Post by Mike Krzyzewski on Feb 22, 2020 19:00:03 GMT
The purpose of this is to document the extensive, multi-year rebuild of the LA Clippers.
Back Story -
The Clippers have a long history in D5 dating back to the 2011/2012 season. We experienced early success including winning the Western Conference Championship and making the NBA Finals in 2013. By the end of the 2016/2017 season, we had made the playoffs 5 out of 6 years with the only miss being a 9th place finish just a game or 2 out of the playoffs.
This team was built/constructed under the league rules of the time. Keeping big contracts and retaining all your vets was the way of several of the teams of that day. We were certainly one of them that banked on big name, expensive vets and ammassed a lot of them. That game plan all had to change with the implementation of the hard cap.
The hard cap was designed to make the salaries more realistic and as a result definitely a neccessity for the league going forward. The hard cap implications though were extremely negative to the Clippers. While not official yet, this was the unofficial beginning to the Clippers needing to not only rebuild our roster but to rebuild the entire way it was constructed. We tried doing this half heartedly with 2017/2018 season but it only resulted in an extremely average season performance and a 9th place finish (43-39) to miss the playoffs.
Rebuild -
It was at that point, following the 2018 season that the Clippers' rebuild officially began. Since we had dealt many of our future draft picks to continue to attain vets in our previous years, we only had 1 upcoming 1st round pick but it was for the following season (18/19). Hitting on that pick would be 100% required for our future success. The multi-year, planned rebuild begins!
2018-2019 Season:
We are working towards cap space (in 3 years) and acquiring future assets. In doing so, we gave ourselves a great chance at the number #1 pick overall. Knowing that our rebuild would be 3 years, it would be easier to deal with if we acquired a guy like Zion Williamson or Ja Morant in the process! We ended up finishing 11-71 for the season and after the draft lottery, we ended up with the #3 pick overall. While not being Zion or Ja, getting a top 3 pick in a 3 player draft was key. In one of the first big long term moves of our rebuild, we drafted RJ Barrett out of Duke. Hopefully, this will lock down our starting SG spot for years! Next was to lock down a couple of younger free agents with potential on 3 year deals. We retained center Willy Hernangomez on a friendly 3 year deal. Point guard Trey Burke and big man Skal Labissiere were also acquired on very team freindly 3 year deals.
Top 8 lineup at end of season:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Harry Giles
SF - Terrence Jones
SG - Kyle Anderson
PG - Tony Parker
Ben - Carmelo Anthony
Ben - Greg Monroe
Ben - Jose Calderon
Off Season Acquisitions: RJ Barrett, Trey Burke, Skal Labissiere, Gary Payton II
Retained: Willy Hernangomez
Tony Parker decided to retire at the end of this season and that allowed us a little more salary cap flexibility that we weren't counting on. This retirement was a microcosm of our rebuild. Tony Parker was acquired in our inagural 2011/2012 season and was our starting point guard virtually that entire time. Next season, our 9th, will be the first season Tony Parker has not been on our roster.
2019-2020 Season:
We knew this would be another long season with minimum wins but the bad part was not having our 1st round pick this year. That is really tough. Regardless, this is all a part of a multi-year process.
Top 8 lineup to start the season:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Greg Monroe
SF - Harry Giles
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Jose Calderon
Ben - Trey Burke
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - Carmelo Anthony
Transaction #1 - Trade #1 * Our 1st positive move of the year came when Carmelo started playing again and semi-producing. This gave us the opprtunity to trade his $29M contract (which was an absolute anchor for us) for 2 players with approx the same combined contracts, Center Alex Len and Wing Nic Batum. Although both had 2 years left on their deals (just like Melo), we assumed we would have an easier time dealing the smaller contracts at some point. This proved to be true later in the season.
Transaction #2 - Trade #2 ** Our next move was a small one as we acquired the draft rights of Jalen McDaniel for a 2023 2nd round pick. We immediately signed him to our active roster. He is starting to get regular time with the young Hornets IRL for the first time in his career so this is a buy low deal. Basically a flier of a low cost, smaller future asset on a cheap 2nd rounder guy we hope to develop into a rotational player.
Transaction #3 - Trade #3 *** We had a big expiring contract in Greg Monroe on the roster and were working extremely hard to get some value back in exchange for clearing cap. It was harder than anticipated but we eventually got a larger deal done with him.
