10 hours ago
(11 hours ago)KillerLeft Wrote: Man, you said it. I'd go a step further and suggest that adding young talent with potentially exciting upside is basically ALL they're doing right now. I don't know how to reconcile the Kawhi Leonard or Hachimura rumors with that paradigm, exactly, but as far as everything that has actually happened...it seems pretty obvious that they're looking at having very little draft capital over the next few years to either use or trade (and much less flexibility after this summer, maybe) and have prioritized adding as much young, potentially exciting talent to the "rebuild around Flagg" effort as possible this summer.
I won't lose any sleep over them missing out on Mathurin if they don't get him (or if we find out they never wanted him, if that makes people feel better), but for my money he's just as exciting as any of the other guys they've brought in so far, and more exciting than a bunch of them.
Here’s where I land on Gafford for Matherin. Gafford is a need for the Clippers and while Matherin is not a need here nor does he fill all the guard check boxes we have open, but he is a good young player who still may develop. Ultimately for me, if Matherin doesn’t work out he’s more tradable than Gafford. So it’s trading a lesser asset for a hopefully greater asset.