The LA Clippers had a very unorthodox draft night from the start.
NBA 2020 (Virtual) Draft Night has now come and gone, and the LA Clippers did not make it easy for any media outlets. From multiple trades to a complete flip of their draftee, it was a wild night for anyone involved.
The easiest way to look at this crazy draft is to look at the events before doing any kind of analysis. LA Clippers weren’t supposed to have any draft activity up until the 57th pick of the night, but the front office usually likes to throw everyone for a loop despite what is supposed to happen.
Many very different new faces were heading to LA throughout the night.
The Clippers started the night with a three-team deal including Brooklyn and Detroit that netted them the 19th overall pick in exchange for Landry Shamet and Rodney McGruder. They ended up trading away the pick for Pistons shooting guard Luke Kennard.
After that, the Clippers swung another deal to pick up the 33rd overall pick in Daniel Oturu from the New York Knicks in exchange for a 2023 2nd rounder, as reported by the New York Post. Once it came to the initial pick they had, LA made their last move by swapping the 57th pick to Brooklyn to get their 55th pick, Jay Scrubb.
With that, the biggest moves of the 2020 NBA Draft for LA were finally complete. There were a lot of conflicting reports throughout the draft, and even the official NBA website still has Reggie Perry marked down as the Clippers’ pick. Still, we now know for sure that the biggest additions for LA were Kennard, Oturu, and Scrubb, while the biggest losses were Shamet and McGruder. A big thanks to Tomer Azarly and Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter for all of this final information, they hung in there and got all the right info out.
There is a lot to talk about with these three new Clippers players, and since we have to start somewhere, let’s discuss the interesting addition of Kennard from Detroit.
The LA Clippers traded a steady right hand for a stable left hand early on.
Although most LA Clippers fans were upset that a well-loved player headed for Brooklyn, there were those few that were excited that Luke Kennard was going to be dawning a Clippers uniform come next season.
With his first three seasons in Detroit, Kennard made a pretty nice impression on most of the Pistons fans. Averaging 9.8 points, 2.2 assists, and 2.8 rebounds per season, he has steadily improved. This last season was his best, and he bumped his average points from 9.7 up to 15.8 per game.
A big plus to the addition of Kennard is having another player that can turn on a magic switch in the 4th quarter. Shamet was fantastic in the 2019 Playoffs, but he fell well short in 2020, so adding someone like Kennard puts someone behind the rest of the squad in case they all fall off hard again in the 4th like the multiple times they did it last season.
With .399 and .441 in the three pointer and field goal percentage departments respectively last season, he managed to make some big buckets during the latter half of games. LA is hoping to see that translate over to his new team, but there are still some worries about this pick up that have to be recognized before next season.
The head office in LA has taken a slight gamble with this trade, and they are really hoping that not only does Kennard stay healthy, but he also keeps his numbers up from last season. He did a lot better than Shamet in much less time on the court, but there isn’t a whole lot that certifies that his improved play carries over from a struggling team to an average playoff contender.
The biggest part of this team that is yet to be seen is the coaching style of the new head coach, Tyronn Lue. If he manages to find that perfect spot for Luke, even an additional consistent 10 points every night would improve the Clippers. They wouldn’t be at the caliber they need to be to finally make a far push into the playoffs yet in the Western Conference, but they definitely would be knocking at the door to make that bid.
In order to try and push the team over that hump, the Clippers also tried their hand at getting a fantastic draft steal like last year, and they started their efforts quite a few picks early at pick 33.
In one of the bigger draft surprises, the Clippers traded up to the 33rd pick.
This trade was a bigger surprise when factoring in the very few news outlets that even reported on it. The Minnesota Timberwolves still have their post showing that they picked Daniel Oturu up on Twitter. He was then thrown over to the Knicks, and then finally, to the Clippers.
Oturu had a rough draft night after being bounced around, but he did manage to end up out here in sunny Southern California. He will be on a mission to prove to those two other states that they both made mistakes in letting him slip all the way out to the west coast.
According to his draft report, he was averaging 20.1 points, 11.3 assists, and 2.3 blocks per game. Yes, you read that right, he was averaging slightly over 20 points and 10 assists per game. The 6’9″ 240 lbs point center is a powerful force on the floor, and his offensive capabilities exploded from his freshman to sophomore year in college.
Looking back at that report, his defense is still rather shaky, but really think about a guy that is averaging 20.1 and 11.3, you are going to pick that up every time for just a 2023 2nd rounder. Many people were talking about the next pick being an absolute steal, but I’m putting my money on this being one of the biggest steals in this whole draft. Having the 26th best scorer in the nation is a nice little treat for a team that was supposed to only draft once.
With the amazing G-League developers waiting for Oturu in Ontario, this is a really promising pick. If he develops fast enough, we could see a lot of really fun minutes for him dunking over the competition. Speaking of promise though, the next pick was on that same level of future brightness.
From Junior College straight to the NBA, Jay Scrubb has a bright future.
If you read up on Jay Scrubb’s rough upbringing, you will most likely find the exact reason why he is a perfect fit for the LA Clippers. He is a tough underdog, and despite his doubters, he finally booked his ticket into the NBA last night. Something important to note as well, he is the first junior college player drafted to the NBA since 2004, when Donta Smith was drafted to the Atlanta Hawks.
Standing at 6’6″ and weighing 210 lbs, Scrubb is a decently rounded shooting guard in the physical category. As stated in his draft report, he was averaging 21.9 points, 2.8 assists, and 6.8 rebounds before the draft. Alongside Oturu, Scrubb is averaging over 20 points, and he is also a much better rebounder. He was named the 2019-2020 National Junior College Athletic Association Player of the Year thanks to his outstanding improvements.
Through the 2019-2020 season, he had eight 30-point games and booked two 38-point performances while leading his team to a 28-5 record. Despite being in junior college, Scrubb has university player potential. He’ll have to mature quite a bit more before ever playing up in LA, but to have a talented paint-oriented shooting guard will be useful for the Clippers for years to come.
Funny enough, one last interesting nugget of information lies in an excellent Forbes article written by Adam Zagoria. In the article, Zagoria writes,
"The Trail Blazers, Hornets, and Clippers are the teams most interested in Scrubb, according to his agent, Corey Marcum of EZ Sports Group. The Clippers could potentially trade up with Oklahoma City or Boston to land Scrubb in the late-first round."
If the Clippers front office had enough desire for a junior college player to be interested in trading way up into the first round to grab him, I’d say to be very excited to see the day that Scrubb puts on a Clippers jersey.
Despite a chaotic draft night, the LA Clippers came out of it as a better team.
In closing, the General Manager of the LA Clippers in Michael Winger has worked his draft magic yet again. Clipper Nation should be giving much of their love to both the scouts and the main consultant, Jerry West, for a very interesting night.
The team’s current roster was bolstered by the addition of Luke Kennard, and the future was looking even more bright with Daniel Oturu and Jay Scrubb being added to an already great prospect pool. The Clippers could still heavily benefit from some more moves before Opening Night on December 22nd, but if we are focusing on the present, tonight was a great move in the right direction for LA.
Next up is free agency, which starts on Friday. The Clippers will have to continue to work their magic as they get the pieces in place for a championship run. The Draft was a great start but the team will have to put the final touches on this roster.