Clippers and Garnett would be a perfect match

Rumours of a potential trade which would send Kevin Garnett to the Clippers are intriguing, not just for what it would mean for the upstart L.A team this year, but for seasons to come.

From an immediate perspective Kevin Garnett would constitute an instant upgrade at centre over the incumbent DeAndre Jordan. In Garnett we’re talking about the pre-eminent big man in the East, one of the greats of all time and who at 36 years of age is still generating fantastic numbers.

In Jordan we’re talking about a 7 foot beast who looks and gets paid like a superstar but who really, at least at this stage of his career, isn’t and won’t be able to take the Clippers to the NBA finals this season.

For the Clippers to care so much about the here and now is particularly impressive for a franchise with a truly wretched history. Yes they’ll likely lose Eric Bledsoe in any such deal in addition to the experience and 3 point shooting of Caron Butler, however the Clippers’ bench has been quite solid this season and is more than capable of making up for the losses.

Adding Garnett would provide an immediate fillip for the Clippers as well as injecting a legitimate role-model to potentially elevate Blake Griffin’s game. It'd also upgrade the Clippers' status as a contender to Oklahoma City's crown from pipe dream to genuine.

Indeed if the Clippers were to pull off the Western Crown this season it’d be a staggering achievement and one which would have been achieved through extremely clever front office decisions.  

It would also leave them with a huge headache in terms of what to do with Jordan.

If Garnett was to arrive in L.A, Jordan’s role would immediately revolve around anchoring the second unit which would only make LA’s bench more formidable.

Unfortunately though Jordan is still owed more than $25 million over the next 2 and half seasons, an avalanche of money to be paying for a bench warmer whose averaging less than 9 points a night, whose blocking and rebounding numbers have dropped and whose free throw shooting remains hideous.

Jordan still however has a lot of currency in this league and if Garnett were to become a Clipper, then L.A would have to think seriously about parlaying such currency into moving him on, and ideally for higher end draft picks.

In the meantime the Clippers have some really serious decisions to make over the coming weeks which will be crucial in defining both their short and longer term ceiling.