Justin Verrier

But I think the combination of

James Harden's contract not positioning him to be with the team for the long term and the Clippers not wanting to invest in him in the long term and everything in terms of the writing on the wall with Kawhi's ongoing health concerns, right?

He's healthy now.

He's available now.

He's great now.

What about tomorrow?

What about a month from now?

What about two months from now?

There's just way too many questions and way too many variables for the Clippers, even at their absolute best, to feel confident that they're going to continue to be at their absolute best.

And so, so long as that's true,

Everything should be on the table, including Evita Zubats, who's been one of the most rock-solid players over the last several years, an incredibly useful center in a variety of ways, which I'm sure we're going to get into from the Pacers' side, and leaves a gigantic hole behind him as far as what the Clippers are going to do with all this the rest of the way.

Yeah, they're easily the most exciting part of the tank race from here on out.

And some of that is because, yes, like right now they are well positioned to potentially keep this pick.

I would think that they're probably going to slide a little bit in the lottery odds, not in the standings.

Rise in the relative order.

Rise in the relative standings.

Because when you think about who the bad teams in the league are right now, the Pacers may be tied for the third best lottery odds, but Washington is going to be shutting down AD and Trey Young, presumably.

They're going to be leaning into being as bad as possible.

Dallas needs to be worse.

They need to cash in on this pick, specifically this year.