Clippers’ OFFSEASON GUIDE ’The kitchen NEVER made the meal’ – Bobby Marks | NBA on ESPN

Clippers’ OFFSEASON GUIDE ’The kitchen NEVER made the meal’ – Bobby Marks | NBA on ESPN

Hey, happy morning Monday morning. Hopefully everyone is doing great. We have uh 22 teams that have now been eliminated. Whether you were in the lottery to begin with or were eliminated in the first round or playing uh eight teams remaining and we are going to do two videos, two separate videos. We didn’t do a clipper video after the dismantling on Saturday night. And uh we’ll do the clipper video and then eventually the rockets video. Um all the documents or all the documents all the articles are in one doc on ESPN espn.com. It is free. The payw wall has been removed permanently. There is no more payw wall for I think all of our articles moving forward. the Clippers. Um, how the season ended did not match up to how the roster was built last off season and 99% of what occurred during this this past season here. Um, if we were doing a I guess our annual restaurant review, it basically the food basically forgot to come out at the end. The menu looked good. The uh the core looked good. The uh weight staff was terrific. But the kitchen never made the meal. And the never the meal part certainly came in game seven. I’ve been part of that. I was in New Jersey in 200 uh 2004. We had played the Pistons in the uh in a in a series that uh went to game seven and Detroit eventually w up winning the championship. I call that the Chony Bilips game where he hit the halfcourt shot in game five. And I still to this day believe that was the um deciding factor because we had no gas in the tank. But we went into game seven, everyone thought it was going to be a great game seven and we wind up losing by like 40. So I’ve been there before. I would say regarding the Clippers and a little bit about uh you know how we do these videos, we’ll give a state of the roster and some priorities. They’ve got basically the same group coming back next year. And it infuriates me sometimes and I know don’t read the comments. It’s like the worst thing. Wo told me this a long time ago. He said, “Don’t read the comments if you want your day to be ruined.” He’s like, “Don’t don’t read the comments.” And but it does infuriate me like when that you they lost and now people, oh, they got to blow it up. You got to break the team. And I almost feel like saying, you know, there’s only 450 players in this league and there’s 30 teams and 16 make it to the playoffs. And I the Clippers had a legitimate shot potentially to to get to an NBA finals certainly with Oklahoma City standing in their way. And that is that is the beauty of just putting a competitive roster together because you never know what will happen. It’s like the year that uh Derrick Rose blew out his knee and Philadelphia winds up going to the Eastern Conference Finals or going or beating a number one seed here. You put together the best roster and hopefully you get to the playoffs and that roster can get you in. All you want is an opportunity to get in. And now people are like, “Oh, you got to trade qua. You got to blow up the roster. You can’t sign Harden. Please stop. 50 50 wins is a good season.” You know, we we we only it feels like sometimes in this world and we’re all at fault is we only reward teams that get to the NBA finals or win a championship and everyone else has to be blown up. What’s going to happen if Cleveland loses a series against Indiana? we’re gonna say, “Oh, you gotta blow it up.” Come on, stop. It’s embarrassing. All right, so regarding the Clippers, two picks in in the draft, 20 um uh they are at pick 30 and um 49. They have a um James Harden is a free agent. He’s got a player option. Patty Mills, Ben Simmons, Nick Patum is a has a player option in Amir Coffee. That’s it. As I said, that is basically the roster that is going to be coming back. I would We’re going to talk about Harden in a minute who’s got a player option. Batum’s got a player option, but as I said, the roster is intact. I think the Clippers are a good lesson. We’ve talked about it last year. They let Paul go George for nothing. Everybody was killing them. How could they do that? They spent so much in the luxury tax the past four years. This is a win now team. You got to bring Paul George back. Doesn’t matter that it’s going to cost you 200 and so million dollars. put a no trade clause on his contract and our friend Draymond Green lambasted him that they had to get value back because you know that you can’t just let a player go for nothing and um you know they they should have done a signing trade with the Warriors and take back crappy contracts. But what what they’ve been what they did is a lesson basically how the CBA should operate is that it is okay to allow players that you think is highriced players that are in their mid30s to leave for nothing. And the savings that they were able to create turned into Derek Jones Jr. and Chris Dunn and Nicholas Batum. They wind up extending Zubac who’s turned out to be great. Maybe there’ll be a Norm Powell extension in there too. And it gave them the flexibility to make trades during the season. We certainly saw that the Terrence man trade for Bogdan Bdonovic and it gave them the flexibility as I said and that was one of the if we’re giving grades from the offseason they basically get an A and we probably give the Sixers like a D minus if we’re playing Monday morning quarterback for basically allowing Paul George to