Los Angeles Clippers: Brandon Bass Agrees To One-Year Deal
In a move to bolster their frontcourt depth, the Los Angeles Clippers have agreed to a one-year deal with forward Brandon Bass.
After having a couple of key bench options move on this offseason, the Los Angeles Clippers have continued to address some of the depth issues they were facing over the last week or so, particularly in their frontcourt.
First reported by Shams Charania of The Vertical, the Clippers and free agent forward-center Brandon Bass have agreed on a one year-deal that keeps Bass in Los Angeles, albeit in a different locker room.
Bass is the second frontcourt player the Clippers have added recently as they also signed forward Marreese Speights just less than a week ago.
Lakers free agent Brandon Bass has reached agreement on a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, league sources tell The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 17, 2016
Of course, the deal also reunites Bass with Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, who Bass played under from 2011-13 when Rivers was the head coach of the Boston Celtics.
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With his agreement now in place, Bass gets a complete change of place by joining the Clippers after spending last season with the Los Angeles Lakers, who finished 17-65. Despite the team’s struggles as a whole, Bass was a solid contributor in his lone season with the Lakers last season.
In 66 games last season, Bass had the best shooting season of his career as he shot 55 percent from the field and had a true shooting percentage of 62 percent on 7.2 points per game.
With Bass agreeing to a deal and off the market, the Clippers will now be the sixth stop in his career since being selected 33rd overall (by the then-New Orleans Hornets) in the 2005 NBA Draft.
However, Bass’ next stop could have reportedly been somewhere else entirely.
As Charania points out, Bass was pursued by another Western Conference contender during his free agency before he decided on joining the Clippers:
"Bass had been deciding between veteran-minimum offers from the Spurs and Clippers, but the recruitment by Clippers coach Doc Rivers – who coached him in Boston – and several Los Angeles players swayed him."
The biggest question regarding Bass is what will his role be with a Clippers team that’s looking to take on the best of the Western Conference and the NBA.
At 31 years old, Bass has grown to become an effective forward, who’s able to play spot minutes as a small-ball center.
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That’s particularly important for the Clippers as adding Bass gives them a bit of needed versatility in their frontcourt, especially. That also keeps in line with the Speights signing, who also is able to play both positions if need be.
Bass has played for contending teams in the past such as the Orlando Magic as well as the Celtics, so one would expect Bass wouldn’t have any trouble joining a team that has their sights on a deep playoff run.
With both Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan in place as the starting frontcourt for the Clippers, Rivers and his staff will have plenty of options to mix and match next season with Bass now aboard.
We also can’t overlook how the Clippers have rebounded well after the departures of both Cole Aldrich and Jeff Green by signing Bass, who can deliver similar production at a significantly lesser cost.
All in all, the addition of Bass gives the Clippers a quality player off the bench, which is obviously something they’ve struggled with in recent years.
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Whether he plays up to a solid standard remains to be seen, but it’s a safe bet that could pan out very well for Clippers when it’s all said and done.