Los Angeles Clippers Have a Lot Riding on Their Next Couple Months

The Los Angeles Clippers didn't make any big moves around the trade deadline, but that doesn't mean offseason changes are lurking for a team with its fair share of flaws.

The Clippers stand at 40-22 and, depending on matchups, could win a playoff series or even two if they get particularly lucky (L.A plays the Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets well). But they have thematic, structural defects within the roster's composition.

They struggle defending the perimeter. They rank 15th in points allowed per possession. They have a reserve unit that Twitter likes to refer to as "A Tribe Called Stench," a parody of "A Tribe Called Bench," the once-dominant, Eric Bledsoe-led bench lineup from a couple years ago.

Heck, Hedo Turkoglu and Austin Rivers were playing major minutes, including the fourth quarter and overtime, for the Clippers during Wednesday night's heartbreaking loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. 

Pre-deadline, we kept hearing about the lack of flexibility and assets the Clippers had. But there's another problem here: That rigidity on the roster carries into the offseason. Like at the deadline, there isn't much for L.A. to do this summer, either.

First, let's talk about the good. 

The Clips have proven that a core of DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul can win 50-plus games every year. Whoever is around them doesn't matter much from that perspective. 

They also do have some reasonable contracts. Some. And they could potentially move one of them in a deal for a wing defender or third big man, even if they don't have draft picks in the near future that they could latch on as incentives (thanks, Jared Dudley).

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Still, J.J. Redick and the $14.4 million over two years left on his deal after this season seem tradable. Then, there's Jamal Crawford.

Crawford's contract is only partially guaranteed for next season, though it would make little-to-no sense for the Clippers not to pick up their sixth man's contract come July 1, even if he's not having quite as dominant of a season as he did in each of his first two years in L.A.

$5.7 million is still a reasonable price for Crawford's production. Plus, L.A. wouldn't really be able to upgrade if it let Jamal walk.

Let's take on an unrealistic hypothetical for a second. Let's pretend the Clippers say, "Jamal, we don't need you anymore," pay him the $1.5 million that's guaranteed, watch him waltz into free agency and look around for upgrades elsewhere. 

They wouldn't have the highly valued biannual exception since they wasted it during the summer of 2014 on Jordan Farmar, whom they promptly waived after only 36 games in blue, white and red.

They also likely wouldn't have a mid-level exception to work with because of DeAndre Jordan's situation.

At this point, there's no conceivable way Jordan won't get a max contract. Even before his recent uptick in play, D.J. was probably headed for the max, especially with the current financial landscape of the NBA.

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(The cap projects to explode to well over $80 million once the NBA's new television deal kicks in for the start of the 2016-17 season, which means the max contract, which is a percentage of the cap, would jump with it. A max deal in 2015 won't look all that expensive only a year later.)

Now, Jordan is averaging 14.9 points and 19.2 rebounds per game in 11 contests since Griffin went down with a shoulder injury. He's grabbed at least 15 boards in 10 straight games. An argument for why he's anything less than a 2015 max player has become totally illegitimate. 

So, now that we've made it clear that D.J. is a max guy this summer, we can get back to the mid-level exception, which the Clips won't have because of Jordan's progress.

Once head coach Doc Rivers & Co. re-sign Jordan for all that money, they're going to jump over the hard cap. And once they're over it, they lose the privilege of possessing the mid-level exception, though they can still add a player with the mini mid-level, an exception that will be worth a little more than the $3.3 million it was valued at last offseason.

But whom will the Clips add with that?

Here are a few of the players who went for the mini mid-level over the past couple summers: Jason Smith (New York Knicks), Mirza Teletovic (Brooklyn Nets), Mike Dunleavy (Chicago Bulls).

You can get a game-changer. Dunleavy has been a tremendous pickup for the Bulls, especially considering his more-than-modest salary.

But that assumes the Clippers can successfully bargain hunt, a possibly unrealistic expectation for most organizations, let alone one which has proven unable to find inexpensive value with Rivers running the front office.

All of that means the Clips will likely move into 2015-16 with a roster that largely resembles the one from this year, and considering Rivers just signed a five-year contract extension this past summer, it doesn't appear any sort of front office change would be in the organization's near future.

Of course, ending the season with a win total in the 50s for a third straight time, which seems like an inevitability, could attract some cheaper players. Signing a couple better-than-minimum guys for the actual minimum is a distinct possibility. But for the most part, the core will be the same, and it's difficult to expect massive changes to an imperfect roster down the line.

Fred Katz averaged almost one point per game in fifth grade but maintains that his per-36-minute numbers were astonishing. Find more of his work on ESPN's TrueHoop Network at ClipperBlog.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.

Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of Mar. 5 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.