Los Angeles Clippers: The current plan is not the answer

The Los Angeles Clippers’ current plan for the future is an interesting one and likely will not work in the grand scheme of things.

The Los Angeles Clippers are in an interesting position. Right now, the Clippers have a surplus of talents that are not locked down past next season, opening an abundance of salary cap room for next summer.

According to Spotrac, the Los Angeles Clippers are currently in line to have $61 million in practical cap space next summer; around the same number that the Los Angeles Lakers had this summer to net themselves LeBron James.

Of course, this is going to leave the Clippers with a barren roster, so some of the talents are going to need to be re-signed. As it currently stands, the Clippers have just seven players signed past next season. Those six are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jerome Robinson, Danilo Gallinari, Lou Williams, Avery Bradley, Jawun Evans, and Sindarius Thornwell.

With a massive contract in Gallinari that will be expiring the next season, the Clippers would be best-pressed, at that time, to trade Gallinari to a team for salary cap relief in order for young assets. Think about the Brooklyn Nets and the D’Angelo Russell trade.

However, the Clippers likely will not do that, as the team is seemingly banking on the idea of being an intriguing free agent destination for superstars. Why else would the Clippers re-sign Avery Bradley, refuse to trade DeAndre Jordan and continue to hold onto Tobias Harris, despite being in the last year of his deal?

Granted, this could all change, but the Clippers are currently holding onto guys that will help them compete. Sure, they will be a decent team, but they are nowhere close to being in a state to contend. The Clippers need a guy like Kawhi Leonard to make them contenders and that still isn’t likely enough to overthrow anyone significant in the West.

And while Harris and an incoming superstar would be a fun combination, it is only prolonging the inevitable rebuild.

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Quite frankly, the Los Angeles Clippers are not as interesting of a free agency destination as the front office seems to think. The Lakers have obviously re-emerged as the heart and soul of LA basketball and the Clippers don’t have very many promising things to market to stars.

Thus, the Clippers would have to trade for a star and it would likely have to be for one that is expiring, like Jimmy Butler or Leonard. And while that may amount to a fun season that ends in a fifth seed, it would still be missing the mark on what is important.

Instead of trading assets to be title hopefuls, the Clippers should be clearing out the house to bring in a new, youth movement. It is better to have an identity as a tanking team rather than be a first-round exit playoff team with no stock in the NBA Draft and no long-term talents to really guide the team into progression.

If there were long-term pieces then sure, I guess that makes sense. However, the Clippers are not the Timberwolves or the Bucks, who were both first-round exits that will likely get better because of their young talents.

Instead, the Clippers are poised to be like the Detroit Pistons, the team they traded Blake Griffin to. Detroit has always been flirting with a playoff seeding, especially with Griffin now, but has not done much at all this decade. They have no youth to bank on and now find themselves in salary cap purgatory.

Next: Patrick Beverley is bound to be traded

The Los Angeles Clippers may be better at managing the salary cap but still, there is a time for every franchise to enter a rebuilding state, it is the Clippers’ time. Lob City is over, the title contending days are over. Start building towards a team that can contend in five years, not a team that will be a first-round exit for the next three.

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