Besides Blake Griffin‘s injury sparking the narrative that it’s time for him to leave L.A. and murmurs that the Los Angeles Clippers have made him available, his absence has also highlighted just how little frontcourt depth the team has. Josh Smith earned himself some extra minutes while Griffin was injured (primarily when DeAndre Jordan missed two games due to illness as well), but now that he’s back with the Houston Rockets, Cole Aldrich is the only big man coming off the bench.
He simply isn’t enough if the team want to surpass their supposed inevitable fate of failing in the second round, which makes the need to target a backup big before the trade deadline even more important.