Lowering the tax bill could be the move for Clippers to do this summer

From this current point, the Clippers would have to shed over $65 million in contracts to get under the tax line. That’d require them to be comfortable letting Paul George walk in free agency and then combining that move with a myriad of others that would trim another $16 million off the books. It’s highly unlikely, but stranger has happened, I guess. Still, there are ways to limit the tax they’d have to pay. They are a repeater tax team, and each dollar they are over the tax comes with its own spending bracket. Considering how the last few seasons have gone for the Clippers, is being $65 million over the luxury tax line something Steve Ballmer is at all comfortable with? It’s hard to say. They did waive guard Eric Gordon last summer to save money, after all, which signaled that there is a limit to the spending. Waiving and stretching P.J. Tucker, renouncing the rights to Mason Plumlee and Daniel Theis, and Russell Westbrook declining his player option would put them $42 million over the luxury tax line. That right there saves $23 million, but in terms of actual repeater tax savings, it’d cut the Clippers’ tax bill from $370.8 million to $187.9 million. Yeah, that’s a savings of $182.9 million just in luxury tax payments. It turns a team from a $607.4 million investment (salary plus tax) to $401.1 million. That stuff matters to an organization and an owner no matter how rich they are.

Basically we saw how front office decided to move on from eric gordon last summer and saved some money. They could also create mle if they make the moves, but obviously the mle player wont produce same level of production like PG

Source:https://justinrusso.substack.com/p/offseason-primer-clippers-second-apron @JustinRusso