The Clippers have lined up a meeting with free agent point guard Derrick Rose, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, Rose will sit down with the Clips on Wednesday.
It has been a busy week for the Clippers, who appeared to be heading for a rebuild when they sent Chris Paul to the Rockets last week. However, the team added multiple solid veterans – Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams – in that trade, agreed to re-sign Blake Griffin to a maximum salary contract, and have also agreed upon a sign-and-trade deal for Danilo Gallinari. So it looks like the team is merely retooling its roster in the wake of CP3’s exit, rather than embarking on a full-scale rebuild.
[RELATED: Nuggets, Hawks, Clippers agree to three-way sign-and-trade]
Although the Clippers acquired a point guard in Beverley, he’s not the kind of player who needs to have the ball in his hands a lot, so it makes sense for the club to be on the lookout for another player who can share the ball-handling load. The Clips still have the full mid-level exception ($8.4MM) available, but would be back in the tax if they use the full amount, and would be getting close to their hard cap of $125.266MM.
Rose, 28, is coming off a season in which he averaged 18.0 PPG and 4.4 APG in 64 games for the Knicks. There was reportedly some interest within the Knicks’ front office in bringing back the former No. 1 overall pick, though a source told Frank Isola of The New York Daily News that GM Steve Mills is opposed to the idea, and Mills currently has the final say on basketball decisions.
The former MVP also met with the Bucks this week.
Austin isn’t the lead ball handler? I thought the path was cleared?
For the Clippers sake I hope they try to improve on any situation that has Austin Rivers as an important part.
Wouldn’t be too bad a choice here if he came cheap TBH
His career fell off a cliff. Sad. Lots of injuries though. If I were him I’d choose Bucks. But if he wants a warm place to live after Chicago and NYC, go to Clips. Maybe he can be a backup for a few years.
I’d rather just see Blake run point forward than have them go into tax territory for D Rose. Blake’s a better playmaker
Troll of the year
Blake Griffin is literally a better playmaker than Derrick Rose. You nominating yourself for troll of the year Chris Knox??
Ya Griffin can pass well. I don’t see how that’s controversial.
that’s not a troll, it’s facts
unless drose agrees to be the backup, i don’t want this at all. Start beverley and have blake be the primary playmaker.