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Clippers Sign Josh Primo in a Shameful Move
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported this afternoon that the Clippers were going to sign Josh Primo to a two-way deal. This has since been officially announced by the Clippers.
Primo was just in the news this morning because he received a four game suspension by the NBA for “conduct detrimental” regarding allegations that he exposed himself multiple times to multiple women when a member of the Spurs organization. Primo was released by the Spurs nearly a year ago, so speculation immediately began that the reason the NBA released a suspension is that some team was going to sign him. My initial reaction, of course, was that the suspension was far too light for the allegations (which the NBA confirmed in its investigation), and that no team would be foolish enough to sign Josh Primo. The Clippers, of course, proved me wrong.
I don’t want to get too philosophical on the nature of crime and punishment, and whether people should be weighed down their whole lives by their actions. Naturally, some people will argue that Primo does not need to have his career ruined for something that he is seeking help with (apparently he’s in counseling, per Woj), that he’s young, that he made mistakes, and that he may not have even does his actions intentionally.
I don’t really care. Being in the NBA, the top-tier basketball league in the world, is a privilege. There are dozens if not hundreds of other basketball players in the G-League and internationally who are fringe NBA (two-way) quality who deserve a spot in the NBA on their merits as players equally as much as Primo, and who do not have allegations against them. Primo not returning to the NBA is not “ruining his life” – he could presumably play in plenty of places overseas and make a living as a pro basketball player – and has already made millions of dollars in his two seasons in the league anyway.
Why sign Primo, a person who has exposed himself to women without their consent, causing them trauma, when there were plenty of other options? The Clippers might like Josh Primo as a basketball prospect (more on that in a bit), but they have always trumpeted having quality people in their organization, and despite my making fun of their draft choices’ top qualities being “they’re good guys”, that truly is important. If you want a first-class organization, you bring in first-class people – and there’s evidence that Primo is furthest from that.
There have been rumors floating around for a long time that Primo himself suffered a lot of trauma as a child, which was a cause for his mental health issues and the reason he needed counseling in the first place. That might be true, and if so, I have sympathy and empathy for Primo and truly want him to get better and heal. That said, he has not publicly atoned for what he did (which would go a long way for me), and there’s still zero reason to employ him in an organization that also employs many women. After all, what does signing Primo say about how the Clippers value those employees? It says they don’t care about them very much, unfortunately.
Let’s regrettably turn our attention to the basketball side of things. Primo was the 12th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft by the Spurs, a shocking decision considering most draft boards had him as a late 1st round pick. He was the youngest player in his draft – he doesn’t turn 21 until December. A 6’6 guard, Primo was apparently being readied to play as point guard by the Spurs. He played 50 games for them his rookie season and four his sophomore season before being cut when the allegations against him were pressed. Across those 54 games, he averaged 5.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.8 assists on 37.2/30.2/75 shooting splits. In his one season at Alabama, Primo had solid scoring efficiency in a medium-sized role, but a negative assist to turnover ratio.
I’d be against this move even if Primo was an undeniable talent, and quite frankly, there’s no evidence he is. He’s big for a guard and has some playmaking chops, but has been atrocious in his NBA minutes (albeit as a very, very young player). He’s also a guard, and the Clippers are absolutely at their deepest at guard, with any number of Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Terance Mann, Norm Powell, Amir Coffey, Kenyon Martin Jr., and Brandon Boston ahead in the pecking order (without counting point guards like Russ or Bones). In short, this is more of a long-term upside play, which makes the deal even more unlikable and inexplicable as a PR hit considering the Clippers are trying to contend for a championship.
With this move, the Clippers have filled out their third two-way slot and now have 21 players coming to camp (though they have not officially announced the Xavier Moon and Brodric Thomas camp signings). The next step in their roster building is the decision on Jason Preston’s partially guaranteed contract, which has to be made by this Sunday.
To sum up, the signing of Josh Primo is a shameless move by the Clippers to pick up a young guard with decent talent (who they apparently liked back in the 2021 Draft) who other teams are rightfully avoiding because he exposed himself to women without their consent. My thoughts go out to the women in the Clippers’ organization, who have to be questioning their employer a bit (or a lot) at this moment. Shame on the Clippers.