What, if anything, will Clippers do ahead of Thursday’s trading deadline?

Blake Griffin

Blake Griffin/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Clippers, NBA.com

 

With the NBA trading deadline set for Thursday at noon Pacific time, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, the Clippers do to strengthen themselves for the stretch run of the regular season. For the Clippers, that amounts to 28 games.

There was a chance the Clippers would land big man Amar’e Stoudemire, who Monday was waived by the New York Knicks. With Blake Griffin out for probably a month with an elbow injury, Stoudemire could have helped the Clippers. But an ESPN.com report has indicated that Stoudemire has agreed to join another Western Conference playoff-bound team – the Dallas Mavericks. ESPN.com cited league sources.

The Clippers at 35-19 are currently sixth in the Western Conference standings, a half-game behind Dallas (36-19), a half-game ahead of seventh-place San Antonio and six games in front of eighth-place Phoenix (29-25).

The Clippers, of course, would like to get into the top four in the conference before the end of the season so they can have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They are only 1 1/2 games behind fourth-place Houston (36-17).