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LA Clippers Black Friday Breakdown: Best value on L.A.’s roster

By Tom West

Nov 12, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center Marreese Speights (5) celebrates his basket in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-105. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 12, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center Marreese Speights (5) celebrates his basket in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-105. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports /
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Nov 12, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; LA Clippers guard Raymond Felton (2) defends Minnesota Timberwolves guard Kris Dunn (3) in the second quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 12, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; LA Clippers guard Raymond Felton (2) defends Minnesota Timberwolves guard Kris Dunn (3) in the second quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Raymond Felton

Raymond Felton has often received a lot of hate for playing overweight and hurting his teams (primarily the New York Knicks a few seasons back) because of it. However, he well and truly returned to being an impactful backup with the Dallas Mavericks, and the LA Clippers should have no doubt he won’t have overdone it on the turkey this year with the way he’s playing and driven to help this team.

Felton has played a solid 16.9 minutes per game so far, benefiting from Doc Rivers using plenty of smaller lineups. His 48 percent three-point shooting (0.8 makes a game) has been a welcome surprise even though it won’t last forever, but the way he can drive to the rim, create penetration, get the ball moving, and help defensively have all been valued so far.

And while Felton certainly isn’t the NBA’s best backup point guard, he isn’t bad. So, for the Clippers to sign him for the veteran’s minimum while others like D.J. Augustin (four years, $29 million with Orlando) and Ramon Sessions (two years, $12.5 million with Charlotte) made far more is a certainly a good deal.

In fact, Doc said that he had to beg hard for Felton to accept a minimum contact, but ultimately the chance to play a fairly large role off the bench for a top team was good enough for Felton.

This has worked out for both the Clippers and Felton so far, and kicks off this Black Friday celebration nicely.

Next, a bargain contract that Clipper Nation loves.

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