leave and that flexibility as I said um basically was able to balance they’re a better roster they’re more balanced and they’re less expensive. defensive and they have more flexibility moving forward. All right, now we go into the off season here. Uh Harden player option 36.3 will play a significant role as far as where you are from a uh financial perspective. Let’s just play the scenario where he opts into his contract. You’re 12 million below the tax, 20 below the first apron. That includes both him and Batum opting in by June 29th. You could have some flexibility. You’ve got a n-g guaranteed contract of Drew Eubanks and Jordan Miller. That would give you about another $7 million in flexibility. So, let’s say you wanted to bump Harden up to 40 two years, $80 million new contract. That gives you you’re in play to potentially sign a player to most of your non-tax mid-level exception, potentially use some of your exceptions there. So, as I said, that that decision there as far as I would say the likelihood is that Harden is going to opt out of his contract and I would say the likelihood is that both sides are going to work out a contract that makes sense for both sides. He’s eligible for three years. That ain’t happening because of um the over 38 rule. What what’s going to happen is you’re going to see like two versions of the Clippers. You’re going to see the version of the two-year window version and similar to what Golden State is is is going to is going through. Um, but two years from from now, you’re going to see the two-year version, which is basically lining himself up with Kawhi Leonard. That is where you’re and then basically when we get to the summer of 27, that’s when you basically retool, revamp this roster when both these guys are, I don’t know, what are they going to be late 30s and then you basically have Zubac and we’ll see what happens with Norm Powell who’s extension eligible here. The frustrating thing with Harden, and I don’t need to beat a dead horse here, is how good he was during the regular season. I mean, it it it was, you know, certainly making All-Star game. I mean, we put a stat in here. Um only player with 1500 points, 500 assists, 100 steals, and 50 blocks. And then you get to the postseason and he scores 33 points in three games, three losses here. That’s that is certainly aggravating. And I’m sure you Sixers fans and you Rocket fans and Nets fans probably know all about that. So what does a new contract look like? I think it’s going to be two for 80, I think. And then people are going to say, “Well, who you bidding against?” And it’s going to be the same argument from last year when people say, “Oh, they’re not bidding against anybody.” He’s still a highlevel player. He will win you a lot of games. Um, but you have to take the good with the bad. So I am expecting James Harden to be back. And then there’s Norm Powell. Uh Powell is extension eligible for four for 129. Uh he has outplayed his contract. There is no ifs, ands, and but he has outplayed his current $19 million salary. I’m expecting him. Is he going to get four for 129? It’s a little rich. Certainly for a player that he’s going to be 32 this month. East has played in 60 games just once over the past four years. So there is that durability standpoint. What would I do for Norm Powell? I would probably do three years three years 75ish se three years 80 somewhere in that range. I think that that makes more sense. I’m not it’s hard for me to do four for 129. Three years with a partial in year three to give you that flexibility. He’s been good for them. I mean certainly where he was before the all-star break all-star level post allstar break not so. uh knee injury, certainly hamstring, a little bit of everything. 15 uh 14 points post all-star break, 24 before the break. Team needs uh bench depth and development. You got to get some development out of Cam Christie and and Kobe Brown. You’re going to have two picks in in June. As I said, you’re going to build out you need to build out your bench, especially if Batum doesn’t come back. I I would expect him opt in, but he’s he was really really good during the playoffs. And then as far as your draft assets, you have no control of your first in the next four years. Um, we know what they still owe OK Oklahoma City unprotected first in 26. They als the Thunder, this is amazing, the Thunder have the right to swap in 27. They will send Philly and unprotected first in 28. 76ers have the right to swap first in 29. You were allowed to trade either um your 31 32 picks. You could swap in 30, 31 or 32. And you have five second round picks. available uh available to trade here. So, that is a little bit of a skinny on on the Los Angeles Clippers as far as their offseason. I’m expecting the bulk of this group to be back. I’m expecting James Harden to be back. I’m expecting them to be active like they always are. They have the flexibility to do so. They’ve got the draft picks certainly right now and in the future to do so. And um that is it. We will talk soon. Hopefully, everyone has a great day. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Bobby Marks is back with his 2025 offseason guide for the Los Angeles Clippers.

☑️ Subscribe to ESPN+: https://plus.espn.com/​​​​​
📱Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn​​​​​
🏀 Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2yxs3Og​​​​​
☑️Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE​​​​​
☑️Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV​​