LA Clippers: Would this superstar trade for Paul George make sense?
The logic of moving Paul George
After the loss to the Nuggets, Paul George told the media that the team never viewed this season as a championship or bust year. According to reports, that rubbed players the wrong way. While we can question the validity of those reports, I think most fans agree with me in saying that you don’t want to hear that from your star players and that it’s easy to see how that could potentially frustrate an organization who just gave up almost all of their future for you.
Moving PG would send a message that this team, in fact, does have a championship or bust mentality.
Regardless, let’s step back and just look at the basketball side of this deal.
Moving PG and Zubac would give the Clippers some interesting depth. Assuming the team re-signs JaMychal Green and Marus Morris (who both seem to be priorities for the team), their projected depth chart would look like this:
- PG: Patrick Beverley, Terance Mann
- SG: Landry Shamet, Lou Williams, Rodney McGruder
- SF: Kawhi Leonard, Josh Richardson
- PF: Marcus Morris, Patrick Patterson
- C: Joel Embiid, JaMychal Green
That’s not a bad jumping-off point. This deal barely moves the needle on the salary cap, so the team would still be able to use their mid-level exception to bring in either backup point guard depth or another big.
You’ll notice I slotted the 6’5″ Richardson at the three spot behind Leonard.
Quick notes on Richardson:
- Salary: $10 mil a year for two more years
- 2019-20 stats: 13.7 PPG, 43.0 FG%, 34.1 3P%, 3.2 REB, 2.9 AST, 0.9 STL, 0.7 BLK
I did this just to give the bench more depth while Shamet with the starting lineup helps to space the floor for Embiid. Should the team sign another wing, I would gladly start Richardson while playing Lou and Shamet as the two bench guards.
Speaking of Embiid, he actually brings a slight uptick in scoring over George. Embiid this season averaged 23.0 points compared to George’s 21.5. He did so on 47.7% shooting from the field (33.1% from deep) while also pulling down 11.6 rebounds. He also handed out 3.0 assists and averaged 1.3 blocks and 0.9 steals.
If injuries are a concern for you with Embiid, it should be noted that he played 3 more games than George did this season. While that’s not great for a 25-year-old, the Clippers have shown willingness to make sure their players are healthy in the postseason.
Embiid’s size would give the Clippers a dominant big man to hang with the likes of Anthony Davis, Nikola Jokic, and Rudy Gobert in the Western Conference.
While talking this over with the Clipperholics contributors, we brought up how much Embiid respected and liked playing with Jimmy Butler. It seems like Embiid could be more than okay playing second fiddle to Kawhi and would let Leonard lead.
On paper, this all makes sense, right?