Buyer’s remorse redemption
After giving up five first round picks and the right to swap two more to the Oklahoma City Thunder to acquire Paul George last summer, the Los Angeles Clippers can overcome their buyer’s remorse and regret–or at least a good portion of it–by acquiring a handful of first-round picks in a Paul George trade.
While the damage won’t be undone fully, LA could move on from the George-Leonard pairing while adding a more efficient scorer in Gordon Hayward. While the deal makes the Clippers less talented on the surface, having a player more secure in an off-ball role in Hayward could make things less murky in crunch time.
For the Cs, this move accomplishes a few things. The first is fixing the surplus of draft picks and two-way contracted talents like Tremont Waters and the 7-foot-5 messiah Tacko Fall that are accompanied by the shortage of roster spots.
Secondly, it is a move to add a third (or potentially fourth if Jaylen Brown can make the jump) All-Star to a roster that could be just short of an NBA Championship or Eastern Conference crown. While giving up the draft picks isn’t fun, the Cs roster seems locked in for the foreseeable future, so this would essentially be a one-for-one given the lack of opportunities the incoming picks would have.
George’s defensive chops are ahead of Hayward’s, and as long as he understood coming in that Tatum and Brown would be ahead of him in the pecking order, he could serve the role Hayward was signed for but has been too injured to perform in.
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