Greg Monroe, Jose Calderon, Alex Len & Nic Batum
for
Derrick Favors, $20 expiring contract only, PHX 2020 2nd and SAS 2020 2nd.
We absolutely love this trade for us as Favors has the same contract as Len and Batum conbined. We actually save salary cap in this deal so although dealing a couple of expirings, we do not sacrifice our upcoming off-season cap space (over $20M at this point). Favors instantly becomes a top 2 player alongside RJ Barrett for our franchise and adding 2 additional 2nd round picks to move around is always great.
Transaction #4, #5 & #6 - FA #1, #2, #3 This deal gave us the need to sign 2 free agents to stay at the roster minimum of 12. We ended up signing 3.
Lance Stephenson - Huge hole for us at SF plugged by this defensive minded vet who is really dominating overseas
right now IRL. He will start immediately for us at the 3.
Henry Ellenson - Big former 1st round pick who is still only 23 years old. Signed on a great, team friendly 3 year
contract to allow time to possibly develop.
Matthew Dellavadova - Veteran PG signed to a 1 year deal.
New Top 8 Lineup after recent trades and FA signings:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Derrick Favors
SF - Lance Stephenson
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Trey Burke
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - Harry Giles
Ben - Jalen McDaniels
Transaction #7 - Trade #4 **** March 1, 2020 (in game) we agreed on another trade with the Brooklyn Nets. They needed to create a little cap space. We added a couple of veterans (Kyle Korver & Ed Davis) on expiring deals and more importantly another future pick (2021 2nd - MEM). This was basically a free move for us as we only dealt an expiring Matthew Dellavedova in the process.
New Top 8 Lineup:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Derrick Favors
SF - Lance Stephenson
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Trey Burke
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - Kyle Korver
Ben - Harry Giles
Transaction #8 - Trade #5 ***** March 16, 2020 (in game) - We agreed to a 3 way deal with Golden State and Atlanta where we were able to get some future value for the recently acquired expiring contract of Joakim Noah. We acquired James Johnson, Ante Zizic and GS 2021 2nd round pick along with the $10M expiring contract of Zaza Pachulia (who we will try and flip later).
Transaction #9 - Trade #6 ****** March 17, 2020 (in game) - Almost simultaneously, we made another trade with Orlando that brought us some additional future value. The trade was Derrick Favors for Paul Millsap and Orlando's 2021 2nd round pick. Basically we acquired a future 2nd for providing $5M in cap space next season for Orlando.
With these 2 latest trades, our new top 10 lineup:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Paul Millsap
SF - Lance Stephenson
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Trey Burke
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - James Johnson
Ben - Harry Giles
Ben - Ante Zizic
Ben - Kyle Korver
Transaction #10 - Trade #7 ******* March 3oth (in game) - And yet another trade is completed making for our 7th of this season. We gain Kevin Love and 3 2nd round picks in exchange for a lot of pieces (mostly expirings). We add $30M in salary for the off-season but we retain our salary flexibility going into the 2021 off-season in the process. Actual trade is:
Chicago Bulls Send -
Kevin Love (83) $38,587,194 - $42,809,585
OKC 2021 2nd
CHI 2021 2nd
CHI 2023 2nd
Total Outgoing : $38,587,194
Total Incoming : $30,970,402
LA Clippers Send -
Justin Jackson (64) $763,035 - $934-234
Kyle Korver (75) $5,000,000
Ed Davis (76) $2,081,594
James Johnson (77) $10,037,230 - $10,852845
Salah Mejri $831,311 (contract only)
Zaza Pachulia $10,257,232 (contract only)
Henry Ellenson $1,000,000 - $1,000,000 (contract only)
Isaih Briscoe $1,000,000 - $1,000,000 (contract only)
We now have over $110 million is cap coming off at the same time and have built up 6 or 7 additional 2nd round picks in the process. Several of these are in the 2021 draft that should be extremely deep due to the high school entry rule changing. Our roster is better than it has been in quite a while and we just finished the month of March (in game) with winning record (8-7).
