The Los Angeles Clippers are one of the deepest teams in basketball and recent reports indicate that the team might be looking to get even deeper via trade.
With everything considered, this season has been a pretty big win for the Los Angeles Clippers. Sure, they do not have the 24-3 record that the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks have, but they have been able to rest both Paul George and Kawhi Leonard and have a firm grasp on the second seed in the West.
The difference between the first and second seed is not huge for the Clippers, who are likely going to be playing in the Staples Center regardless as they will likely meet up with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Still, the team recognizes that there could be room for improvement and one potential way to do that has emerged, as the Clippers have been connected to New York Knicks forward, Marcus Morris.
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The Clippers reportedly thought that they had a three-year deal with Morris this past summer before he signed a one-year deal with the New York Knicks. Now, as a talented veteran on a lottery-destined team, Morris is a prime trade candidate at the deadline.
It helps that Morris is having a career-year as well. The 30-year-old forward is averaging 18.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. He is also shooting 47.3 percent from beyond the arc, making him appear to be an excellent three and D guy.
Don’t let the inflated numbers confuse you, as Morris would not be a great asset to trade for, especially at the speculated price of Maurice Harkless and a future first-round pick.
First of all, the team would also have to include a small contract in the trade to make the salaries line up and could see someone such as Mfiondu Kabengele, Derrick Walton Jr or Terrance Mann, that obviously is not the dealbreaker.
The dealbreaker has to do with the fit on the team as well as the cost. The Clippers would essentially be trading the seventh-man in the rotation (based on minutes played per game this season) for another player who would be the seventh-man in the rotation, along with a first-round pick.
I am not sure it is worth a first-round pick to include someone who probably won’t even be on the court in crunch time.
There are several counterpoints to this argument, the first one being Morris’ production this season. Yes, what Morris is doing from beyond the arc is incredible, but he is also only shooting 39.5 percent from within the three-point line.
He also has not shot above 38 percent from beyond the arc since the 2013-2014 season. Granted, that is still better than the 34 percent that Harkless is shooting, but that is not the importance of Harkless on this team.
Harkless is more important for his defense, especially when the team already has two scoring forces off the bench in Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell. Morris would be the third-best scorer off the bench, which is not a situation that he thrives in.
We saw it while he was with the Boston Celtics. When he is not one of the top-scoring options, as he is with the awful Knicks, he often can be a ball stopper and disrupt the flow of the offense.
Morris also is not as good defensively as Harkless. Morris has 0.3 defensive win shares this while Harkless has 1.1 defensive win shares. In terms of win shares per 48 minutes, the two are nearly identical. Morris has a .095 and Harkless has a .093.
It just is hard to justify trading Harkless and a first-round pick for a shooter when that is not at all what the Los Angeles Clippers need out of that role. The team needs reliable defense and not someone who needs a certain amount of shots per game to be successful.
There is an old adage that my father used to always tell me, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The Los Angeles Clippers should consider that will Maurice Harkless.