What will Clippers do with 43rd pick? It’s a mystery

“Now, we know it’s 43,” Lawrence Frank said, back in April, when he was asked think ahead to the Clippers’ sole pick entering the NBA Draft. It was just a few days after the Clippers’ postseason run ended before it could even get started with play-in losses to Minnesota and then New Orleans.

The Clippers can thank the Pelicans for the fact that they’re entering Thursday’s draft with just the one pick: That play-in loss didn’t just end L.A.’s season and extend New Orleans’, it also delivered the Clippers’ lottery pick to Oklahoma City, courtesy of the 2019 blockbuster deal by which they acquired Paul George, which, of course, also helped entice Kawhi Leonard to sign on too.

“So,” the Clippers’ president of basketball operations mused, “it’s hard to say exactly who will be there (at No. 43). But we’re excited about a group of guys that we think will be in that range… We’ve had good fortune in that area of picking, in terms of picking late in the second.”

He’s right. Lately, the second round has been kinder to the Clippers than the first, when they’ve swung and missed on Jerome Robinson at No. 13 in 2018 and with trades to acquire No. 27 overall pick Mfiondu Kabengele from Brooklyn in 2019 and then No. 21 Keon Johnson from New York last year. Those players either aren’t in the NBA or, in Johnson’s case, played sparingly before being traded last season.

But as recent draft nights have grown longer, the Clippers’ choices tended to improve. They drafted Terance Mann – who’s become a versatile contributor and one of the heroes of the team’s first Western Conference finals run in 2021 – 48th out of Florida State in 2019.

And although they didn’t draft Brandon Boston Jr. outright, last year they played a part in a three-team trade that brought the exciting Sierra Canyon High School prospect aboard after Memphis selected him 51st.

All three of the rookies – Johnson and 33rd pick Jason Preston – who ended draft night in the Clippers’ camp last year arrived via trade, as the team extended its draft night trade streak to seven years. Those deals also netted then-rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a trade for the first-rounder in 2018 and Luke Kennard, the sharpshooter who was entering his fourth season in 2020.

Will the Clippers run the streak to eight draft nights? Maybe, Frank said: “We’ll listen to everything that goes around in the league.”

They reminded everyone of that in May when the team tweeted out a photos of the Clippers’ decision-makers on site in Chicago, evaluating talent likely to be drafted before No. 43 at the NBA’s Draft Combine.

Behind the scenes from the NBA Draft Combine. pic.twitter.com/og7mQyeGQm

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) May 20, 2022

It’s no secret they’ll explore options. Those options? A different story.

The Clippers have kept their proverbial cards pinned to their vests as they’ve worked to build a team they hope is capable of mounting serious title pursuits. While some teams tell the …read more

Source:: Los Angeles Daily News

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