LA Clippers: Just how do they think they’re getting Lonzo Ball?

The LA Clippers have some holes on their roster, and they know it. Everybody else knows it, too, and that can be a complicating factor as next week’s NBA trade deadline nears. At the top of their list of needs is a play-making point guard, and according to Marc Stein of the New York Times, Lonzo Ball might be the man they’re after.

Of course, wanting something doesn’t mean much, especially when another entity has control of the situation. That entity is the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Clippers are going to be hard-pressed to come up with a package to offer them in exchange for Ball.

How do the LA Clippers think they can get Lonzo Ball?

Lonzo Ball was extension-eligible this past offseason and wasn’t able to come to an agreement with the Pelicans, so he’ll become a restricted free agent after this season. He’s having a career year at the right time, too. Ball is averaging 14.2 points, 5.6 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game while shooting 42.5 percent from the floor and 38.5 percent from 3-point range.

These are somewhat pedestrian numbers, but they represent consistent progress. In combination with his stellar defense, he might just be the finishing touch for a team with championship aspirations but one glaring hole like the Clippers.

There’s just one problem with that. Ball is appealing, but the Clippers are asset-depleted. They’ve traded away every first-round pick they have until 2027, and the salary-matching contracts they can easily send out in a trade don’t have nearly enough value to fetch Ball in return.

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Swaps of players like Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, or even Serge Ibaka, simply don’t do the trick for an asset-minded team like the New Orleans Pelicans or their executive vice president of basketball operations, David Griffin.

It’s worth remembering that sometimes reports like the one Stein provided are simple reflections of a team’s wish-list, rather than a realistic expression of something they can reasonably achieve in a trade. In the case of the LA Clippers and their pursuit of Lonzo Ball, that’s probably what we’re dealing with.

As Stein mentioned in his report, it’s hard to concoct a trade package between the Clippers and Pelicans that leads to a direct transaction. Multiple teams are almost certainly going to have to be pulled into the mix, and that might end up being doable. Once upon a time, the expression was that a three-team trade was as good as a no-team trade, but this past offseason (and the James Harden blockbuster four-team deal) has proven that’s less true now than ever.

Teams like the Houston Rockets, OKC Thunder, Brooklyn Nets and the Detroit Pistons have shown an eagerness to jump into multi-team deals, and that makes the impossible seem a whole lot more doable these days. There’s next to no way that the Clippers and Pelicans do a traditional two-team deal that swaps their players and assets in a Lonzo Ball trade, but a cataclysmic six-team deal might get the job done.

The way teams like to do business these days in the NBA, that’s probably the safest bet of all if you’re counting on Lonzo Ball ending up with the Clippers this season.