New top 10 lineup:
C - Paul Millsap
PF - Kevin Love
SF - Lance Stephenson
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Trey Burke
Ben - Willy Hernangomez
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - Harry Giles
Ben - Ante Zizic
Ben - Gary Payton III
Back Story -
The Clippers have a long history in D5 dating back to the 2011/2012 season. We experienced early success including winning the Western Conference Championship and making the NBA Finals in 2013. By the end of the 2016/2017 season, we had made the playoffs 5 out of 6 years with the only miss being a 9th place finish just a game or 2 out of the playoffs.
This team was built/constructed under the league rules of the time. Keeping big contracts and retaining all your vets was the way of several of the teams of that day. We were certainly one of them that banked on big name, expensive vets and ammassed a lot of them. That game plan all had to change with the implementation of the hard cap.
The hard cap was designed to make the salaries more realistic and as a result definitely a neccessity for the league going forward. The hard cap implications though were extremely negative to the Clippers. While not official yet, this was the unofficial beginning to the Clippers needing to not only rebuild our roster but to rebuild the entire way it was constructed. We tried doing this half heartedly with 2017/2018 season but it only resulted in an extremely average season performance and a 9th place finish (43-39) to miss the playoffs.
Rebuild -
It was at that point, following the 2018 season that the Clippers' rebuild officially began. Since we had dealt many of our future draft picks to continue to attain vets in our previous years, we only had 1 upcoming 1st round pick but it was for the following season (18/19). Hitting on that pick would be 100% required for our future success. The multi-year, planned rebuild begins!
2018-2019 Season:
We are working towards cap space (in 3 years) and acquiring future assets. In doing so, we gave ourselves a great chance at the number #1 pick overall. Knowing that our rebuild would be 3 years, it would be easier to deal with if we acquired a guy like Zion Williamson or Ja Morant in the process! We ended up finishing 11-71 for the season and after the draft lottery, we ended up with the #3 pick overall. While not being Zion or Ja, getting a top 3 pick in a 3 player draft was key. In one of the first big long term moves of our rebuild, we drafted RJ Barrett out of Duke. Hopefully, this will lock down our starting SG spot for years! Next was to lock down a couple of younger free agents with potential on 3 year deals. We retained center Willy Hernangomez on a friendly 3 year deal. Point guard Trey Burke and big man Skal Labissiere were also acquired on very team freindly 3 year deals.
Top 8 lineup at end of season:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Harry Giles
SF - Terrence Jones
SG - Kyle Anderson
PG - Tony Parker
Ben - Carmelo Anthony
Ben - Greg Monroe
Ben - Jose Calderon
Off Season Acquisitions: RJ Barrett, Trey Burke, Skal Labissiere, Gary Payton II
Retained: Willy Hernangomez
Tony Parker decided to retire at the end of this season and that allowed us a little more salary cap flexibility that we weren't counting on. This retirement was a microcosm of our rebuild. Tony Parker was acquired in our inagural 2011/2012 season and was our starting point guard virtually that entire time. Next season, our 9th, will be the first season Tony Parker has not been on our roster.
2019-2020 Season:
We knew this would be another long season with minimum wins but the bad part was not having our 1st round pick this year. That is really tough. Regardless, this is all a part of a multi-year process.
Top 8 lineup to start the season:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Greg Monroe
SF - Harry Giles
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Jose Calderon
Ben - Trey Burke
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - Carmelo Anthony
Transaction #1 - Trade #1 * Our 1st positive move of the year came when Carmelo started playing again and semi-producing. This gave us the opprtunity to trade his $29M contract (which was an absolute anchor for us) for 2 players with approx the same combined contracts, Center Alex Len and Wing Nic Batum. Although both had 2 years left on their deals (just like Melo), we assumed we would have an easier time dealing the smaller contracts at some point. This proved to be true later in the season.
Transaction #2 - Trade #2 ** Our next move was a small one as we acquired the draft rights of Jalen McDaniel for a 2023 2nd round pick. We immediately signed him to our active roster. He is starting to get regular time with the young Hornets IRL for the first time in his career so this is a buy low deal. Basically a flier of a low cost, smaller future asset on a cheap 2nd rounder guy we hope to develop into a rotational player.
Transaction #3 - Trade #3 *** We had a big expiring contract in Greg Monroe on the roster and were working extremely hard to get some value back in exchange for clearing cap. It was harder than anticipated but we eventually got a larger deal done with him.
