NBA Trade Deadline: Why the Clippers Made the Right Move in Trading Baron Davis

The L.A. Clippers made the right decision by trading away point guard Baron Davis to Cleveland at the end of the trade deadline in exchange for Mo Williams, Jamario Moon, and a first-round pick.

Forget the fact that Baron was giving the Clippers great play at point guard and averaging 17 points and 8.1 assists over the past 10 games. This decision was made with the future in mind rather than the possibility of winning a couple of extra games this season.

In moving Davis, the Clippers finally get to ditch Baron’s massive contract that pays $13.9 million next season and $14.75 million the season after that, according to losangeles.sbnation.

Los Angeles is building their team for the future with young talent such as Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan. The 31-year-old Davis is great for the team at the moment, but as the years go on, Baron’s age and heavy contract would have become a bigger burden to carry.

Now Los Angeles will have more cap room to continue to build the team around it's young talent.

There is no question that Mo Williams and Jamario Moon won’t immediately improve the team in the same way Baron Davis would have had he still been on the court. Baron just recently began to perfectly mix his scoring mentality with an emphasis on feeding Griffin and Jordan, and it was beginning to pay off.

I know it sounds tired and cliché to say that the Los Angeles Clippers are thinking towards the future, because frankly, it’s been a while since the Clippers have had a good enough record to seriously play for the present.

Los Angeles needs to realize what they have in Blake Griffin, though, and focus on putting as many young quality players around him as possible for the future.

Unfortunately, the Clippers had to part ways with their first-round pick in this year’s draft to finalize the deal, but sometimes, that is just the way things go.

They will likely need to make another move, continue to hold on to their nucleus of talent and get continued improvement out of other young players such as Eric Bledsoe and Al’Farouq Aminu.

Mo Williams will likely become the starting point guard in Los Angeles for now, while the Clippers will hope to get solid play from Moon off the bench.

It will be interesting to see if Los Angeles tries to get somewhat aggressive in free agency now or make a play at a young talent. It may sound far-fetched, but the Clippers could be one impact player away from contending for a playoff spot in the West.