Why the Clippers should trade for Zion Williamson — now
Lawrence Frank has a decision to make. The president of Los Angeles basketball operations undoubtedly monitors the progress of the CAP of the League Capon Circonnment investigation and assesses the team by the team of possible reprehensible acts in the alleged “non-presentation” work of Kawhi Leonard with a bankrupt bank aspiration.
The clock turns. The evidence continues to accumulate. The shadow of the hammer of the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, is looming above.
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Frank can preempt all of this by pressing the nuclear option – exchange all the available first round choices of the team. Because here is the thing: in all likelihood, the silver hammer will not drop anytime soon, if this is the case. Given the size and scope of the survey with allegations dating from 2021, it is reasonable to assume that it could take a year or more for the company commanded from the NBA Wachtell, Lipton, Rose and Katz to deposit its determinations.
The draft choices, the suspensions and the half-chemin of the contracts are all at stake. But all this may not happen before the 2026-20 season. This means that Frank has something free for the 2025-26 season.
Admittedly, the clippers’ recovery choice clip is already naked. They have already sent the first round choices 2026 and 2028. They exchanged the first 2027 and 2029. They can exchange first – in 2030 and 2032 – and launch an exchange for 2031.
It is a fascinating wrinkle for all this saga. Would Frank dare?
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Any trade involving choices would be a strategic use of assets sensitive to time, and not an admission of guilt. The clipper title ratings just had a shot in the arm thanks to Fred Vanvleet, the goalkeeper of Houston Rockets, Fred Vanvleet, a potential injury at the end of the ACL season. With Houston suddenly vulnerable, adding another weapon could skip the clippers in Oklahoma City Thunder.
The clippers could push all their tokens in the middle and float a package of choices – say, two unprotected first and an exchange of 2031 – and continue another star to complete James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Bradley Beal and Ivica Zubac. Can you imagine if this star is the missing play for the NBA 2026 clippers? It would quite be the trophy ceremony.
But really, if the clippers exchange a star using their choices, what could Silver do on this subject? As long as the investigation is underway, the answer is almost nothing. The assets freezing of a team for the duration of a survey would lead to a total revolt among the other owners – the opposite of the “innocent innocent to farm” decree last week. In the end, Silver’s hands would be tied until the verdict arrives.
Yes, such a daring decision could inject more venom into Silver’s punishment (if the NBA should find reprehensible acts). But if the clippers could lose, let’s say, five first round choices, they could just as well start the box and go all for the title 2025-26.
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So if I’m frank, I’m going. Smoke them if you get them. It’s the year. Heck, the clippers are almost in a pot engaged anyway. If Leonard’s contract is canceled in the context of punishment as for Joe Smith in 2000, the chances of title of the Clippers in 2026-27 would increase in smoke (assuming, of course, they will not be allowed to use the relief of the ceiling). Other teams would prioritize a future choice of first round among the clippers knowing that there is at least a chance that the money is burning from the earth on them. The more the money tightens the screws, the more valuable these choices will be. It takes two in Tango and the two parties might want to hit the dance floor as soon as possible.
Utah jazz star Lauri Markkanen would be an ideal adjustment, but his contract ($ 46.4 million in departure wages) will be difficult to reach in the wage match, in particular with John Collins newly acquired prohibited by the League rules to join jazz so early. But there are other attackers on the market who can slide directly into the Clippers front line. In this spirit, here are three stars that they should continue while waiting for Silver’s verdict:
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Zion Williamson
If you are able to establish the leonard riddled with injuries, why not double? On the Pelicans side, they sport a new front office led by Joe Dumars, and new diets are known to clean the house so that they can start with a virgin canvas. It could be difficult to convince a team to take the remaining three years on the Williamson contract, although it has a unique contractual structure which does not fully guarantee its salary unless it reaches the benchmarks concerning the games played and its weight.
For New Orleans, the unprotected first round choices would be the jewel of the crown of a job here, giving the franchise a new start to the Dumars era and attenuating the disadvantage of negotiating an unprotected recovery choice in 2026 to go to Derik Queen at n ° 13 last June. Bogdan Bogdanovic (team option in 2026-27) and John Collins (expired contract), unprotected first round choices and three Swaps would work in terms of cap.
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In this scenario, the Clippers would start Beal, Harden, Leonard, Williamson and Zubac with Chris Paul, Derrick Jones Jr., Kris Dunn, Nic Batum and Brook Lopez who come out of the bench. Zion-Zu’s alignments could be cramped, but this is where Lopez’s intersane signature, an elite 5 stretch, is useful. The teams trying to defend Williamson’s electric discs will have to choose their poison since Lopez led every 7 feet last season in the 3 doses.
Michael Porter Jr.
I stretch the word “star” here, but to wear JR. will probably be a rental for Brooklyn nets in progress. It is difficult to imagine that the nets catch a first round choice to wear, which is due to $ 38.3 million this season and $ 40.8 million next season, but the Clippers may just be the desperate pretender to do something. The director general of Nets Sean Marks stored the first rounds, because the team has already received a first 2032 from Denver in the Swap Cam Johnson this summer.
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Adding to the plot on the mower side is the length of the contract to wear. Unlike Williamson, the contract to bring expires in 2027, which coincides with the final date of almost everyone on the list of clippers. Porter represents one of the best scope of the game perimeter and an ideal adjustment next to the Zubac elite-Protector. I mentioned above that Lopez led every 7 feet in the 3 catches 3 last season. Well, Porter led all players 6-10 or more in the same category.
Ingram Brandon
The Raptors pressed the CRTL-Z button on the same star. After Masai Ujiri was abruptly dropped after the project, the longtime director general Bobby Webster could consider unloading the contract extension of $ 120 million in Ingram, which was agreed in February. Ingram was not allowed to be exchanged for six months, but this restriction was lifted in August – just in time for the clippers to intervene!
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It would be one for history books if Ingram has never adapted to raptors for a single match after being exchanged in early February. He treated a painful ankle for most of the 2024-25 season, but a star knocked out of injuries is nothing new for the Clippers. Ingram should slip into nominal square 4 for clippers, but alignments with Batum, Leonard or Jones JR,. would relieve a large part of this.
