If Kevin Durant is not bartered, and the LA Clippers are the team that owns their 2025 draft pick, their hopes should be to trade up with teams willing to either completely let go of their draft pick or move back as a whole. The Clippers need to finally let go of making unnecessary trades and focus on drafting, so by trading up, their issues would likely be resolved.
However, there are only a handful of teams in the first round who may be willing to negotiate their pick for what the Clippers have in the first and second rounds. This is because front offices have acknowledged the value of drafting in round one and the fruits of labor that may be returned if their choice turns out to be a star or, better yet, an untouchable piece.
Hence, when the opportunity arises through the trade machine to climb up from number 30, executive Lawrence Frank’s two options should be to accept and accept. Declining should not even be on the table, as it could lead to LA missing their window in selecting the next great Clipper.
Although this plan sounds foolproof, the New Orleans Pelicans recently swooped in by surprise, snatched a move the Clippers may have had in mind, and ultimately ruined what Frank could have been scheming for draft day next week.
The New Orleans Pelicans’ recent trade with the Indiana Pacers indirectly takes a toll on the LA Clippers’ strategy
With the NBA Draft creeping up, the New Orleans Pelicans decided to take advantage now before time ran out by making a trade involving picks with the Indiana Pacers. As reported by Shams Charania, the Pelicans received pick number 23 and Mojave King for a first-round pick next summer.
NBA draft deal: The Indiana Pacers are trading their No. 23 pick and the rights to Mojave King to the New Orleans Pelicans for Indiana's own 2026 first-round pick back which the Pelicans had previously acquired, sources tell ESPN.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 17, 2025
This transaction has the Pelicans drafting in the lottery, seventh overall, as well as in the second half of the first round, which puts them in a better position to continue adding to their elite young core, consisting of Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III, and Zion Williamson.
The LA Clippers’ first and second-round picks this summer are more valuable, but because the Pelicans approached Indiana faster, they were ahead in a race that is first come, first serve.
Now, with one less team to call on a list that is already minimal, the Clippers are in a dilemma that has worsened. This trade by the Pelicans limits the odds that a star, like Walter Clayton Jr., ends up hearing his name called by the commissioner to Clipper land.