Are the 2020 LA Clippers the best NBA team money can buy?

Patrick Beverley – $12,345,679

The Clippers starting point guard brings energy, defensive toughness, and a 38.1 percent three-point shooting stroke to the table. Moreso than his raw numbers, his intangibles make him a unique player in this experiment that is hard to replace.

Beverley’s $12.34 million salary means that we’ll be evaluating him against all players making between $15.43 million and $9.87 million this season.

The full list of players in that salary range:

James Johnson, Marvin Williams, Bobby Portis, Danny Green, Cody Zeller, Eric Gordon, Mason Plumlee, Rudy Gay, J.J. Redick, Jordan Clarkson, Dewayne Dedmon, Solomon Hill, Justice Winslow, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Will Barton, Thaddeus Young, Courtney Lee, Larry Nance, Marcus Smart, Terrence Ross, Miles Plumlee, Patty Mills, Trevor Ariza, Dion Waiters, Brook Lopez, Jusuf Nurkic, Cory Joseph, Joe Ingles, Kelly Olynyk, Maurice Harkless, Tony Snell, Robert Covington, Meyers Leonard, T.J. Warren, Andre Roberson, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jeremy Lamb, Dwight Powell, Norman Powell, Josh Richardson, Tomas Satoransky, DeAndre Jordan.

There are some overlaps here with the players in Marcus Morris’ salary range which for which we’d also swap Beverley, but overall we think Beverley is a much more valuable player for his price tag.

Marcus Smart

Smart is basically a younger version of Beverley. He’s not as good of a ball-handler, but we’d make the swap in a straight-up deal anyway.

Close calls, but we have to say no:

We almost said yes to Brook Lopez and Jusuf Nurkic again but Beverley’s a bit more valuable than Morris so ultimately we decided to say no. Spencer Dinwiddie is tempting but we decided to ride with Beverley there.

Just missing the salary-range cut at $9.75 million is a player we’d certainly make the swap for Zion Williamson.