Wow. MJ pulled an MJ. awful awful move for the Bobcats. WOW. Great move for the Clippers. This sucks, I really thought they were stuck with their roster.
this can't hurt LAC and if it pays off will improve them both defensively and in terms of opening up their offense
And if Barnes gets waived as expected, he likely goes back to the Clippers. That's a lot of personalities to manage but they hired Doc to motivate and build a team, not for his Xs and Os.
The big man free agency pool is so deep. The 15th best center in free agency (Koufos) would provide more help for Clippers than Hawes would. If they can pick up a good backup center with the MLE, its a massive upgrade.
If the Clippers had better role players I think they would have won the championship this year. The way Blake, Reddick, and Paul were playing was lights out. Supporting cast really let them down and I don't think L.Stephenson is going to fix that. They need some Moreyball magic.
The current CBA wouldn't allow Barnes to resign with the Clippers for a year. •When a team trades a player who is subsequently waived by the receiving team, it cannot claim the player off waivers or re-sign the player until the one-year anniversary of the trade, or until the July 1 following the end of his contract6, whichever is earlier. http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q65
Stephenson is the kind of player Doc & Paul will make better. To me it was a no-brainer considering their current cap situation. They'll be a contender again.
I am not against this deal for either team. High-risk for the Clippers, but Barnes is old. If Stephenson can rediscover his Indiana form, he can be another playmaker for that team. I think Barnes will be waived, so the Hornets save some money there. Charlotte has to get creative with their team building, it will never be a popular FA destination. Maybe they think Hawes is good value for a stretch 4. If the Clippers can lure Paul Pierce on the cheap and sign some big-man depth with their MLE, they'll be much better than last year.
Wow. First off, great trade for LAC. I don't like LAC, but it is a great trade for them. Spencer Hawes is pretty awful and was providing nothing for them. Stephenson is a better player than Barnes. But also risky. Stephenson was good in Indiana but was terrible last year in Charlotte. He seems to be a guy who's personality can be hard to mesh with certain players. How will that fit with Chris Paul? I might be wrong, but I don't really see that going well. Stephenson seems to be the kind of player that always thinks he should be the number 1 or number 1B option on a team. And when he plays with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, he will be option 3 at the highest, maybe even lower than that. One of the Clippers' big weaknesses was depth at the SF position. Now, they trade one of their SF for another SG? I know positions seem to be becoming less important, but are they planning to start Redick and Stephenson together? This is one of those trades that could, unfortunately, work really well for LAC. It could also go really badly. Luckily for the Clippers, they didn't give up a whole lot to get him so it was definitely a risk worth taking for them.
Also (maybe this is a stupid question) does this do anything to the Clippers' ability to resign Deandre Jordan?
They have his bird rights, so no. Similar to how we (planned) to exceed the cap to re sign Parsons once we signed bosh
Stephenson is a bad shooter and plays the same position as Redick. Their starting lineup played well and I'm questioning where he fits in. Do they need his passing and rebounding? Not really. He'll likely be the fourth option on offense, at best, if he starts at SF. Perhaps they can move Crawford and he'll be their new sixth man.
How exactly is this a bigh risk move for the clips? Hawes was useless for them in the playoffs and Barnes is likely to be waived by the rebuilding hornets. Maybe Stephenson turns out to be a bust but honestly they didnt give anything of value for him. This is the definiton of high reward little risk, and a pretty good move IMHO. For the hornets this is a "MJ gonna MJ" move, only reason I can think off that they did it is MJ wants to save money.
I don't get why this is a bad trade for Hornets and a good trade for the clippers? Hornets dodge a bullet letting him go and carrying out his contact. Stephenson can't lead a team. Clippers now have 3-4 ball handlers on the team. They all need the ball in hand to be successful. Paul. Crawford. Stephenson. Rivers. Clippers were lucky with Barnes as he is a great 3 and D player. Just sucked during playoffs. I don't think Stephenson can bring 3 and D for the clippers locking up the paint even more for Griffin.
Both teams got what they wanted. Hornets no lance, shed salary in Barnes and have a back up C if Biymbo doesn't work out. Clippers traded another bad Doc mistake in Hawes who didnt fit there and just signed for the MLE, and hopefully he has a plan B because an already thin team just got thinner and still hasn't addressed the wing position
