A new report says the Clippers are standing pat at center, and there are real arguments on both sides of that decision.
One of the Los Angeles Clippers' last open offseason questions appears to have an answer.
The Clippers are planning to enter the season with the center group they already have, according to Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer, whose reporting made the rounds Tuesday.
"The LA Clippers have NOT been actively looking to upgrade their center position."
Per Fischer's reporting, the team is comfortable with Brook Lopez as the starter and a rotation behind him of Isaiah Jackson, Yanic Konan Niederhauser and rookie Johni Broome.
Standing Pat
This roster is in transition, and the front office has clearly decided to keep its options open.
Los Angeles went 42-40 and finished ninth in the Western Conference last season, then spent the summer reshaping the team around Darius Garland, who has been candid about his lingering injury ahead of his first Clippers season, and newcomers like Max Strus, who has spoken openly about his move.
Lopez is on a modest $9.2 million team option the club picked up in June, so the position costs almost nothing.
Jackson, who came over from Indiana in the February deal that sent Ivica Zubac out, gave the Clippers 7.5 points and 4.6 rebounds in 17 games after the trade, and Broome is a cheap look at a young big.
Spending assets on a center in a season this uncertain would cut against everything else the team is doing.
The Case Against It
The production side is harder to defend.
Lopez averaged 8.5 points and 3.6 rebounds per game last season, career lows in both categories along with his field goal percentage.
The 7-foot-1 center is the only experienced big on the roster, because Niederhauser is coming off the Lisfranc foot injury that ended his rookie season and will miss the start of this one.
The Clippers finished last season 23rd in offensive rebounding rate and 25th in defensive rebounding rate, and both ranks were even lower after the February 5 trade deadline, while team president Lawrence Frank named the glass as an area to improve back in April.
Leaning on Lopez for another year while the frontcourt rebounds at that level is asking for trouble.
There is also some in-season history that shows how Ty Lue wants to handle the position, since Lue planned a three-man center rotation back in February and added that he does not like playing Lopez more than 30 minutes a night, per The Athletic's Law Murray.
A plan like that works in October and gets fragile by spring if the young bigs cannot hold up their end.
Where It Lands
The best view is that this is about the calendar more than the depth chart.
The franchise is still waiting out the Kawhi Leonard investigation, and until that resolves, big swings feel unlikely.
Standing pat is defensible as a bridge, but if the rebounding numbers look the same in December, the center rotation will be the first thing the front office has to fix.
