While the upcoming season is marked by excitement for the LA Clippers, there is also a simultaneous air of uncertainty. The team shed Paul George in the offseason, opting to instead take on various role players to supplant his production instead. Having a bevy of new players on your roster already creates a multitude of questions, but then you have to throw in the health of Kawhi Leonard as well.
The Clippers' best player is set to miss the beginning of the 2024-25 season, and the truth is that no one really knows when he will be back. Continued swelling in the knee of LA's best player means he will be sitting on the sidelines for an indefinite amount of time, leading to much speculation and over-analysis from the national media.
What that also means is that the Clippers' season is marked by several large question marks. Those uncertainties have led to some wild suggestions from analysts, the latest of which came from Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report. Writing a list of "ambitious" trade targets for every NBA team, Bailey suggested that the Clippers could pursue the Chicago Bulls' Zach LaVine.
Zach LaVine would be a disastrous fit in Los Angeles
At face value, LaVine's name carries some star power, but he is far from the right choice for the Clippers. The main reason this is true lies in his contract. With two years remaining on a backloaded contract, Zach is owed a lot of money over the next two seasons, and the paycheck the Clippers would have to hand out to him is likely to be of higher value than the services he would provide to LA on the hardwood.
LaVine is owed $43 million in the upcoming season and $45.9 million in the 2025-26 year. Yes, he is a talented athlete and lethal scorer, but that price tag would handicap the Clippers far too much for them to consider trading for a player like Zach. In fact, jumping at LaVine would literally be backwards logic.
LA just passed on paying Paul George because he was reportedly asking for too much over the course of too many seasons. Rather than strap themselves down financially in the long-term, the Clippers made the smart play and let someone else overpay for him. As a result, turning around and overpaying for a player who does not even measure up to George's talent would not make a lot of sense.
In his article, Bailey argues that the Clippers would benefit from having another 20-points per game scorer during the time that Leonard is out. While that may be true, I believe that void can be filled collectively by the Clippers' new role players. But in any event, the price tag for acquiring LaVine is simply way too high for LA to justify trading for him. If the Clippers made a bold play for him, they could probably say goodbye to their playoff chances.