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Clippers Trade PJ Tucker & Mo Bamba for Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills
The Clippers have made a trade, sending PJ Tucker, Mo Bamba, a 2030 2nd round pick, and cash to the Utah Jazz for Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills.
Tucker, who was on the books for $11.54M, has not played for the Clippers this season and has been “away from the team” since the start of the year. Bamba was signed in the offseason to be the Clippers’ backup center, but has been a major disappointment, averaging 4.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks in 12.6 minutes per game across 28 games, but with eye test and impact far worse than those seemingly decent numbers. Bamba had clearly lost the trust of head coach Ty Lue, who has increasingly gone to small-ball lineups instead of playing Mo.
Eubanks was signed by the Jazz to a two year, $10M deal this past offseason (his deal is non-guaranteed next year) and has been their primary backup center. In 37 games played, Eubanks has averaged 5.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 0.9 blocks in 15.4 minutes per game. Both the regular stats and advanced metrics have Eubanks being a similar level of player to Mo (which is not great) but the Clippers will roll the dice on Eubanks being better. Prior to the Jazz, Eubanks played for the Spurs for 3.5 years, the Blazers for 1.5 years, and the Suns for a year, with his best full season probably being 2023 with the Blazers.
Mills is one of the most tenured and respected veterans in the entire NBA, a beloved veteran who won a championship with Kawhi Leonard on the Spurs in 2014. However, at age 36, he’s no longer a rotation caliber player. He’s barely played for the Jazz, and when he has, he’s been awful, shooting just 34.2% from the field and 29.8% from three. Any value he has at this point is purely as a locker room guy (which is still meaningful to some extent). Law Murray has reported Mills will stay with the Clippers for now, but that could change depending on the buyout market.
This trade, however, was not done for the roster players coming back, even if the Clippers might hope Eubanks is an upgrade over Bamba. Instead, this was done for tax and cap flexibility purposes. Eubanks makes over $6M less than Tucker, dropping the Clippers below the luxury tax and giving them real flexibility under the first apron. They also get $6.5M and $2.1M trade exceptions, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
The long and short of this means the Clippers will now be a major player in the buyout market. By remaining under the apron, they can now sign any buyout player, regardless of how large their previous salary was. They also have wiggle room to take on additional salary (in a Bones Hyland trade, probably) if they need to for another deal. The Clippers essentially paid a second round pick and some cash to get tax savings and bolster their roster flexibility entering the final trade deadline and buyout market. The Clippers do also still have the remainder of the non-tax MLE that they mostly spent on Derrick Jones Jr. to use as an enticing option for buyout guys to give them some extra salary above the minimum.
At the end of the day, this is about as unexciting of a deal as you can find in the NBA that involves actual players (the Suns trade with the Jazz entirely for picks probably takes the cake for lamest trade in NBA history). However, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad one. The Clippers did move off a real asset (their 2030 second) but the gains in flexibility are probably worth it. That’s not even counting any gains to locker room presence from Mills (if he sticks with the team) and a shot on Eubanks as an improvement at backup center over Bamba. Eubanks’ salary for next year is non-guaranteed, meaning that if he doesn’t work out, the Clippers can easily trade him this offseason or simply waive him.
Whether this trade has any real impact will probably be determined by the rest of the trade deadline and whether the Clippers get anyone in the buyout market, but it’s a decent move with some upside and minimal downside. Let’s see what the Clippers do next.
Clippers Trade PJ Tucker & Mo Bamba for Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills
Robert Flom