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Brook Lopez is officially a part of the Los Angeles Clippers, which seemed to catch some by surprise.
As The Athletic's Fred Katz illustrated, it is not shocking Lopez signed with the Clippers — they reportedly agreed to a deal shortly after teams and players could officially begin negotiating with each other — but rather the timing of it.
“Lopez inking his deal today,” Katz wrote, “means the Clippers are using a large portion of the $14.1 million midlevel exception to sign him, which would not leave them much money to sign Bradley Beal (if he works a buyout with the Suns) or another more expensive player. (There’s optimism on both sides that Phoenix and Beal will eventually reach an agreement there, league sources tell The Athletic.)”
There had been some thought that instead of signing Lopez outright, they would execute a sign-and-trade with the Milwaukee Bucks. Whether the waiving and signing of Damian Lillard and Myles Turner, respectively, played a role in this scenario is unknown.
Still, it does limit the Clippers' options moving forward. Lopez signing for more than half of the mid-level leaves them with about $5.32 million in the exception, and with a few players seemingly short of contending. While the Clippers have retained James Harden with a two-year, $81.5 million deal and Nicolas Batum with a two-year, $11.7 million contract, Lopez is the only outside addition for L.A. since the draft.
Signing Beal could help matters. At 32, Beal is no longer in the prime of his career, but he has proven to be a very good scorer and is able to play in a less emphasized role than he had with the Washington Wizards, and he could certainly lessen the burden on the likes of Harden and Kawhi Leonard in terms of scoring punch.
But with Lopez's deal, it is unclear if the Clippers will have the necessary money to entice Beal to come to L.A. He is set to make $53.7 million this season and $57.1 million next, and if he takes a buyout like expected, he will likely want a figure closer to the mid-level to make up for the money he loses being bought out. It is believed that the likes of the Miami Heat and Bucks, Lopez's old team, would be among the most likely landing spots for Beal in that scenario.
