Los Angeles Clippers Team Review

 

2023-24 Finish: 23-59

 

Season Highlight:

The Clippers had a down year which was to be expected when you refresh the house from the post-Giannis era but the highlight for them was clear. Growth. They have a roster FULL of guys who were drafted in only the last 2 years, basically, and you’d be hard pressed to put your finger on a single draft pick that failed. Banchero may never be Giannis all round, but he’s well on his way to being a superstar of the league in his own right and way, and the growth of Jalen Williams, Benedict Mathurin, Trey Murphy, Tari Eason, Jordan Hawkins, Cason Wallace…the list goes on. If they all keep on this same trajectory, they’re a dynasty waiting to happen.

 

Season Lowlight:

The win column has to be noted for sure here. 23 wins is the lowest in the Clippers NSL history coming off a 40 win season the year before sans Giannis, and going 53, 53, 52 in the years before that. The team lost the ability to play Banchero at the C spot, and then failed on all bids for the more notable big men in free agency, so they were forced to roll out Drew Eubanks as the starter for 61 games and then Noah Clowney for the remaining 21, none of which is a recipe for success. This year will be different, however.

 

Best Trade:

Clippers send: Jerami Grant

Clippers receive: Mike Conley, 2027 Philadelphia 1^st and 2028 Sacramento 2^nd

 

Grant was the asset the Clippers were never meant to have. Andrew was set to renounce the man right through the preseason and go for a big fish on the open market, but last minute, he decided retaining his guy on the cheap/free was the safer and better option and then he’s flipped him for a nice asset in Conley (who was further flipped) and a 1^st and 2^nd out of nowhere. Grant has never really landed in 2k, either. Good dealings.

 

Worst Trade:

Clippers send: Mike Conley
Clippers receive: Bruce Brown

After doing so well to acquire assets for what was going to be nothing bringing Conley in, they then swapped Conley for Brown, even after signing him to a new cheap extension, when there was no intention of keeping Brown and basically giving away a really nice guard/asset for nothing.

 

Other Notable Trades:

Clippers send: RJ Barrett, 2023 Pick 45 and 2023 Pick 48

Clippers receive:  Jordan Poole and 2024 Pick 36

 

This one is probably as bad as the Conley deal, but at least they got a good 2k player out of it in Poole and at the time he was projected to be on the verge of having his own team to do as he pleased, and take a leap. It looked bad to begin with, and looks worse now, but Poole is still a very handy 2k microwave.

 

 

 

Clippers send: Drew Eubanks

Clippers receive:  Daniel Theis and 2024 Pick 39

 

Eubanks served well as their starting C all year until this point, but in a lost year it made sense to cash that in for an expiring deal and pick in the coming draft.

 

 

 

 

Free Agency:

The Clippers Free Agency of 2023 was a fairly predetermined thing with their lack of roster spaces. Jerami Grant was an easy and cheap return in the end, even though he was a foot out the door, and they weren’t a destination team for any notable big man so had to settle for Eubanks and some 2ways.

This year, FA is both as easy and as interesting as it comes for the Clippers. They have 12 guys all locked up on basically rookie scale deals except for Jordan Poole, and so have no one to “bring back” and $53 million to go play with. Being the only team that has and can create enough space for an Isaiah Hartenstein sized deal, puts them in a really fun spot. They can go hard at a Lebron? PG13? Siakam? Harden? Dejounte? With a 99 point bid, and then if they strike out, they can still bid and maybe win on a “non-returner” like PG13, if the Bucks GM doesn’t put down points, and finally, if everything strikes out, just pick up Hartenstein who also fills the teams biggest need, for free. It’s a win win win.

 

Star:

Paolo Banchero

The team was clearly all in the hands of one man this past season as Banchero built on his promising rookie campaign to average 22 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and some minor defensive stats while shooting 51/51/68 splits and establishing as a star and leader of this team. He’s all set to be even better next year, and Jalen Williams’ emergence will only help him along as the defense won’t crash as much with other strong options in the offence.

 

Flop:

Jerami Grant

It’s a tough call giving the flop to Jerami here, given the FA struggles of the team and with guys like Evan Fournier virtually disappearing, but the stage was set for Grant to finally take some kind of step forward and be the guy that can drop 20 in his sleep in the NBA. It failed to happen here, again. He was going at 14 points and 4 rebounds before being traded out for great value, and no defensive numbers, either. This team might just have been all the opportunity he might ever get to be “the man”, but he simply, isn’t.

 

 

Draft Grades:

Pick 9 – Ron Holland

Pick 36 – Oso Ighodaro

Pick 37 – AJ Johnson

Overall Grade: B+

It’s hard to be too judgmental of a draft that sees you grab the NBA 5^th pick, at 9^th, and then the NBA 23^rd pick as low as 37^th, but they fell for a reason here, and that was they were considered major reaches in the NBA. Holland looks like he could be a good scorer but pick 9 is probably more the range he should have gone in, and Johnson straight up looks raw and is coming into a team where he might struggle for those growth reps, and probably should have been more like the early 2^nd round pick he was here too. Ighodaro looks like a versatile jack of all trades, master of none, and might make for a decent depth piece for a couple years.

 

The Future:

The future is blindingly bright in Los Angeles, on the Clippers side of things, and they are going to start to make more noise again now too. The team has only 1 player that isn’t on a rookie deal, before free agency, and he’s only 25. Yes, Jordan Poole is the OLDEST player on the roster. Everyone else is on a rookie deal with elder statesman Trey Murphy due to get paid next summer. But, don’t let the youth fool you. This team has some firepower right now and all it needs is to land a fish that helps in any way…which won’t be a problem as discussed in the free agency section. This team could turn heads this year and build into a dynasty in the coming years.

C: _______ / Noah Clowney
PF: Paolo Banchero / Tari Eason / Kris Murray
SF: Trey Murphy / Ron Holland
SG: Jalen Williams / Jordan Hawkins / Kobe Bufkin
PG: Cason Wallace / Jordan Poole / Nick Smith Jr / AJ Johnson