Christmastime is coming up, and it’s clear what the LA Clippers are probably hoping for this year.
I’d take it that the fans are hoping for the same things. After all, we do invest very heavily in the success of this franchise.
When Steve Ballmer wakes up on Christmas morning, he’ll surely be going under the tree and hoping he finds the three greatest gifts that Santa could find us this year.
No. 3 thing we’d like Santa to leave under the LA Clippers’ tree: Some tradeable draft picks
There have recently been many players all over the league getting put up on the trade block of their respective franchises recently, but the LA Clippers don’t have a lot of trade bait. They have many role players that are attractive trade pieces (Terance Mann, Marcus Morris Sr., Ivica Zubac, Serge Ibaka and Luke Kennard), but it’s tough to trade draft picks when they already traded so many in the Paul George trade. The NBA doesn’t allow teams to trade back-to-back first round picks, so ever since they traded five first rounders for PG13, they’ve been limited in how many tradeable first round draft picks remain.
So, while a guy like Myles Turner is a very impressive player, do we really want to give up most or all of those five roles players for him? Probably not. Zubac has improved so much this year and been very productive, Kennard has earned the same evaluation, Mook has looked like himself again as of late, and Mann is still budding with so much potential.
The only way the Clippers would feel 100% comfortable making blockbuster deals again is if they had more tradeable draft picks to work with. It would understandably be on their Christmas list this year.