The L.A. Clippers are currently in the midst of a rebuild, manifested further by the report that DeAndre Jordan is opting out of the last year of his contract with the team. Although the Clippers are not necessarily among the most talked about free agency destinations this summer, they have the financial capability to be one next year.
According to Bobby Marks of ESPN, the Clippers could clear out enough cap space in 2019 to absorb two max salaries.
“The Clippers are another team that could have significant room in 2019. Los Angeles projects to be close to $60M for next summer if they renounce their free agent holds.”
As of the moment, the Clippers only have four players under contract for the 2019-20 season, namely Danilo Gallinari, Lou Williams, Sindarius Thornwell, and Jawun Evans, whom they have a team option on. Excluding the cap holds, the Clippers only have $33.8 million worth of salary expenses next year.
If the Clippers are going to chase for top free agents in 2019, the likes of Jimmy Butler, Khris Middleton, Kevin Love, Jonas Valanciunas, Hassan Whiteside, and Kawhi Leonard are just some of the marquee names that they could go after in the free-agent market.
As for this season, the Clippers don’t have that big of a financial muscle to flex, as pointed out by Marks.
“Even with DeAndre Jordan opting out of his $24.1M contract for 2018-19, the Clippers are right the salary cap. The max amount of room Los Angeles could get to is $13.6M (including the $1.8M Montrezl Harrell FA hold) but that would take waiving Milos Teodosic and Patrick Beverley. The available cap space is comparable to the Clippers staying over the cap and having the $8.6M midlevel and $3.4M bi-annual exception to use. Los Angeles now has 7 players on expiring contracts.”
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