The Los Angeles Clippers are trading former No. 27 overall pick Mfiondu Kabengele to the Sacramento Kings, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Kings will also get cash from the Clippers, and the two teams will swap heavily protected second-round picks. The Kings absorbed Kabengele into a trade exception that would have expired today.
The motivation for the Clippers is transparent. By signing Serge Ibaka with the nontaxpayer mid-level exception this offseason, the Clippers hard-capped themselves at the apron, meaning they cannot spend more than $139,928,000 on player salaries for any reason. Entering Monday, they had only around $500,000 in room beneath that hard cap. That made bigger deadline trades almost impossible and would have restricted them on the buyout market. Now, they have roughly $2.6 million in space to work with along with an extra roster spot. They now have only 13 players on the team, so they could sign two veterans for the minimum if they don’t make any trades.
The Kings, meanwhile, get a look at a young player who hasn’t had a chance to play much on a contending Clippers team. In two seasons, he has logged only 158 minutes of playing time across 35 appearances. In college, he looked like exactly the sort of athletic, shot-blocking center that the Kings need. Now, they can give him playing time down the stretch of a lost season and see if he’s capable of playing a role for them next season. The Clippers declined his third-year option, though, so Kabengele will be a free agent this offseason.
This isn’t a blockbuster by any stretch of the imagination, but the Clippers aren’t the sort of team to give up a former first-round pick for no reason. They likely have plans with that extra flexibility they’ve created. We’ll see what they’re going to do with it in the coming days.