Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Considering that the giant salary slot of George only recently opened up, the Clippers have a nicely manageable payroll. Owner Steve Ballmer has the financial wherewithal to pay hefty tax-burdened payrolls, yet the Clippers remain some way short of that – their largest commitments to Leonard ($50,000,000) and Harden ($36,346,154) do not run on for too much longer, and there is room for another full mid-level exception signing this summer.
Beyond the Top 2, late-career breakout offensive star Norman Powell ($20,482,758) will represent a bargain next season, as will late-career breakout defensive star Ivica Zubac ($18,102,000), who receives a sizeable raise next year in the first season of the extension he signed back in August, yet still represents great value for his nightly double-double. The Clippers further traded for the eight-figure salary of veteran wing Bogdan Bogdanovic ($16,020,000) at the deadline and signed two-way athletic forward Derrick Jones Jr ($10,000,000) with last year’s MLE. All told, those eight combine for as near as $150 million and a full salary cap, but none of it is burdensome – the worst value for money is perhaps Leonard, whose chronic unavailability means he costs more than a million dollars per appearance, but the rest of the cap is managed well enough to offset this.
Because of that, the Clippers will likely be able to access the full amount of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which will begin at approximately $14 million. They will not have the Bi-Annual Exception, which was used last season on Nic Batum, yet having the full MLE will make them buyers in a market that will see many of their rival teams still encumbered by the payroll loading and subsequent apron issues that they squeezed in before the advent of the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Clippers’ future draft pick situation is in a significant overall deficit, but the financial situation, lack of immediate significant free agency, and spending power have them in a better asset situation than some other teams on their level.
