Building blocks
Chris Paul PG |
Blake Griffin PF |
DeAndre Jordan C |
Draft picks
Brice Johnson PF
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Diamond Stone C
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David Michineau PG
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Draft board
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The Clippers had a good season, but were plagued with injuries in the playoffs and were knocked out in the first round by the Blazers. It may be time to start re-evaluating whether or not this core of Paul, Griffin, and Jordan can get it done. Of the 3, Griffin would be the likely trade candidate, and he could net them some nice picks and young players in return. They have good role players in Jamal Crawford, J.J. Redick, and Wesley Johnson. The Clippers will have many players (including Jamal Crawford) becoming unrestricted free agents and they'll need to use their little cap space and draft picks to fill some of those holes. They traded for Jeff Green at the trade deadline, but that didn't solve much of their SF problems. Pablo Prigioni and Austin Rivers split time at PG behind Chris Paul, and while they filled in nicely, the Clippers could use a better backup PG. With their 2 picks they could find decent players to fill the SF and PG holes, or to add depth.
(Updated 7/16/16) The Clippers came into the draft with the 25th and 33rd picks, but traded the 33rd pick to the Pelicans in exchange for the 39th and 40th picks. With their picks they selected Brice Johnson, David Michineau, and Diamond Stone. All 3 players add needed depth to the bench, Johnson and Stone are great value picks at 25 and 40 and will most likely be key parts of the Clippers rotation. Michineau is somewhat of an unknown at this point, but he will learn the PG ropes under Chris Paul. Overall the Clippers had a good draft while picking up multiple assets. Draft Grade: A-/B+ Team Needs
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Estimated Cap Space
$8,035,850.00 UFA Jamal Crawford SG, Luc Mbah a Moute SF, Jeff Green SF, Jeff Ayers PF, Cole Aldrich C (player option), Wesley Johnson SF (player option), Pablo Prigioni PG, and Austin Rivers PG (player option) RFA None |