The Clippers have made plenty of news lately, with the sale to Steve Ballmer and the announcement Wednesday that they've agreed to a long-term contract extension with Doc Rivers that will keep him around until 2019. According to Yahoo! Sports, the deal is worth over $50 million over the next five seasons, which is a lotta scratch.
But we aren't here to talk about those things. We're here to talk about what transpired on Tuesday, when the Clippers randomly decided to send swingman Jared Dudley and a future first-round pick to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for forward Carlos Delfino, center Miroslav Raduljica and a future second-round pick.
Dudley began the season as the Clippers' starting small forward, but quickly fell out of that spot and eventually out of the rotation completely as he struggled. He shot 36% from three-point range last year, which is decent, but was still his lowest since his rookie year with Charlotte in 2007.
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| Photo Credit - Keith Allison/Flickr |
Delfino has been a nice role player in the league for many years, but he missed all of last season after suffering a broken foot during the 2013 playoffs with Houston. The foot required additional surgery recently, which is putting his 2014-15 season in doubt, as well.
Raduljica just played his first season in the NBA with the Bucks since coming over from the Ukrainian league and didn't make much of an impact.
ESPN's Marc Stein reported early Wednesday that LAC is expected to waive both Delfino and Raduljica later this week using what's called the "stretch provision". This basically means that they can release a player and spread the resulting salary cap hit over twice the remaining length of the contract. The Clippers were not allowed to do this with Dudley, because his contract had been signed prior to the signing of the 2011 CBA, making him ineligible. Got all that? Me neither.
So, basically, the Clippers made this trade in order to clear a tiny bit of cap space to use on another free agent. With the tiny amount of space remaining, it would make sense for them to pursue one of the few remaining free agent big men. It was reported yesterday by USA TODAY's Sam Amick that former Bucks forward Ekpe Udoh was in town visiting the Clippers.
Udoh has battled injuries since coming into the league in 2010, but he was taken by the Warriors 6th overall in that draft. He's never come close to living up to that draft position, but the Clips lack serious depth along the frontline, and you never know what kind of impact playing for a great coach on a great team may have on a young player like him.
Dan Woike of the OC Register also mentioned the possibility of the Clippers re-signing spare forward Hedo Turkoglu once/if Delfino and Raduljica are released. Turk's best days are clearly in the rearview mirror at this point, but he did give L.A. some decent minutes in spurts down-the-stretch last season.
The Clippers' forfeiture of a future first-round pick is the most troubling aspect of this deal. With the team expected to contend for championships, it's not like they're risking dumping a lottery pick or anything, but first-rounders are quite valuable assets. To dump one just to free up a little amount of cap space to sign a fringe roster player seems like a bit of a waste.
The second-round pick the Clippers are receiving is actually the same one they'd initially traded to Milwaukee in the trade that brought J.J. Redick to Los Angeles.
