According to team owner Steve Ballmer, the Clippers wanted to retain Paul George over the summer and “made him a big offer,” writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. But with the Clippers unwilling to add a no-trade clause or a fourth year to the three-year offer they put on the table for George, the star forward considered other options and L.A. began envisioning life without him.
“I don’t know when the blueprint changed,” Ballmer told Youngmisuk. “The truth of the matter is our situation was changing just because the guys are getting older anyway. So the way to think about it with Paul or without Paul, it started to morph on us.”
As Youngmisuk writes, the Clippers showed with the three-year, $150MM deal they offered George that they were willing to continue operating above the second tax apron. But the front office certainly wasn’t opposed to the idea of reducing its payroll, with more punitive roster-building restrictions – including a frozen draft pick seven years out – being implemented for teams in second-apron territory.
“Once your pick becomes frozen, (and) if you’re in the second apron for multiple years, you’re really f—ed,” Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said. “You’re in a situation where you never have cap space and you never have your mid-level exception and you’re just strictly dealing with minimums and trades. Our goal is we want to be a sustainable contender.”
As Ballmer points out, avoiding a $50MM-per-year commitment to George allowed the Clippers to add a handful of defense-first role players who will fit the team’s new identity and should be very movable on the trade market, if necessary.
“The truth is, with Paul not coming back, we were able to upgrade our team,” Ballmer said. “We don’t (sign) Derrick Jones Jr. if Paul comes back. We don’t (sign) Kris Dunn, (or have) our new defensive identity. Might not have (signed) Kevin Porter Jr., Nico (Batum). … You could say, well, they’re not Paul George. No, they’re not Paul George. … (But) we were able to get three guys who are tough, hard-playing guys. And we still have the ability to consistently make ourselves better. So it was the right choice for us.”
Here’s more on the Clippers:
- The Clippers were open to making an opt-in-and-trade George deal with the Warriors before he became a free agent and would likely have pulled the trigger if Golden State had been willing to part with Jonathan Kuminga and a first-round pick, says Sam Amick of The Athletic. The two teams briefly discussed Kuminga, but Golden State pulled him off the table, and since he was the only young Warriors the Clippers viewed as a potential star, talks fizzled after that, Amick explains.
- Youngmisuk also addressed the George talks between L.A. and Golden State in his ESPN feature, reiterating that the Clippers ultimately decided the assets available to them in that deal wouldn’t have been worth the cost (in tax penalties and roster flexibility) of taking on matching salaries. “Nothing is better than something,” one league source told ESPN in explaining the team’s decision to let George walk.
- Ahead of his return to L.A. on Wednesday as a member of the Sixers, George made it clear he has no hard feelings toward Clippers management and that he had a great relationship with Ballmer and Frank. “They were awesome the whole time I was here,” George said, per Youngmisuk. “Kind of the reason why it was such a shocking decision how it played out at the end. But they were awesome.”
- George, who heard plenty of boos during Wednesday’s game from the Clippers faithful, told reporters after the Sixers loss that he thought that reaction was “stupid,” according to Youngmisuk. “It wasn’t something that I demanded a trade or went against the team here. I was a free agent,” George said. “The team presented something that was team-friendly, and I did what was best for me in that situation. So there were the cheers. I appreciate them. Those were the ones that I played hard for. The boos, I didn’t get it.”
- Clippers center Mohamed Bamba may be nearing his debut after missing the start of the season due to left knee injury management. A source tells Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link) that Bamba has been cleared for contact and has been involved in recent team shootarounds.
At the end of the day, Warriors were pretenders for PG13, thank goodness. Kuminga should feel assured that he is wanted and valued at GS. Simply focus on playing better, winning, and having fun.
Yes I agree but it’s also interesting that the Clippers didn’t think Kuminga plus Moody plus Wiggins plus a couple of pics was worth being over that tax apron.
They’d rather have nothing and be under that line. Very interesting. Very telling as to why the Warriors haven’t given JK 40 million as well.
I mean Kuminga is to valuable to give up in a trade where the trade is either you get something from PG leaving or he leaves for nothing like he did. They are rewriting history to make themselves sounds good because they thought they had PG over a barrel wanting to stay in socal so he would just have to take their offer.
Its also BS to come out and say they offered him a real deal when they made like 4 super low ball offers over the previous 6 months. They could have had him for 3/150 in Nov, but once you low ball him you have to at least match the offer on the table for him elsewhere to get him to stay. They F’d it up hard with him and now are trying to spin it so the fans wont be mad as they miss the playoffs.
As I understand it the real offer was CP and Moody plus the last of the salary matching.
They could have gotten under after the trade by waiving and stretching Paul too.
Chapman , one other reason: it’s been widely reported that Ballmer’s hopes for Clippers’ future took a sudden fall with Kahwi’s late season injury and their early playoff exit.
