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The Clippers Only Move The First Night Of Free Agency Was Trading Cash For Balsa Koprivica’s Draft Rights

While most of the league was wheeling and dealing as free agency opened on Friday evening, the Los Angeles Clippers were extremely quiet. Their in-arena neighbors signed Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, and Cam Reddish to open the frenzy, but the Clippers were not eager to make any moves as they were still working on a potential James Harden trade.

The problem is, the Sixers plan to be patient in dealing Harden, meaning the Clippers can’t really make the moves they might want until that deal is done and that deal might take some time to get completed. So, instead of standing completely idle, the Clippers did make one move that didn’t even get reported by any of the major national reporters (although Andrew Greif of the LA Times did have it early), trading cash ($2.1 million) to Detroit for the draft rights to the 57th overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Balsa Koprivica.

As to why the Clippers would deal for a guy’s draft rights they probably would never actually sign, there are a couple of reasons. First, as Tony East explains, is once it’s July 1 they won’t be allowed to trade cash anymore as a second apron team, but can deal draft right.

Second is, as John Hollinger notes, they can use those draft rights in a potential three-team deal for James Harden, as all parties involved need to “touch” in a trade, and Koprivica’s draft rights would suffice.

So, maybe this helps facilitate a Harden deal or maybe it was just the Clippers burning some cash in their pocket they would lose the chance to use otherwise. In any case, you can’t say they didn’t do anything on Friday night.