The Clippers have agreed to acquire the draft rights to No. 55 pick Nick Martinelli from the Rockets, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
New York controlled the 55th overall pick coming into the day but sent it to Houston in an earlier deal, and the Rockets have subsequently flipped it to L.A. for cash, says Charania.
Martinelli is a 22-year-old, 6’7″ forward who spent all four collegiate years at Northwestern. He averaged 20 or more points in each of the last two seasons while hitting 41.7% of his threes this year. However, his shot has been inconsistent, as he shot below 34% from three in his sophomore and junior campaigns.
Martinelli is also a strong rebounder, averaging over two offensive rebounds per game and 6.2 total boards in each of the last two years.
The Clippers have done a good job of adding young talent over the last year, between Darius Garland, Yanic Konan Niederhauser, Cam Christie, Jordan Miller, Kobe Sanders, and restricted free agent Bennedict Mathurin, and Martinelli could fit into that group nicely as a shooting specialist with size.
The Cavaliers were a threat to sign the scoring wing to a two-way deal if he went undrafted, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor (Twitter link).
