The Los Angeles Clippers and Jerry West are looking ahead

With the trade of Blake Griffin on Monday, it’s obvious that the Los Angeles Clippers and Jerry West are looking well past this season.

It still stings. It’ll sting even more tonight if we see Blake Griffin on the Detroit Pistons bench on TNT prior to the Los Angles Clippers game on the same network. Blake will be a Clipper for life to many of us and we are grateful to him. However, let’s look past the emotion and towards what is really happening: Jerry West and the Clippers front office are planning ahead.

This move, in a vacuum, is a good move. However, in a few weeks after we presumably change the roster even more, this could be something great. Jerry West, alongside Lawrence Frank and the team’s re-tooled front office, are setting up the LA Clippers to be in the best possible position.

The next move?

The next move the team needs to make is pretty clear.

Trade DeAndre Jordan.

Yes, he’s played more games then anyone ever has in a Clippers uniform. Yes, it was just a few years ago that he was held hostage in order to get him re-signed. However, times have changed. Traditional centers are becoming a thing of the past. DeAndre, for everything he does well, cannot shoot and his athleticism will fade at some point.

At the end of this season, DJ can either opt in and earn over $24 million. He can also test free agency. Neither option puts the Clippers in a good position. Moving him now is the only certain way that they don’t become trapped by his salary or get nothing in return.

What’s after that?

Well, that depends on who you ask. We can’t know for certain what Jerry West has up his sleeve. There are a couple of routes, each with their own benefits.

Go big or go home

The team would be in a good spot to try and land a big name free agent next summer. Avery Bradley’s contract will be off the books. Austin Rivers may or may not be, depending on what he does with his player option. The only large contract the Clippers will have is for Danilo Gallinari. With a couple of small deals, they could easily make cap room to bring one or two big name free agents. However, it may take pairing some of our draft picks with pieces in order to unload contracts and even then, there’s no guarantee we get anyone to actually sign.

Embrace the youth

Option number two is to embrace the youth and play the long game. It may not be the strategy to put people in seats now, but with two first round picks in next year’s draft, plus the possibility of another through a DeAndre Jordan trade, the Clippers could get young.

Let’s not forget the youth already on the team:

Austin Rivers, Age: 25
Tobias Harris, Age: 25
Montrezl Harrel, Age: 24
Sam Dekker, Age: 23
Tyrone Wallace, Age: 23
Sindarius Thornwell, Age: 23
Jawun Evans, Age: 21

Add in two or three talented draft picks and you have a very solid young core to work around. No, not all of these guys will end up great, but the more youth you have, the more chances you have to strike gold.

Given that a few of these players develop the right way, the Clips could see a solid team form and then still be in position to sign some helpful veterans.

Patience

Whatever the Los Angeles Clippers plan to do will take time. There’s still the off chance they sneak into the playoffs this season, but that is far from the ultimate goal. Jerry West and the team’s front office have a strategy and they have begun to enact it. We may be waiting for a few years before we see the product, but if you’ve watched any NBA over the past few season, you know that you just have to trust the process.