LA Clippers: The trade that could ultimately save Los Angeles

The LA Clippers are going to need a three team trade to save their season.

Alright, so it’s easy to see that this season isn’t going pretty following the departure of Chris Paul, Luc Mbah a Moute, and J.J. Redick. Blake Griffin is injured again, as we should’ve all seen coming even after he decided to stay in Los Angeles for a Brinks truck and then some over the summer.

As of this writing, LA is second in their division to Golden State, trailing by 12.5 games. They are only three games separating them, however, from the bottom three teams in the Lakers, Suns, and Kings.

So there isn’t much of a gap before they run the risk of falling into the cellar. They’re only hanging on by a thread at this point.

With Griffin out, the team’s best scorer — and arguably best player right now — is Lou Williams. He’s the kind of player that makes it work wherever he’s playing though; and he did just that a season ago spending time with the Lakers and the Rockets.

Outside of Williams, who was added just this summer, the Clippers don’t have anybody left that’s really making an impact that changes they’re game. They’re all just….average. When it comes to points, their highest scorer outside of Lou Williams is Austin Rivers, who gets 15.9 per game.

If you look at rebounding, it’s a category that DeAndre Jordan is going to obviously dominate, and he does. Jordan secures around 15 boards per game, with Griffin second on that list in the neighborhood of seven.

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Besides them? Nobody else on the roster is even averaging five per night.

So they’re getting their butts kicked on the glass and in overall scoring ability, so what’s something they can figure out?

A three team trade, and here’s exactly how it’d go down. They’d need both Utah and Cleveland on board for it to work, and it’ll mean that big men will be moving from all three teams with an additional piece to the puzzle thrown in for the Jazz.

How this would all work is pretty extraordinary. The possible deal would send defensive star and big man Rudy Gobert from the Jazz to the Clippers, with LA sending DeAndre Jordan to Cleveland. Also, the Cavaliers would be giving Utah Tristan Thompson and Cedi Osman in return.

Utah says yes to this deal because it’s a chance to see what Donovan Mitchell can really do. It’s not like the Jazz are a top playoff team anyway, and if Mitchell can excel when there’s a change in the starting center, it would mean a lot for the Jazz in the long term.

Cleveland says yes to this deal because they don’t really operate based off of centers right now anyway. A lot of their offense and defense comes from LeBron James, as he’s also their main facilitator on offense. Also, paying DeAndre Jordan $22 million and change over two years instead of $16 million over three years for Thompson is a financial win for the Cavs.

Finally, Los Angeles says yes to the deal because of the fact that they desperately need to change something big about their roster. Getting rid of Jordan is the next step in the healing process for them to get over the fact that their championship window with a certain core is over and they have to move on, even if it’s uncomfortable.

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Plus, this trade doesn’t leave them in the dark. That’s the last thing they need.

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