The LA Clippers’ point guard situation should be a strength. They have a former All-NBA point guard in John Wall, still only 32 years old, and Reggie Jackson, a player who fits their system perfectly and has had some big playoff moments for the franchise. The combination should be elevating this team to greater heights.
Instead, the results have been less than exemplary. In a season when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are seemingly flipping a coin each night to see if they will suit up, the Clippers’ two point guards have failed to lead this team on or off the court, and it’s the reason the Clippers are looking for another option on the trade market.
The LA Clippers are likely to trade for a point guard before the Trade Deadline.
A title run by this Clippers team will rely primarily on the health of Leonard and George, but if they hit the postseason healthy and available then the Clippers need to have a team around them ready to go all the way. Therefore, any point guard this team trades for needs to be someone who can play and thrive in playoff basketball; this isn’t the time to buy low again on another castoff, as they did with Jackson or Nicolas Batum – that might work out, but it also might not (Serge Ibaka, Wall, etc).
Recently, the Clippers’ point guard search has been rumored to include the Utah Jazz, a team that has exceeded expectations this season but also is likely to be realistic about its future. They traded two of their former All-Star players this summer in Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, leaving one still to be dealt: Mike Conley. He could be just what the Clippers need.
Can the Clippers put together a deal for Conley, and will it be enough for the Jazz to say yes?
Building a Clippers trade for Mike Conley
The primary difficulty for the Clippers in trading for Mike Conley is that he makes $22.68 million this season, which means that LA needs to send out at least $18.1 million in salary to bring him back in a deal. Most of the Clippers’ mid-tier salary and above is tied to players in their rotation that they likely want to hang onto.
The solution is probably to stack together the contracts of Reggie Jackson and John Wall, with a little nudge needed from a back-end player to get them over that $18.1 million hump. It would look something like this:
The Clippers cannot trade a first-round pick until 2028, and they protect it from 1-6 to protect themselves from the absolute worst-case scenarios if Leonard and George are not around by then. The Jazz almost certainly will require a first-round pick to get a deal done.
Utah isn’t going to contend for anything real this season, even if they are a real threat to get into the postseason and have a puncher’s chance at the field of the final eight playoff teams. Mike Conley is 35 years old and playing well, so trading him now makes sense. This deal gives the Jazz the potential of a lottery pick down the road, an intriguing young wing in Brandon Boston Jr., and a pair of guards they can try to flip to other teams by the deadline. It’s not a runaway success for the Jazz, but it certainly has appeal.
Grading the trade for the Clippers
Mike Conley is having a great season for the Jazz, well-cast at his age playing the facilitator role alongside a dynamic offensive hub in Lauri Markkanen and an on-ball go-to scorer in Jordan Clarkson. Conley can push in transition, get the offense going by getting off the ball early, and move off-ball to warp defenses and, if he gets the ball back, attack in advantage situations.
That’s a similar role to what Conley can play on the Clippers alongside Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, and his shooting make him a much better off-ball threat than either the streaky Reggie Jackson or the low-percentage Wall. He’s also a smart defender and has been to war in the postseason for 73 career games.
Giving up Reggie Jackson is a must for any real return in a point guard deal, but the downside of trading for Conley is that the Clippers have to trade Wall as well and can’t use his salary in another deal for a backup center. Otherwise, they can start Conley at point guard and Terence Mann as the backup 1 defensively and be just fine moving both of their current point guards.
Trading a first-round pick in 2028 is also likely necessary for any meaningful upgrade, and the Clippers have to be looking at win-now trades given the age, health, and unpredictability of their stars. Mike Conley is probably the best point guard on the market that the Clippers can add without breaking up their rotation and he fits this team exceptionally well.
Grade: B+
The Jazz have the answer for the LA Clippers, and it’s not Mike Conley
As the LA Clippers further their search for a quality point guard, the Utah Jazz have the answer and it's not a trade for Mike Conley.