8:57pm: The team is discussing a run at LeBron but won’t trade Griffin for him, tweeted Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com earlier tonight. Shelburne points to the many times that Rivers has assured the Clippers big man that he’s “untouchable.”
5:07pm Clippers president of basketball operations Doc Rivers would be open to dealing Blake Griffin in a sign-and-trade package to land LeBron James, several NBA officials told Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. Griffin is slated to earn $17.6MM in 2014/15; according to Turner, Jared Dudley or Matt Barnes could be included along with Griffin in a deal, presumably to give LeBron a contract starting at above $20MM annually. Dudley and Barnes are on the books for $4.25MM and roughly $3.39MM respectively next season. The team wouldn’t mind including DeAndre Jordan or Jamal Crawford as an additional piece, but also understands that it would be difficult to do so.
Turner includes that the Clippers also haven’t ruled out making a run at Carmelo Anthony this summer, but didn’t specify if Los Angeles would be open to offering the same package to New York. According to one NBA official, Steve Ballmer – whose $2 billion offer to buy the Clippers is not official yet – would agree to paying the luxury tax if the team were to land James or Anthony.
if your Lebron why would you go to the Clippers if they give up both of their big men. He’s already told the NBA he doesn’t wanna play the 4! And yet teams think he can somehow be paired up with Anthony.
Anthony can play the 4.
Anthony cannot play the 4. He might be 6’8, 235 but he cannot guard other 4s in the league like Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan, Zach Randolph, etc.
sure, but he’s not an obvious upgrade over Griffin, so it’s moot.
That certainly is doing Griffin dirty.
$2B, not $2MM.
In regards to Ballmer.
hey J, piece the initials together.
Fixed that. Thank you!
–Chuck
And of course the Clippers would consider trading Griffin for James. It should be more than a consideration. I don’t see why any team would say, “You know what, we don’t feel like trading one of our best players for the best player in the ENTIRE league.” I’m not trying to be disrespectful or critical of the reporting of this story, I just don’t see why people (Michael Nguyen) would react to this as breaking news. A more accurate headline would probably read “29 NBA Teams Considering Trading Their Top Player for LeBron”.
“The team is discussing a run at LeBron but won’t trade Griffin for him”
So, do they expect to get Lebron for free or what?
Lebron is a free agent, can go anywhere he wants. No trade needed.
The Clippers don’t have cap room; they’re at $72 million. So yes, a trade is needed.
Love Big Blake. Lebron is great but come on lets trade Jordan for him and assets.