Greg Monroe, Jose Calderon, Alex Len & Nic Batum
for
Derrick Favors, $20 expiring contract only, PHX 2020 2nd and SAS 2020 2nd.
We absolutely love this trade for us as Favors has the same contract as Len and Batum conbined. We actually save salary cap in this deal so although dealing a couple of expirings, we do not sacrifice our upcoming off-season cap space (over $20M at this point). Favors instantly becomes a top 2 player alongside RJ Barrett for our franchise and adding 2 additional 2nd round picks to move around is always great.
Transaction #4, #5 & #6 - FA #1, #2, #3 This deal gave us the need to sign 2 free agents to stay at the roster minimum of 12. We ended up signing 3.
Lance Stephenson - Huge hole for us at SF plugged by this defensive minded vet who is really dominating overseas
right now IRL. He will start immediately for us at the 3.
Henry Ellenson - Big former 1st round pick who is still only 23 years old. Signed on a great, team friendly 3 year
contract to allow time to possibly develop.
Matthew Dellavadova - Veteran PG signed to a 1 year deal.
New Top 8 Lineup after recent trades and FA signings:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Derrick Favors
SF - Lance Stephenson
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Trey Burke
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - Harry Giles
Ben - Jalen McDaniels
Transaction #7 - Trade #4 **** March 1, 2020 (in game) we agreed on another trade with the Brooklyn Nets. They needed to create a little cap space. We added a couple of veterans (Kyle Korver & Ed Davis) on expiring deals and more importantly another future pick (2021 2nd - MEM). This was basically a free move for us as we only dealt an expiring Matthew Dellavedova in the process.
New Top 8 Lineup:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Derrick Favors
SF - Lance Stephenson
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Trey Burke
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - Kyle Korver
Ben - Harry Giles
Transaction #8 - Trade #5 ***** March 16, 2020 (in game) - We agreed to a 3 way deal with Golden State and Atlanta where we were able to get some future value for the recently acquired expiring contract of Joakim Noah. We acquired James Johnson, Ante Zizic and GS 2021 2nd round pick along with the $10M expiring contract of Zaza Pachulia (who we will try and flip later).
Transaction #9 - Trade #6 ****** March 17, 2020 (in game) - Almost simultaneously, we made another trade with Orlando that brought us some additional future value. The trade was Derrick Favors for Paul Millsap and Orlando's 2021 2nd round pick. Basically we acquired a future 2nd for providing $5M in cap space next season for Orlando.
With these 2 latest trades, our new top 10 lineup:
C - Willy Hernangomez
PF - Paul Millsap
SF - Lance Stephenson
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Trey Burke
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - James Johnson
Ben - Harry Giles
Ben - Ante Zizic
Ben - Kyle Korver
Transaction #10 - Trade #7 ******* March 3oth (in game) - And yet another trade is completed making for our 7th of this season. We gain Kevin Love and 3 2nd round picks in exchange for a lot of pieces (mostly expirings). We add $30M in salary for the off-season but we retain our salary flexibility going into the 2021 off-season in the process. Actual trade is:
Chicago Bulls Send -
Kevin Love (83) $38,587,194 - $42,809,585
OKC 2021 2nd
CHI 2021 2nd
CHI 2023 2nd
Total Outgoing : $38,587,194
Total Incoming : $30,970,402
LA Clippers Send -
Justin Jackson (64) $763,035 - $934-234
Kyle Korver (75) $5,000,000
Ed Davis (76) $2,081,594
James Johnson (77) $10,037,230 - $10,852845
Salah Mejri $831,311 (contract only)
Zaza Pachulia $10,257,232 (contract only)
Henry Ellenson $1,000,000 - $1,000,000 (contract only)
Isaih Briscoe $1,000,000 - $1,000,000 (contract only)
We now have over $110 million is cap coming off at the same time and have built up 6 or 7 additional 2nd round picks in the process. Several of these are in the 2021 draft that should be extremely deep due to the high school entry rule changing. Our roster is better than it has been in quite a while and we just finished the month of March (in game) with winning record (8-7).
New top 10 lineup:
C - Paul Millsap
PF - Kevin Love
SF - Lance Stephenson
SG - RJ Barrett
PG - Trey Burke
Ben - Willy Hernangomez
Ben - Skal Labissiere
Ben - Harry Giles
Ben - Ante Zizic
Ben - Gary Payton III