Are the 2020 LA Clippers the best NBA team money can buy?
JaMychal Green – $4,767,700
Things start to open up again as we hit the “veteran role player” portion of the Clippers’ line up. Now that we’ve passed the superstars, and players who outperform their current salaries we’ll find more players for which we’re willing to make swaps. Of course, some of these will be young, up-and-coming players which their current teams would never part with in a one-for-one deal (or, at all) but we’ll continue to note those accordingly.
Based on JaMychal Green’s $4.77 million contract we’ll be evaluating him against players making between $5.96 and $3.81 million this season.
The full list of players in that salary range:
Ish Smith, Marco Belinelli, Jarrett Culver, Jonathan Isaac, Rodney Hood, Mohamed Bamba, Timofey Mozgov, Trey Lyles, Deron Williams, Aron Baynes, Kris Dunn, Josh Smith, Coby White, Lauri Markkanen, Ryan Anderson, Wendell Carter, Pau Gasol, Daniel Theis, Luol Deng, Jaxson Hayes, Buddy Hield, Frank Ntilikina, Ed Davis, Richaun Holmes, Frank Kaminsky, Mike Scott, Avery Bradley, Robin Lopez, Justin Holiday, Garrett Temple, Enes Kanter, Collin Sexton, Rodney McGruder, Rui Hachimura, Kevon Looney, Dennis Smith, Jamal Murray, Kevin Knox, Cam Reddish, Zach Collins, Mikal Bridges, Alex Len, Cameron Johnson, Malik Monk, Dorian Finney-Smith, JaVale McGee, Patrick McCaw, Reggie Bullock, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nicolo Melli, P.J. Washington, Luke Kennard.
Green is a quality role player so it’s not as cut-and-dry to swap him for every single young player on this list. The absolutely, no-doubt-about-it yes’s are Wendell Carter, Jamal Murray, Cameron Johnson, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. We’d also add Jonathan Isaac and Mo Bamba to this list even with their concerns.
The probably yes’s but made us think for a minute include Coby White, Lauri Markkanen, Jaxson Hayes, Buddy Hield, Collin Sexton, Rui Hachimura, Kevin Knox, Cam Reddish, Zach Collins, Mikal Bridges, and Luke Kennard.
Outside of those young players, we don’t think we’d swap Green for many of the veterans on this list. The ones that made us think about it, but ultimately say no are Avery Bradley and JaVale McGee. We chose to stick with Green due to his versatility on the defensive side of the floor.