Clippers End Exciting Draft With 3 New Faces

By Connor Aylward
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Updated: June 23, 2016

The Los Angeles Clippers came into the draft in Brooklyn on Thursday night with the 25th and 33rd picks. Los Angeles would keep the 25th pick and draft the talented 21 year-old Power Forward from the University of North Carolina Brice Johnson. Johnson is expected to plug in as the backup to All-Star Blake Griffin at the Power Forward position and his skill set will fit in with the Clippers perfectly.

The Los Angeles Clippers will select UNC’s Brice Johnson with the No. 25 pick, league sources tell @TheVertical.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) June 24, 2016

In his senior season as a Tarheel, Johnson averaged 17 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. At 6’11 and around 225 pounds the big man certainly will fit in. A decent midrange game mixed in with great athleticism will certainly make him valuable for the Clippers second unit. Wait, did I mention he’s a big man who shoots 78% from the free throw line? He does. This is important to know when another one of your bigs hardly shoots 40% (DeAndre).

Here’s what @bjohnson_23 will be bringing to the @LAClippers https://t.co/GKWO22dzMk

— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) June 24, 2016

Then the Clippers decided to make things interesting. With the 33rd pick they selected Cheick Diallo another Power Forward but this one from Kansas. Or did they?

Sources: New Orleans trading to get the No. 33 pick from the Clippers, sending Clippers No. 39 and 40.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) June 24, 2016

Los Angeles would take on the 39th and 40th picks and turn those into two positional needs for the team. Going first with the 39th pick was David Michineau. Michineau is a Point Guard from France and played last season in France’s A-League averaging just 5.7 points per game in 14 minutes per game. Michineau is known to be a great athlete but not so great of a shooter. We will see if the 22 year-old comes over to play for Los Angeles this season or if he decides to stick it out in France until he is ready to come over to the NBA.

With the 40th pick the Clippers took a more well-known player, Maryland’s Diamond Stone. The 6’10 Center has a very well-developed low post offensive game. Something similar to last year’s backup Center Cole Aldrich. As Clipper fans well know, Aldrich is now a free agent and likely with this pick won’t be returning to Los Angeles for another season. Something Aldrich excels at that Stone doesn’t however is low post defense. With Doc Rivers as his coach though there is a good chance he will find his defensive game sooner rather than later.

That’s it from the Clippers on draft night 2016. How do you think they did? Personally, I’m ecstatic about Johnson and am still awaiting a verdict on the other two. Either way, it should make for a fun Summer League. Not to mention it’s always fun to add some new faces to Clipper Nation!

Thanks for reading along Clipper nation and keep on coming back to CaliSports for all your Clipper news.

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