3 Trades That Could Improve the LA Clippers This Offseason

Oh boy. I can hear some of you yelling at me already.

Why the LA Clippers do this:

The numbers speak for themselves with Rudy Gobert. He’s a defense unto himself, even with guys like Donovan Mitchell on his team. He grabs rebounds at an elite rate and, while he’s not a huge offensive threat, he scores at an insane efficiency. He’s the guy that we hope Ivica Zubac develops into.

If we made this trade, we have a legitimately Big 3 with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Rudy Gobert. We’d be adding a 28 year old who is one of the best screeners in the NBA, can be a lob threat in the pick and roll and cleans up misses on the offensive glass better than almost anybody in the league (3rd in the NBA in offensive rebounds).

We’d have a stifling defense. Adding Rudy Gobert behind Kawhi and Bev and PG almost isn’t fair.

And sure, I hear you saying that Zubac shows a lot of the same skills and is younger. And hey, I love Zu. I have the highest of hopes for him.

But the jump from producing in 18 minutes per game to producing in 36 minutes per game isn’t always as linear as we want to make it seem, especially on the defensive end, and especially for a young big.

It would hurt to get rid of Lou, and we’d miss his scoring off the bench, especially when our stars are load managing in the regular season. But this could provide an opportunity for some of our young guys, like Terance Mann, to step into a bigger role and start to develop.

Gobert fits the timeline of Kawhi and PG, and would help us as we push to win now.

Would the Jazz say yes?

This is the real kicker here. All context aside, they would absolutely not do this trade.

But, we keep hearing these whispers, especially post-hiatus, that Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert aren’t going to co-exist in the long run. And sure, it could all be rumors and smoke. But as we’ve seen with superstar relations, where there’s smoke there’s often fire.

If the Jazz are forced to move on from one of Mitchell and Gobert, the smart move would be Gobert. And this could be a solid haul for Utah.

They could look at all the same numbers that we are and say “in four years, Zubac could be producing at a similar level to Gobert.” If they think they can develop Zu into a similar player, then they may see this trade as settling relations while keeping continuity.

And Lou could play the Jordan Clarkson role better than Jordan Clarkson. Coming off the bench and scoring buckets is basically the dictionary definition of Lou Williams. So the Jazz could look at this as keeping a very similar team while getting rid of Gobert. I also think this is one where at least one second round pick goes from LA to Utah.

Of course, Lou could put the kibosh on this immediately. In the past he’s said that the LA Clippers are the last team he’ll play for, and if those are still his feelings, then Utah has no reason to make this trade.

If that’s the case, the Clippers could make a similar offer but replacing Lou and McGruder (who’s only in this to match salaries) with Pat Beverley.

Pulling off any of these trades would, I think, make the Clippers a better team moving forward. Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know on Twitter and follow Clipperholics for up to date Clippers news and opinion!