{"id":830449,"date":"2026-09-08T03:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/830449\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T03:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:21:11","slug":"clippers-notes-strus-next-steps-cap-flexibility-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/830449\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers Notes: Strus, Next Steps, Cap Flexibility, More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Appearing on the Link with JB podcast (YouTube link<\/a>), new Clippers wing Max Strus<\/a> joked that he doesn\u2019t have a \u201cbag\u201d and said he prides himself on doing the \u201clittle things\u201d that help his star teammates thrive and help his club win games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to have a bag back in college, but I don\u2019t anymore,\u201d Strus said. \u201cYou find what your niche is and you just go at it. I knew shooting the basketball was going to get me on the floor, and then I knew playing defense was going to keep me on the floor, and that\u2019s kind of what I\u2019ve done. I\u2019m going to guard. I\u2019m not afraid to guard anybody. I\u2019ll guard the best player. I don\u2019t care. They\u2019re going to score on me because everybody\u2019s that good. You can\u2019t really stop anybody anyway. So it\u2019s like, how can I make it as tough as possible on them?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think doing those other little things like that \u2013 rebounding, defending, making a pass, an extra pass \u2013 keeps me in the game, keeps me wired. I don\u2019t need to shoot the ball, I\u2019m all right. I can do other things that I know are helping the team win, (that) I know are making our best players better. That\u2019s kind of where I\u2019m at in my career, being a glue guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

After missing most of last season due to a foot injury, Strus played well upon returning in the second half, averaging 11.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game with a .402 3PT% in 12 regular season appearances, then registering 9.6 PPG and 4.8 RPG in 18 playoff games for Cleveland. The veteran swingman projects to play a rotation role in Los Angeles in the final year of his current contract.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Clippers:<\/p>\n

In the wake of the penalties they received from the NBA for cap circumvention, what\u2019s next for the Clippers? Law Murray of The Athletic<\/a> considers what to expect from the team on the court this season, noting that head coach Tyronn Lue will have his work cut out for him with James Harden<\/a>, Ivica Zubac<\/a>, and (presumably) Kawhi Leonard<\/a> no longer on the roster.
\nJoined by Murray in a recent episode of his Game Theory podcast (YouTube link<\/a>), Sam Vecenie of The Athletic made a case that the Clippers should take advantage of owner Steve Ballmer\u2019s wealth to absorb other teams\u2019 bad contracts in an effort to regain some draft capital. Vecenie also points out that L.A.\u2019s cap flexibility going forward could allow the team to try to go out and land a top restricted free agent next summer. \u201cThey could do it where it\u2019s, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re going to use our cap space next summer. We\u2019re going to go try to steal Anthony Black<\/a>, we\u2019re going to go try to steal Scoot Henderson<\/a>, or some young player like that,’\u201d Vecenie said. \u201cTake fliers on young guys that (they) think fit really well with Keaton Wagler<\/a>. .. They have so many different ways that they can still attack this because Steve Ballmer is richer than everybody else.\u201d
\nIn a public Substack article<\/a>, Eric Pincus takes a look at why Leonard got off very lightly compared to the Clippers for violating the league\u2019s cap circumvention rules. Meanwhile, over at The Athletic, a series of writers answered some lingering questions from the Leonard\/Clippers saga, including how the NBA was able to avoid arbitration when penalizing the Clippers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Appearing on the Link with JB podcast (YouTube link), new Clippers wing Max Strus joked that he doesn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,872,6],"class_list":["post-830449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-max-strus","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117233272971871213","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}