First-round picks are premium trade assets in the NBA. When the Los Angeles Clippers made an intriguing trade deal with the Milwaukee Bucks that involved a future first round pick, it quickly raised some eyebrows around the league. Here are the essential details according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Wojnarowski wrote, "The Los Angeles Clippers have traded swingman Jared Dudley and a 2017 protected first-round pick to the Milwaukee Bucks for swingman Carlos Delfino, center Miroslav Raduljica and a second-round pick, a league source told Yahoo Sports."
ESPN Los Angeles said that the Clippers have attempted to deal Dudley and a first round pick in numerous occasions this offseason with the intent of acquiring a swing man and/or a big man and the trade deal with the Bucks will geth them both. But the big question now is why would the Clippers trade him plus a first-round pick for a 32-year-old Delfino who was out the entire year last season and may not be ready to start due to injury?
After a decent outing with the rebuilding Phoenix Suns, Dudley came to a contending Clippers team with high expectations. Unfortunately, the union did not turn out quite well with Dudley posting the worst numbers since his second year in the league and struggling with his shot all season. With that being said, it makes sense why the Clippers have become so intent on trading Dudley this offseason.
D.J. Foster of Bleacher Report believes that the answer lies in Cap flexibility. Trading Dudley means that the Clippers won't be handcuffed from his two-year, $8.5 million contract. Dudley has a player option in the final year which would have eaten considerable cap room in a year where Deandre Jordan becomes an unrestricted free agent. What's even more advantageous about the deal financial wise is that both Delfino and Raduljica have non-guaranteed deals for 2014-15 which means that the Clippers can waive them and free up even more cap space according to Sam Amick at USA Today.
Citing a source knowleagable of the Clippers' situation, he wrote, "It's likely that Delfino - who is owed $3.25 million next season and has a team option for the 2015-16 campaign - will be waived using what's deemed the "stretch provision." The provision allows the payment of a player's contract (and the related salary cap hit) to be stretched out over several years, and would allow the Clippers to make another addition via free agency (or perhaps even two). Because the Clippers used their non-taxpayer midlevel exception on center Spencer Hawes in July, they are operating with a hard salary cap and have less than a million dollars remaining to work with because of it. One strong free agent possibility is 27-year-old shooting guard Chris Douglas Roberts, though he can't sign until the aforementioned moves are made."
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