{"id":84048,"date":"2024-07-01T15:20:07","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T19:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=84048"},"modified":"2024-07-01T15:20:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T19:20:07","slug":"former-clippers-wing-returns-home-in-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/former-clippers-wing-returns-home-in-free-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Clippers Wing Returns Home in Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Free agency madness continues for the Los Angeles Clippers with their most recent signing, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/batumni01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nicolas Batum<\/a>. Batum is a 6&#8217;8&#8243; combo forward and signed for two years, $9.6 million.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Free agent F Nic Batum has agreed on a two-year, $9.6 million deal to join the Los Angeles Clippers, sources tell ESPN. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UPSxcBt4eX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/UPSxcBt4eX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/1807846496621977707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Former Clippers Wing Returns Home in Free Agency<\/h2>\n<p>Batum isn&#8217;t the first wing that the Clippers have signed during free agency. Around midnight, the Clippers signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jonesde02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derrick Jones Jr<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/mavericks-wing-signs-with-clippers\/\" target=\"_self\">away from the Dallas Mavericks,<\/a> a tough loss for them. Jones is a high-flying, dunking machine that can shoot the ball too. However, as good as Jones is, he&#8217;s not George. That&#8217;s where Batum comes in.<\/p>\n<p>Batum actually played three games with the Clippers at the start of the 2023-24 season, before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. After trading him away, however, the Clippers and Batum both decided they wanted back with each other. It&#8217;s not like those three games were all Batum played with the team; he&#8217;s been with the Clippers since 2020, meaning that he&#8217;s proven himself to be a contributor on their roster, and knows the system well. Batum can stretch the floor well with his shooting; during the 2023-24 season, he shot 40% from three.<\/p>\n<h3>What Haven&#8217;t the Clippers Done?<\/h3>\n<p>The Clippers have been one of the busiest teams in free agency. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/30\/mason-plumlee-signs-with-suns\/\" target=\"_self\">They signed center<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/plumlma01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mason Plumlee<\/a>, lost <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/30\/all-star-james-harden-resigns-with-los-angeles-clippers\/\" target=\"_self\">re-signed<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Harden<\/a>, and are looking to trade <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westbru01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Russell Westbrook<\/a>. Signing Batum is just the cherry on top of an important offseason for the Clippers. Despite not re-signing George, the team still appears to be a solid playoff team in the Western Conference (although a less expensive playoff team at that). The Clippers hypothetical starting five if the season began today would be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hylanbo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bones Hyland<\/a>, James Harden, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonaka01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, Derrick Jones Jr, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/z\/zubaciv01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ivica Zubac<\/a>. They&#8217;d have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/powelno01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Norman Powell<\/a>, Batum, and whoever they acquire in the Westbrook trade coming off the bench. While a championship is most likely off the table without George, the Clippers will remain a good NBA team that&#8217;s exciting to watch when Leonard is healthy.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;ll be very interesting to see the return that the Clippers get for Westbrook. While he&#8217;s not the MVP that he used to be, Westbrook has proven he can be an impact player off the bench. This past season for the Clippers, Westbrook averaged 11.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game, solid contributions to a playoff team. His salary of just under $4 million also makes things interesting, as players of comparable value are typically paid more. Draft compensation could very likely be in the trade for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Free agency madness continues for the Los Angeles Clippers with their most recent signing, Nicolas Batum. Batum is a 6&#8217;8&#8243; combo forward and signed for two years, $9.6 million. Free agent F Nic Batum has agreed on a two-year, $9.6 million deal to join the Los Angeles Clippers, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com\/UPSxcBt4eX \u2014 Adrian Wojnarowski [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5154,"featured_media":84067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1608,62],"tags":[749,282],"class_list":["post-84048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clippers","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-derrick-jones-jr","tag-nicolas-batum"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}