Clippers Have Reached Out to Luol Deng

This is interesting. Luol Deng is a solid starting small forward who found a new role last year as a stretch power forward for the Miami Heat. He would be a terrific fit on the Clippers, but there doesn't seem to be anyway to pay him barring a trade.

All the Clippers have is the MLE, a paltry 6 million dollars a year. Deng made 10 million on his last deal, and is in line for a big pay day. Unless the Clippers are able to clear away a lot of salary via trade or renouncing their own players (unlikely), Deng would have to take a massive pay cut to sign with the Clippers. While pulling a "David West" is a possibility, Deng is only 30 and isn't quite in the ring chasing portion of his career yet. He also isn't exactly the most durable of players, and will probably be looking for some job security over the next few years.

Again, while this could maybe signify a trade of some kind, this seems more like just doing due diligence on the Clippers end.

In other news, the Lakers are closing in on a 4 year 65 million dollar deal for Timofey Mozgov, a contract insane even by this free agency's standards. What that means for the Clippers: there is no way Cole Aldrich is signing for the MLE, and he could in fact make almost triple it.

Things are already crazy, and we are only an hour in.