Next 2 Clippers Departures to Follow Kawhi Leonard Should Be Obvious

The Los Angeles Clippers have officially kickstarted their new era. Without Kawhi Leonard for the first time in seven years, the Clippers hope to stay relevant and competitive in the stacked Western Conference. This will be a challenge in the near future after the severe punishment that took away five of their future first-round picks. But the Clippers still have decent depth and talent on the roster.

The problem is that the Clippers are still not done finalizing their roster. After the arrival of Gradey Dick and Brandon Ingram in exchange for Leonard, the Clippers now have 17 players under contract. This means that at least two players have to depart between now and the start of the season.

There are different directions the Clippers can go with this decision, but the right answer should be relatively obvious.

Clippers Have to Balance Out the Roster By Parting Ways With 2 Shooting Guards

In addition to the roster crunch, the Clippers have a roster imbalance. They have a ton of backcourt depth, but don't have enough dependable bodies in the frontcourt. Balancing out the roster by parting ways with two guards would make more sense.

The primary candidate is Cam Christie. He is on a non-guaranteed deal for the season. The Clippers can release the 21-year-old shooting guard without owing him any salary. Christie has done very little to warrant a spot in the 15-man roster. Especially on a team that has Keaton Wagler, Kris Dunn, Bradley Beal, Max Strus, Gradey Dick, and Kobe Sanders in the shooting guard rotation, it's difficult to see how the Clippers can justify keeping him around.

There is a similar problem with Dick. Heading into his fourth season in the league, this is Dick's last chance to establish himself as an NBA player. He is still 22 years old, so the Clippers may want to give him a chance, but how he can carve out a role for himself in the crowded backcourt is unclear.

Beal, Strus, and Sanders will definitely be in the rotation. Let's say they get some minutes at the small forward spot as well. Dunn and Wagler will split their minutes between point guard and shooting guard. That's five players ahead of Dick in the shooting guard spot. Brandon Ingram and Derrick Jones Jr. would be ahead of him if he were to be moved up to small forward.

Plus, it's not even clear how much the Clippers valued Dick in the trade with the Raptors. Toronto needed to include another player next to Ingram to match salaries, and Dick, who had fallen out of favor in Toronto, was expendable.

The problem is that the former lottery pick makes $7.1 million. Could the Clippers find a team to take him on at this stage of the offseason? No one would give up any assets for Dick, but perhaps there is a team that could be willing to give him a shot.

Otherwise, the Clippers could waive him. Given where they are as a franchise and their financial situation, this wouldn't be the end of the world. But one has to wonder whether they would try to move on from someone else, say, Johni Broome, instead.

LA can't afford to lose any more big man depth, especially with Yanic Konan Niederhauser sidelined to start the season. Keeping Broome around as a depth option at center would be advisable, but it's difficult to know what exactly the front office is thinking ahead of Year 1 of the post-Kawhi era.

There are, of course, trade possibilities. The Clippers could try to trade Dunn, Jones Jr., or another veteran before the season. Considering the front office shakeup following the suspensions of Lawrence Frank and Steve Ballmer, however, that is a less likely scenario for now.

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