By Don MacLean
FOX Sports West and PRIME TICKET
MACLEAN ARCHIVE
Feb. 25, 2011
On Thursday, the Clippers traded Baron Davis and a first-round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for former All-Star point guard Mo Williams and small forward Jamario Moon. The move saves the Clippers money moving forward and gives them more cap flexibility to sign free agents the next two offseasons. The two players they are getting back in the trade are players who can help the Clippers win now but also save money. This trade also signals the end of the Davis Era in Los Angeles, one that never really seemed to get on track.
The Clippers are still a fairly young team that has drafted well over the last couple of years and have a new head coach in Vinny Del Negro. This team is on the uptick because of the play of young stars Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan, so giving up a first-round pick (one that would most likely be in the top 10) tells me that based on all of the players Clippers GM Neil Olshey and his staff had scouted this year, they didn't see anybody that could make a difference at a position of need. On top of that, this draft is going to be different because of the thought that there may be a lockout next season. Players that would have normally entered the draft may not come out this year with the threat of not getting paid for a part or all of next season. Even without that, this draft is widely considered to be fairly weak even at the very top of the draft, with no clear cut No. 1 like we have seen the last couple of years. So if there were ever a time to trade a top-10 pick, this is the year.
The biggest wildcard in this trade is Williams. Can he get back to the level he was at two years ago? If he can, you've just gotten yourself your starting point guard for the next five years. Williams seems to have been suffering from a LeBron-leaving-Cleveland hangover and a change of scenery may just be the thing to get his game jump-started. He's a good assist guy, so he should fit well with Griffin, Gordon and the rest of the Clippers in getting the ball where they want it. He has had a few injuries the last couple of years but again, if he's right, he is a good starting point guard in the league and one that could give the Clippers more stability and more minutes at the point guard position.
Davis just never worked out on the court here in L.A. When you perform the way he performed back in his days in Golden State and with a contract the size of his, there are expectations. When you come back home with that big contract and play in front of people who have seen your highest level of play, they want to see it and Davis never really lived up to everyone's expectations. Fair or not, that is just the way it works. He got off on the wrong foot with Mike Dunleavy and never seemed to get on the same page with him. He suffered numerous injuries and was not ready to start this season with Del Negro. It all added to this end result of being traded to the Cavaliers.
For a stretch there, we were entertaining the idea of the Clippers possibly going on a run and making the playoffs this year, but with the schedule being what it is and having all of these road games in February, it doesn't seem likely now. So this is a good time to make a trade like this. It won't initially translate into a lot of wins as the new guys get acclimated, but it will help the Clippers in the long run. It's another good move by Olshey that has the Clippers continuing to move in the right direction. They will get to see this group together for the next 20 or so games, and then based on what they see, be able to add to it with the salary cap space they carved out by making this trade.
This is definitely a trade that helps the Clippers.
