Zubac extends with Clippers
Facing a Wednesday deadline whether to exercise Ivica Zubac's $7.5 million team option or allow him to become an unrestricted free agent, the Clippers chose Door C: replacing the option with a three-year, $33 million extension (as reported by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski) that will keep Zubac under contract long-term.
What's most interesting about that decision is the Clippers declining the team option instead of building an extension off it, a decision that will be costly this season but allows them to avoid the potential of Zubac getting a bigger offer next summer. Instead of $7.5 million, Zubac will make a minimum of $10.2 million, a raise that will cost the Clippers many multiples more in luxury-tax payments.
Based on the Clippers' current tax level, assuming John Wall gets the $6.4 million taxpayer midlevel exception, Zubac's extra $2.7 million would mean about $12.5 million more in taxes -- something that could still increase if the team re-signs forward Nicolas Batum for more than the veterans minimum.
For all the focus on the Golden State Warriors' spending last season before they won the title, the Clippers might nearly match the Warriors' payroll in 2022-23 after extending both Zubac and forward Robert Covington.
From a basketball standpoint, paying Zubac more doesn't have an alternative cost for the Clippers aside from subjecting him to trade restrictions regarding extensions for the next six months.
This extension is an illustration of why the NBA's Helen Lovejoy-style hysteria about whether free-agent conversations happen before June 30 is misguided at best and actively harmful to both teams and players at worst. In order to strike a deal like this, both the Clippers and Zubac have to get some sense of what the market would look like for him.
Preventing players and teams from gauging that interest is actively trying to promote worse decision-making that ends up with one side or the other regretting deals struck legally leading up to free agency.
Wall plans to join Clippers after reaching a buyout with the Rockets
After a year spent on the sideline, Wall is set to return to NBA action after completing a buyout with the Houston Rockets on Monday that will give back $6.5 million of the $47.4 million he was set to make in 2022-23, per ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
With ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that Wall is headed to the LA Clippers, he can make up that money using their taxpayer midlevel exception, worth a projected $6.4 million. Wall heads to a contender in a destination market that has a need at point guard.
After trading Eric Bledsoe before the deadline, the Clippers had only starter Reggie Jackson as a traditional point guard the rest of the season, though they'll also add 2021 second-round pick Jason Preston to the mix after Preston missed his entire first NBA campaign due to ligament damage in his right foot that required surgery.
When Wall was last on the court, he was serving as an offensive focal point for a limited Houston team in 2020-21. Wall had a career-high 32% usage rate, while his .503 true shooting percentage was his lowest since 2011-12. We've never seen Wall surrounded by as much supporting talent as he'll have with the uber-deep Clippers, who also welcome back Kawhi Leonard to rejoin Paul George.
To some extent, that could highlight Wall's weakness as a shooter. He hit 32% of his 3s in 2020-21, right near his career mark. However, Wall has typically been much more accurate on the kind of catch-and-shoot attempts he'll get with the Clippers, hitting those at a 38% clip during the camera tracking era (back to 2013-14) per Second Spectrum data.
Additionally, Wall can take advantage of the Clippers' talent by serving as more of a pass-first point guard. He's always been a dazzling playmaker who excels at finding teammates in the corners. From 2013-14 through 2016-17, his prime years, Wall set up a league-high 1,063 corner 3-point attempts according to Second Spectrum stats. Only LeBron James set up more on a per-possession basis during that span.
It will be interesting to see how well Wall holds up defensively on a contending team. The Rockets' defensive culture was nonexistent in 2020-21, and Wall will be asked to be much more competitive at that end of the court. How well Wall holds up will primarily determine just how much he plays for the Clippers.
Zubac extends with Clippers
Facing a Wednesday deadline whether to exercise Ivica Zubac's $7.5 million team option or allow him to become an unrestricted free agent, the Clippers chose Door C: replacing the option with a three-year, $33 million extension (as reported by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski) that will keep Zubac under contract long-term.
What's most interesting about that decision is the Clippers declining the team option instead of building an extension off it, a decision that will be costly this season but allows them to avoid the potential of Zubac getting a bigger offer next summer. Instead of $7.5 million, Zubac will make a minimum of $10.2 million, a raise that will cost the Clippers many multiples more in luxury-tax payments.
Based on the Clippers' current tax level, assuming John Wall gets the $6.4 million taxpayer midlevel exception, Zubac's extra $2.7 million would mean about $12.5 million more in taxes -- something that could still increase if the team re-signs forward Nicolas Batum for more than the veterans minimum.
For all the focus on the Golden State Warriors' spending last season before they won the title, the Clippers might nearly match the Warriors' payroll in 2022-23 after extending both Zubac and forward Robert Covington.
From a basketball standpoint, paying Zubac more doesn't have an alternative cost for the Clippers aside from subjecting him to trade restrictions regarding extensions for the next six months.
This extension is an illustration of why the NBA's Helen Lovejoy-style hysteria about whether free-agent conversations happen before June 30 is misguided at best and actively harmful to both teams and players at worst. In order to strike a deal like this, both the Clippers and Zubac have to get some sense of what the market would look like for him.
Preventing players and teams from gauging that interest is actively trying to promote worse decision-making that ends up with one side or the other regretting deals struck legally leading up to free agency.
Wall plans to join Clippers after reaching a buyout with the Rockets
After a year spent on the sideline, Wall is set to return to NBA action after completing a buyout with the Houston Rockets on Monday that will give back $6.5 million of the $47.4 million he was set to make in 2022-23, per ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
With ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that Wall is headed to the LA Clippers, he can make up that money using their taxpayer midlevel exception, worth a projected $6.4 million. Wall heads to a contender in a destination market that has a need at point guard.
After trading Eric Bledsoe before the deadline, the Clippers had only starter Reggie Jackson as a traditional point guard the rest of the season, though they'll also add 2021 second-round pick Jason Preston to the mix after Preston missed his entire first NBA campaign due to ligament damage in his right foot that required surgery.
When Wall was last on the court, he was serving as an offensive focal point for a limited Houston team in 2020-21. Wall had a career-high 32% usage rate, while his .503 true shooting percentage was his lowest since 2011-12. We've never seen Wall surrounded by as much supporting talent as he'll have with the uber-deep Clippers, who also welcome back Kawhi Leonard to rejoin Paul George.
To some extent, that could highlight Wall's weakness as a shooter. He hit 32% of his 3s in 2020-21, right near his career mark. However, Wall has typically been much more accurate on the kind of catch-and-shoot attempts he'll get with the Clippers, hitting those at a 38% clip during the camera tracking era (back to 2013-14) per Second Spectrum data.
Additionally, Wall can take advantage of the Clippers' talent by serving as more of a pass-first point guard. He's always been a dazzling playmaker who excels at finding teammates in the corners. From 2013-14 through 2016-17, his prime years, Wall set up a league-high 1,063 corner 3-point attempts according to Second Spectrum stats. Only LeBron James set up more on a per-possession basis during that span.
It will be interesting to see how well Wall holds up defensively on a contending team. The Rockets' defensive culture was nonexistent in 2020-21, and Wall will be asked to be much more competitive at that end of the court. How well Wall holds up will primarily determine just how much he plays for the Clippers.
