Clippers stay active right up to deadline
Among team’s moves is trade that brings Zubac, Beasley from Lakers.
INDIANAPOLIS — Less than 48 hours after shaking up the NBA with a late-night trade, the Clippers executed a flurry of moves leading up to Thursday’s trade deadline that, the team believes, leave their roster younger and more flexible both for the end of this season and ahead of a critical offseason.
The Clippers approached the deadline stressing the importance of pursuing moves that would help position them as long-term contenders for championships.
They emerged after adding young players seen as potentially important pieces for that future while also removing salary from next season’s books.
The Clippers’ busy day started with barely an hour remaining before the noon PST deadline when they traded starting shooting guard Avery Bradley to the Memphis Grizzlies for 6-foot-6 Garrett Temple and 6-9 forward JaMychal Green. No draft picks were included in the trade, which gave the Clippers 16 players on their roster, one more than the NBA limit.
Starting center Marcin Gortat, who’d called Tuesday’s trade of leading scorer Tobias Harris a “shock” at the team’s shootaround Thursday morning, was waived shortly thereafter.
Half an hour before the deadline, the Clippers made a trade with the Lakers for the first time since 1983. They jettisoned center Mike Muscala, who’d been acquired as part of Tuesday’s sixplayer trade with the Philadelphia 76ers, in exchange for forward Michael Beasley and center Ivica Zubac. Beasley is expected to be waived.
Lastly, the Clippers waived guard Milos Teodosic, a Serb who struggled to find playing time in a crowded backcourt in his second NBA season.
In the short term, all that activity left the Clippers with 10 active players after calling up Angel Delgado from the G League affiliate for their matchup Thursday night against the Indiana Pacers. The trades were not made as part of a larger roster tear-down, however. Coach Doc Rivers said earlier that the Clippers planned to stay competitive the rest of the season even if it cost them their lottery-protected draft pick.
In the long term, it brought the team closer to the cap space needed to potentially sign two free agents to max-salary slots this summer. Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard and Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant are their top targets.
The Clippers would have 14 players if Beasley is waived, though the team is not expected to be a player in the buyout market.
Bradley arrived in Los Angeles one year ago from the Detroit Pistons as part of the trade that made Blake Griffin a Piston. Considered the team’s best on-ball defender, Bradley appeared in 49 of the team’s 55 games this season and endured a severe shooting slump for much of the season’s first two months before making 40% of his three-pointers in his last 12 games.
By trading Bradley, the team cleared the guaranteed $2 million it owed him next season off its books and in return received Green and Temple, who possess elements Bradley lacked: length and shooting. Neither player is under contract next season, either. It also removed a logjam in the backcourt, opening a clearer path to playing time for rookies Jerome Robinson and Landry Shamet.
While the Lakers sought to add shooters around LeBron James and wanted Muscala for that reason, the Clippers wanted a young, inexpensive post player who could protect the rim. Zubac, should he start, would also allow the Clippers’ undersized sparkplug center Montrezl Harrell to continue in his effective role as a reserve. Zubac, 21, will be a restricted free agent this summer and is seen as potentially part of the team’s young core moving forward along with point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Robinson and Shamet.
Thursday’s moves followed Tuesday’s late-night blockbuster that sent Harris and reserves Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott to Philadelphia in exchange for Muscala, Wilson Chandler, Shamet, first-round picks in 2020 and 2021 and second-round picks in 2021 and 2023. The 2020 pick belongs to Philadelphia and is lottery-protected for three years, and the 2021 first-round pick, from Miami, is unprotected. The secondround picks are owed via Detroit.