Clippers Desperately Need to Make a Trade After Johni Broome's Release

The Los Angeles Clippers are one of the few teams in the NBA that have to trim their roster down to 15 players before the start of the season. They had 17 players under contract before they waived center Johni Broome on Thursday. Now, they have to let one more player go over the next couple of weeks. Almost all signs point to Cam Christie, who is on a non-guaranteed deal for the season, being the final roster cut.

The problem is that the Clippers will still need to make moves for their roster to make sense. Now that Broome is gone, the Clippers lack big -man depth, and if they don't address it before the season, they will be doomed.

The Clippers have only Brook Lopez, Yanic Konan Niederhauser, and Isaiah Jackson as centers on the roster. Niederhauser is coming off foot surgery and likely won't be ready to begin the season. Lopez is 38 years old and is better suited to a limited bench role at this stage of his career. Jackson is an undersized big man who is unlikely to be able to anchor the defense.

Clippers Must Acquire One More Frontcourt Depth Piece Before the Season

As things stand now, this is the biggest weakness for the Clippers. They have decent quality and depth up and down the roster in other positions. They have a lot of offensive firepower and have a chance to be solid on that end of the floor. Without a more capable center rotation, however, their ceiling will be severely limited. They need a defense-first big man who can clean up the messes behind a potentially porous perimeter.

That is why the Clippers have to aggressively explore the trade market. Their goal needs to be to turn one of their backcourt players, ideally Gradey Dick, who doesn't have a path to playing time, into a frontcourt player. If they need to attach a couple of second-round picks to make it happen, so be it.

There are players on the trade block who may be good fits in LA. For example, the Memphis Grizzlies are facing a roster crunch as they have 19 players under contract. Perhaps they could acquire one of their big combo forwards like Taylor Hendricks, Kris Murray, or Olivier-Maxence Prosper. This could give the Clippers a small-ball five option that they don't have right now.

Alternatively, there are players like Goga Bitadze, Clint Capela, and Jalen Smith, who could be solid pickups. Thomas Sorber of the OKC Thunder would be a buy-low candidate after he missed his rookie season with an ACL tear. Kel'el Ware is another young center with upside that could intrigue the Clippers. The Bucks, after acquiring Ware in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade, are also facing a roster crunch.

At this point, rather than focusing on specific names, the Clippers have to see who they can realistically acquire. Anyone who can provide some size, length, and physicality in the frontcourt would be an upgrade over what the Clippers have right now. Without such an addition, the Clippers could be in trouble to start the season.

Add us as a preferred source on Google