on the disappointment of the Kevin Durant dream coming to an end, the Jeff Green trade becoming even worse, Austin Rivers and Wesley Johnson re-signing, Cole Aldrich leaving for Minnesota, and Jamal Crawford coming back on a three-year, $42 million deal after so many rumors surfaced that he was leaving.

For a team making few changes, there has still been plenty to talk about. When it comes to bringing in new talent, though, there haven’t been many murmurs yet.

After Green agreed to his one-year, $15 million deal with the Orlando Magic and Durant is still leaving everyone in suspense on July 4th, the Clippers need to address their struggling small forward situation as much as possible.

In order to do so, they reached out to 6’8″ forward Lance Thomas, who spent last season with the New York Knicks, but he rejected their offer, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post:

"While defensive forward Lance Thomas has been courted by five clubs, even turning down an offer from the Clippers, his chances of remaining a Knick still are “better than 50-50,” according to an NBA source familiar with the matter.“He still wants to stay,” the source said. “He likes the moves they’ve done.” …The Timberwolves, Spurs, Clippers, Thunder and Pelicans are interested, and Thomas has received at least two offers that would slightly top what the Knicks can do."

Given their lack of cap space, the Clippers wouldn’t have made one of those offers that topped what the Knicks offered Thomas. The Knicks still have almost $10 million in cap space (even after all their signings and the Derrick Rose trade) and have Thomas’ early bird rights, meaning they can exceed the cap and can offer him a starting salary of around $6 million.

Berman also included in his report that Thomas does want to return to the Knicks and that his chances of doing so are “better than 50/50.” At this stage of free agency, it’s clearly all down to what the Knicks want to do as they continue shaking up their roster after acquisitions such as Rose, Courtney Lee and Joakim Noah.

However, if they don’t choose to keep Thomas, there’s a chance the Clippers may have another shot at going after him. Even after rejecting their first offer, Thomas may reconsider if he and the Knicks part ways.

As Berman added, the Clippers are still interested, so perhaps they will give negotiating a deal another try.

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Thomas is coming off a career year in 2015-16, averaging a new high of 8.2 points in 22.3 minutes per game. He wasn’t a prolific bench player by any means and averaged 13.3 points, 1.5 assists, 0.6 steals and only 3.6 rebounds per 36 minutes, but he drastically improved his three-point shot to shoot 40.4 percent from deep while displaying his ability to play at both forward spots, defend, and shoot well from mid-range.

That being said, if the Knicks can offer him a relatively low salary and Thomas is still happy to take a slight discount to stay as Berman reported, it looks like nothing may come of this interest for the Clippers. Now their salary cap situation is even more restricted after their re-signings over the last couple of days, Thomas coming to L.A. seems fairly unlikely.

Next: Cavs, Warriors were both interested in Jamal Crawford

Luc Mbah a Moute re-signing is still a definite possibility, though.

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