Should the Clippers reach?
Over a month removed from a Play-In loss to the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Clippers have shifted their focus to the June 23 draft and the No. 5 pick they landed from the Indiana Pacers at the trade deadline.
A 42-40 finish left the franchise ninth in the Western Conference and on the outside of the playoff bracket, but it also put them in position to add a real building block through the lottery.
With the draft closing in, the conversation around the Clippers' selection has centered on guards, and Louisville's Mikel Brown Jr. has become one of the most talked-about names connected to the franchise.
A Rising Stock After a Rocky Freshman Year
Brown's lone season at Louisville was a blend of flashes and bad luck.
He averaged 18.2 points, 4.7 assists and 3.3 rebounds across 21 games while shooting 41 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from deep, but a lingering back injury kept him sidelined for 14 games and forced him to miss the NCAA Tournament altogether.
Before shutting things down, he dropped 45 points against NC State in February on a 10-for-16 clip from three, breaking Cooper Flagg's ACC freshman single-game scoring record in the process.
Since the draft combine, Brown has been fully cleared of the back injury and has impressed in private workouts with teams picking inside the top five.
Owner Steve Ballmer and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank were reportedly seen in attendance during Brown's recent workout, a sign of just how seriously Los Angeles is evaluating him ahead of draft night.
Why Brown Over Acuff Jr.?
The other guard who keeps getting mentioned at No. 5 is Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr., who put together one of the best freshman seasons in recent memory with 23.5 points and 6.4 assists per game on 48.4 percent shooting.
Acuff is an electric scorer, but the fit alongside Darius Garland gets complicated when both guards stand around 6-foot-2 or shorter and project as problems on the defensive end.
Brown, at 6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-7.5 wingspan, gives the Clippers something Acuff does not.
His size allows him to defend bigger wings and play off the ball alongside another guard who needs touches, and the Clippers already have that type of playmaker in Garland, who averaged 18.0 points and 6.9 assists in 26 games with Los Angeles after arriving at the deadline.
What they need next to him is a versatile scorer who can space the floor and switch defensively, and Brown checks both of those boxes better than Acuff does at this stage.
Draft Night
There is still a real chance the Clippers explore trading down from the fifth pick, especially if a team further back in the lottery makes an aggressive offer to move up.
But if Lawrence Frank stays put and makes the selection, Brown's combination of size, shooting and two-way potential makes him the strongest option to hear his name called by the Clippers on June 23.
