Clipperholics Mailbag: LA Clippers questions after the loss to the Spurs

Two for one

I’ll knock out two questions on this slide since I believe they coincide with each other. First up:

Yes and no. Avery Bradley has been linked to trades since the summer and I don’t know why the Clippers front office wouldn’t try to get something done. That being said, I’m not sure what his value really is this point.

He has had some good performances on both ends but all in all has been underwhelming. Do teams still look at a defender (which the numbers don’t back up) in this new offensive focused league as something of value? I don’t know. The Clippers may get something many fans see little value in, but we can’t expect to bring in someone for cents on the dollar.

Gortat on the other hand doesn’t seem like he is worth trading. While there may be some value in his expiring contract, I think that’s the whole reason the Clippers wanted him. He may not be making fans happy, but he is serviceable enough for this season and worst case could be added next year above the cap as a stop gap center yet again if the Clips bring in a superstar. I’d lean more towards the team and him moving on after this season though so his cap hold can come off the book for maximum cap space.

The first and most obvious thing would be maintaining cap space. This means don’t trade Avery or Gortat for someone who is signed for multiple years and inhibits your chances to add a max contract level guy. See? I told you they worked together.

The next thing is staying competitive. While I already said I don’t think we make the playoffs, that doesn’t mean we can’t compete every single night. We have pieces in place such as Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander that can slot in next to star players so proving these assets are worth playing next to is key.

The last thing would be to continue to do the little things. If you missed it, ESPN published a piece earlier this week on how the Clippers have been a presence at a ton of Raptors games. They also made sure that Bill Russell was visible next to Jerry West and Steve Ballmer when KD was in town. No, this may not matter in the long run but it’s worth a shot, right?

The Clippers are seemingly doing so much that I Googled Kawhi Leonard‘s favorite movie last night after noticing Chris Pratt was on the sideline for the Raptors game. I just assumed he was somehow involved.

Turns out his favorite movie is The Grey with Liam Neeson. Time to start flying him to games with Lawrence Frank, I guess.