3 Biggest Clippers Losers After the Max Strus Trade

The Los Angeles Clippers continue to put the final touches on their roster for next season. Even with the Kawhi Leonard trade not yet official, the Clippers are not waiting around to make the necessary moves to set themselves up for next season and beyond. Acquiring Max Strus for just a second-round pick was the latest move in their busy offseason.

Anytime a team acquires a starting-caliber veteran who will play a large role, it has trickle-down effects all over the roster. Strus is an important role player who will have a two-way impact for the Clippers. This means a reduced role or a departure for the current Clippers players on the roster. Who will be the most negatively impacted players from the Strus acquisition?

Gradey Dick

The fact that the Clippers added Bradley Beal and Strus in a span of one week doesn't bode well for Gradey Dick. The 22-year-old shooting guard will become a Clipper once the Kawhi trade goes through, but his path to playing time will not be easy.

How much Dick will play in his fourth season in the NBA depends on how the Clippers see him. Was he just in the trade for salary-matching purposes, or do the Clippers actually want to get a look at him?

The problem is that the Clippers have better options on the perimeter. Strus is a better, two-way option. Beal is a veteran former All-Star who has a lot of cachet within the organization. The Clippers just signed Jordan Miller and Kobe Sanders to new, multi-year contracts, and they were both better than Dick last season. Keaton Wagler is the future of the franchise. Kris Dunn is the only good point-of-attack defender on the team. Darius Garland and Brandon Ingram are the stars of the team. How is Dick supposed to carve out a role for himself?

There will be injuries and absences, so Dick will get his chances. As things stand now, however, he is on the outside looking in. Given that the Clippers have 17 players under contract and have to go down to 15, Dick may even be a trade candidate before the season.

Bennedict Mathurin

Mathurin remains a restricted free agent. The Clippers reportedly had some interest in bringing him back, but how he fits in LA after the arrival of Strus is unclear.

At this point, it's hard to find playing time for Mathurin in the Clippers' rotation. Perhaps there may be departures that open up a spot for Mathurin, but his best bet might be elsewhere.

Mathurin had expressed a desire to stay in LA after only arriving at the trade deadline. His up-and-down performance was hardly convincing, but he must have thought that the Clippers would want to have him back for at least another season. Now, he will have to find a new team. The Pelicans, Bulls, and the Bucks are reportedly interested in Mathurin, which means that he will almost certainly be on a less competitive team than the Clippers next season.

Cam Christie

Christie was already the most likely departure candidate on the team before the Strus addition. The third-year shooting guard has absolutely no path to playing time. With how deep the shooting guard position is and the fact that he is a one-position player, it's impossible to see him climb the depth chart to earn a spot on the final roster.

The Clippers have to part ways with at least two players before the season. They are facing a roster crunch, and Christie's salary for next season is non-guaranteed. This means that the Clippers can cut him without having to pay him anything. This will make him an unrestricted free agent.

Given how little he has shown in his first two seasons in the league, it's difficult to imagine Christie landing a standard NBA deal elsewhere.

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