The cold, calculating Clippers are paying a different Norm Powell price

Los Angeles did the cap-savvy thing by trading their 32-year scorer before he needed an extension. The result is a 4-10 record.

Good morning. Let's basketball.

The modern L.A. Clippers with Lawrence Frank running the front office is widely seen as one of the more cap-savvy, calculating franchises in the NBA. It's easy to understand why. While reporting to the richest governor in the league, and one who spares no expense to make the team better in ways that he can, the Clippers can be awful shrewd in their transactions. Recall when this team granted Blake Griffin a max-value contract, lavishing him with legacy talk and a heavy pitch only to trade him months later. The Clippers needed to lock in Griffin to make sure they didn't lose the asset for nothing. Once that occurred, they moved him for value. It ended up being the right move – did you know L.A. took the only first they got in the Griffin deal from Detroit and packaged it with two seconds to get Shai Gilgeous-Alexander? It's true! – but it left the Clippers looking cold and calculating.

Playing hardball with Paul George in 2023 and 2024 – that looks like it was the right move, too, if only because PG has barely played since then (and hasn't looked amazing when he has played). But it was odd for an NBA team with seemingly unlimited resources who had built a present around two stars, PG and Kawhi Leonard, one of whom had an unreliably body but had been rewarded with an extension and, if rumor has it, lots of extra privileges. To pinch pennies when it came to George seemed a bit off, especially compared to how most teams operate.

The rationale for that move and the one we're really here to discuss is the 2027 offseason, at which point the Clippers are purported to want clean books to chase major free agents. The Clippers currently have one contract on the books for the 2027-28 season: a significantly under-market deal for Ivica Zubac ($21 million, an estimated 11% of the cap).