Clippers, Patrick Beverley agree to three-year, $40 million deal

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Clippers have reached an agreement to re-sign Patrick Beverley to a 3-year deal worth $40 million.

It was a long, inactive day for the Clippers, who sat by and watched as dozens of potential targets were signed by other teams, unable to participate in the spending spree as they wait on Kawhi Leonard’s free agency decision.

Now, with potential secondary stars such as Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, and Al Horford off the board, paying to keep Beverley began to seem more likely whether the team landed Leonard or not. If you’re looking for any possible Kawhi hints in this deal, it might be Beverley’s third year—we’ve long expected that in a non-Kawhi scenario, the Clippers would only give out one or two-year deals to preserve flexibility for the summer of 2021.

For now, though, Clippers fans can at least sit back and be happy to see the heart and soul of last year’s 48-win team back in L.A. Expect the Clippers to sign Beverley last, using his $9.5M cap hold as a placeholder to maximize their cap room before giving him his new, $12.5M salary.