After formally banishing Chris Paul, the LA Clippers may now be going for another former NBPA president.
The Clippers have recently been brought up in connection with Washington Wizards guard CJ McCollum, Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints reported this week. Siegel notes that McCollum is drawing attention from teams around the league and is believed to potentially be available for two or three future second-round draft picks.
McCollum, the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2016, is a well-known veteran piece who has produced 10 separate seasons of 20 points or more per game during his professional career. Though McCollum’s numbers have dipped slightly with the Wizards this season (18.6 points per game on 44/39/79 shooting splits), he remains a dynamic three-level scorer.
As a player on a $30.7 million expiring contract, McCollum makes perfect sense as a trade chip ahead of the Feb. 5 deadline. It also helps that McCollum is on an NBA-worst Wizards team (currently sitting at an appalling 5-23) that needs to focus all of its efforts on developing young players at this point.
Meanwhile, the Clippers are not much better this season at 8-21, which is 13th in the Western Conference. But the Clippers have gotten two quality wins in a row (over the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets) and do not have any incentive whatsoever to tank since the Oklahoma City Thunder own their first-round draft pick in 2026.
The Clippers lost shooting guard Bradley Beal to a season-ending hip injury in November and badly need a consistent third scorer behind Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. While McCollum is 34 years old and would surely spark punchlines by going to the oldest team in the NBA in the Clippers, he is at least younger than the other veteran scorer whom the Clippers were recently linked to as well.
