The LA Clippers got busy before Thursday’s trade deadline and completely revamped the team that began the season. Here’s what I thought of each move.
The LA Clippers entered Tuesday night’s matchup with the Charlotte Hornets like any other this season — together, and with a fighting chance.
Just a few hours later, All-Star snub Tobias Harris hit a game-winner in one of his best performances of the season. It was one of his seven 30-point games with the Clippers, the most he’s ever had in a single season.
Just a few hours after that, he was gone — traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, along with Mike Scott and his partner in crime, Boban Marjanovic.
The trade left fans shook, at least at first. The Clippers had shown every sign that they planned to re-sign Harris in the summer, and it didn’t help that the news broke at 2:17 AM on the East Coast, either.
From there, it was clear that the Clippers weren’t done making moves. The Harris trade signaled that the team is most focused on the summer, and intends to sign as many max-level free agents as possible.
After much speculation as to who would be the next player to go, news broke about an hour before Thursday’s deadline that the Clippers were moving Avery Bradley to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Not long after that, Marcin Gortat got waived, and not long after that, the Clippers managed a trade to land Ivica Zubac from the Lakers at the cost of one Mike Muscala (LA also got Michael Beasley in that trade, but he’ll almost certainly be waived).
The final move came just after the Zubac trade, when the Clippers waived Milos Teodosic to make room on the roster so the trade could officially go through.
Now that the dust has settled a bit, I’ll be grading each one of the moves that the Clippers made before the deadline in chronological order. (Spoiler alert — they did very well).