Ballmer clearly didn’t see that injury coming, having so recently extended Kahwi. He then decided he wasn’t going to pay $250M in repeater penalties, which meant PG was gone.
MIchol said:
> Kuminga should feel assured that he is wanted and
> valued at GS
If “valued” means $30M/yr, that means at least 3 current players on expiring contracts are gone next season to create cap space. (Trading Wiggins requires taking back a matching salary, so that won’t do it.)
Do you believe Kuminga sees Kerr giving up Looney, GP2, and Melton to keep him? I don’t.
A coach shows exactly how much he values a player with minutes. Looking at the Boston game, Kuminga didn’t start, didn’t finish, and played 16 minutes.
Hield is not only the 6th man of the year, but a real candidate for an All Star this year. He has been the difference make thai year, and it’s not just amazing 3 pointers. He’s rebounding, passing, defense, and hustles. He’s the energizer off the bench. Kudos!
Put the ring on their fingers also.
Teacher what size do you wear? There’s plenty of room on the bandwagon.
Michol, Buddy Hield is playing real well. I think he’s energized by the fact he can let his 3 ball fly whenever he wants on this team.
It’s a wide open offense and I see what you’re seeing as well in that he’s hustling on defense getting back and doing a real good job.
I think he would have to continue this white hot shooting to become an All-Star. He’s bound to have a slump like the Clippers game here and there that will bring down the numbers. But regardless, we love what we’re seeing !!
For sure he will have his share of bad gms just like Klay or even Curry, but he has shown enough already that he can play well in this system. It’s awesome story because he wasnt even in the rotation with Sixers. I still cant believe it… he’a so much better than Klay…
What Ballmer is saying would make perfect sense, except they didn’t offer PG13 even the 3 year deal they offered to KL prior to the start of the season, and after that they acquired Harden for future assets. Maybe they were hedging their bets, but if that’s it, then I think it’s an odd choice of assets to do it with.
Don’t believe the clippers on not making the trade. Because it would have meant a lot more than just Kuminga and a 1sy t round pick. Wiggins and probably Looney and Payton was in the deal to match money. Sounds to me Clippers are going to go after Kuminga next year and just laying the ground work for him.
The Clippers didn’t approach the Warriors about a trade. It was more Dunleavy seeing an opportunity to low-ball the Clippers. It sounded more like he was trying to move CP3 in the deal.
i forgot about CP3 contract too. I highly doubt Clippers only wanted Kuminga and 1 1st round pick. Earlier Clippers said they didn’t want to send him to a rival team.
arc89 , I also struggle to believe they only wanted 1 FRP.
CP3 + Kuminga + 2 FRP’s + some pick swaps + $9M in expiring contracts gets it done.
Giants74 said:
> The Clippers didn’t approach the Warriors about a trade.
Not so. The Clippers talked to every team that was interested in Paul George, as any team would do given their unwillingness to resign him. Those teams also included Houston and Philly.
The history of the process is well-known because George has talked about it at length over several of his podcasts, and corroborated by Laurence Frank. Because George held the cards, the Clippers had to get his consent to trade him to a given team. George talked in his podcast about how he gave the Clippers his consent on a trade to the Warriors.
No Chris Paul was the money mostly thats why he pushed back the guarantee on his 30M while they negotiated it.
“Nothing is better than something” is a very odd way to phrase Clippers team ideology. I know they mean getting rid of George is better than taking back the similar salary in other players, but whoever said “nothing is better than something” should have his league spokesman credentials revoked.
It would be funny if the source was a Warriors employee. I guess then it would be making fun of LA’s inability to receive anything back for PG, especially after giving up seven for one a few years ago.
Gary , Ballmer decided, like the Warriors this year, that the Clippers needed to “reset” to avoid the massive year-over-year increase on the repeater tax. It saves Ballmer several hundred million.
Ballmer might have been willing to pay his largest taxes ever, for one more year, but the Clips playoff performance and Kahwi’s injury in March killed that.
Did you read the Anthony Slater about the Warriors pursuit of George? He interviewed Dunleavy. Dunleavy was trying to leverage George’s threat to walk. He said it was all about the “Financials”. So, the Warriors were not giving up much. CP3 would have made it work.
Giants74, the article does not say that CP3 was the only asset involved in the deal.
– GSW had to match George’s salary, $46M-$50M, depending on the terms.
– CP3’s $30M was the “ballast”; without it, GSW would need to provide players it wanted to retain.
– GSW needed to match another $16M-$20M in salary, which is where Kuminga comes in.
– Clippers also wanted draft capital.
The Slater article also doesn’t mention a few other things that Frank and George have discussed publicly. For example, Frank said he wanted to other teams to take PJ Tucker’s bad contract.
Not understading the boos is laughable and a lack of self awareness honestly.