What if the Clippers could redo the 2014 and 2016 NBA Drafts?

One of the bugaboos of the Lob City era was the team’s limited depth. The Clippers starting lineup could go toe-to-toe with any other team, but the 2013-2017 squads only had seven quality rotation players at best.

There is inherent difficulty in filling out a roster when three players are on max or near-max contracts, but the Clippers didn’t do themselves any favors in team building. They targeted washed up veterans in free agency, didn’t give young players a long enough leash to develop, and sent away draft picks in shortsighted trades. Even when they did retain their first-round picks, they misevaluated talent and made some colossally bad picks.

In the spirit of What If? Week, the NBA team sites at SB Nation decided to redraft the first rounds of the 2014, 2015, and 2016 drafts. The Clippers had first-round picks in 2014 and 2016, but sent the 2015 pick to Boston in the deal to acquire Doc Rivers.

To refresh your memory, the Clippers drafted C.J. Wilcox with the 28th pick in 2014. He played 66 total games in his NBA career, 44 for the Clippers, and scored 132 points. Lou Williams scored 140 points in his last nine games before the shutdown. It broke my heart to look back at Bleacher Report’s 2014 mock draft, which has the Clippers taking Glenn Robinson III. He would have been an excellent backup wing.

But this time, we got him!

In total, nine of the 30 picks didn’t make the first round on redraft, including Wilcox. It’s hard to say if GR3 would have flourished under Doc Rivers (I still think about how Reggie Bullock became valuable once he left the Clippers), but at least we know the talent was there for him to be a 3-and-D wing.

2016 was another wasted draft for the Clippers. This time, it was immediately clear that the pick was a bad decision. Brice Johnson played at a big-name collegiate program (UNC), and was a very productive player, but he was a big man with no stretch and too old to have significant upside. Bleacher Report had the Clippers going for another wing this time around, Taurean Prince, but he went significantly higher in the actual draft.

The redraft also saw Prince go ahead of the Clippers’ 25th pick, but we stuck to modern principles this time and went with a wing again. It is unlikely that he could have contributed to the Clippers before the breakup of Lob City, but he has blossomed into a strong defensive forward and a good rebounder, and he would have fit nicely on switchy lineups with the current Clippers roster. Besides, it is just tantalizing to think about Chris Paul throwing lobs to Derrick Jones Jr., even if it was only for one season.

Here is the full 2016 redraft order.

The Clippers ended up stripping down all of their roster from before 2017 to create this present team, but it’s possible that draft picks from this decade would have stuck if they had simply been better.

Who do you think the Clippers should have taken in these redrafts? Would it have made any difference? Let us know in the comments.