Redden Steps Up as the Clippers' Front Office Reshuffles Again

The Clippers added another interim title to their organizational chart on Tuesday, naming general manager Trent Redden as interim president of basketball operations while Lawrence Frank serves his six-month suspension.

Two days earlier, Los Angeles-based trial lawyer John Gibson was installed as interim governor in place of suspended owner Steve Ballmer. So heading into training camp, the franchise is operating with a placeholder at the top of both its business and basketball structures — neither of them the person who held the job a month ago.

The timing is what it is. Ingram and Gradey Dick are officially Clippers. Harden, Zubac, and the rest of the returning core are in place. The basketball decisions that needed to get made this offseason largely got made. Redden stepping into Frank's chair doesn't change the depth chart; it just means someone has to sign off on whatever comes next, and that someone is now Redden.

What it does underscore is how much organizational bandwidth this franchise is spending on things that have nothing to do with basketball. Training camp opens with a federal investigation still active, an appeal of the NBA's penalties still pending, and two of the three people running the organization holding the word "interim" in their title. The Clippers have a roster worth watching this season. Getting to it requires looking past a front office that is, for now, being run on a provisional basis.