We are less than a week away from the NBA trade deadline, and contending teams are going to be making some moves.

According to Marc Stein, the LA Clippers are currently interested in acquiring Lonzo Ball to fill the playmaking hole that they currently have.

It’s not an easy trade, because of their complicated pick situation over the next few years.

That doesn’t mean that the Clippers won’t try to figure something out, though, considering that Kawhi Leonard has the option to opt out of his contract before next season begins.

Acquiring Ball would be another sign that they’re really trying to win it all this year.

Ball is a real distributor, who is comfortable with sharing the rock. He’s pretty good at taking care of the ball, and has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.8 (5.6 APG to 2.0 TPG).

He recently tallied a career-high 17 assists, and is a willing passer.

While Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram are good players who could potentially be great, they’re still young like much of the Pelicans squad. They only have three players over the age of 30, and only Eric Bledsoe sees significant game time with 29 minutes per contest.

It’s a team that’s still trying to figure things out, while the Clippers are a veteran-heavy team with multiple championship-winning contenders.

Some of the main criticisms of ball center around his scoring, but he wouldn’t necessarily need to be a heavy scorer on a team that features the pair of Leonard, George, and Lou Williams.

Ball is also a hardworking and capable defender who can pester other teams to compliment the excellent defense played by Leonard.

While Ball isn’t a single solution that will guarantee the Clippers additional success, he would definitely be a useful piece for a team that is still living with the shame of blowing a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets last season.