What We All Missed About the Clippers in the NBA
With the Los Angeles Clippers 2019-2020 season crashing and burning in the mere 2nd round of playoffs after blowing a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets, the Clippers looked to revamp certain aspects of their team.
In this video, we will highlight for you what you may have missed about the Clippers, including injuries, losses, transfers and much more. But before we begin, kindly Subscribe to our channel for more of our amazing content. Please give us a Like, Share the video, and don’t forget to turn on the Notification bell for timely updates of our new weekly uploads. Let’s get it on.
The Buffalo Braves, upon joining the NBA in 1970, posted losing records in each of their first three seasons before running off three consecutive winning campaigns. That is what resulted in postseason berths behind the standout play of guard-forward Randy Smith and future Hall of Fame centre-forward Bob McAdoo. The Braves were part of an unusual franchise swap in 1978. When the owner of the Boston Celtics, Irv Levin, a Californian, wanted to move the Celtics to his home state but was prevented by the NBA from moving the historic franchise. As a compromise, the owner of the Braves, John Y. Brown, traded franchises with Levin, who relocated his new team to San Diego for the 1978–79 season. Then known as the San Diego Clippers, the franchise was one of the worst teams in the league during its six-year stay in the city, finishing in either last or second-to-last place in each season.
A ray of hope and restoration came for Clipper’s diehards in 2005–06, as a promising squad featuring forward Elton Brand and center, Chris Kaman won 47 games and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. But unfortunately, they lost a seven-game series to the Phoenix Suns. Even this limited success was short-lived, and the team fell back to a last-place divisional finish two years later. Under Sterling’s ownership, the Clippers were often cited as the worst franchise in North American professional team sports, with just two winning seasons in the 27 years after moving to Los Angeles in 1984.
The Clippers made the most dramatic improvement effort in team history shortly before the 2011–12 season when the franchise traded for superstar point guard Chris Paul. That season Paul teamed with young All-Star power forward Blake Griffin to help the Clippers advance to the conference semi-finals. They bettered that regular-season result in 2012–13, tallying a then team-record 56 wins and winning the first division title in team history, but lost in the opening round of the postseason. That playoff loss spurred a coaching change, and during the off-season, the team brought in Doc Rivers, who had coached the Boston Celtics to an NBA championship in 2007–08. In the following season, Rivers guided the Clippers to a new franchise record for wins and a second division title.
Generally, the Buffalo origins are known to collapse. Even the common denominator, Doc Rivers, who has now blown more 3-1 series leads than any coach in and is coach 6-8 in NBA Finals, will confirm that “They know how to lose.” This is just undeniable because we’ve seen it throughout this whole series. Paul George, the six-time NBA All-Star and five-time All-NBA team selection, is supposed to be a leader on this team. And he’s supposed to be a star, borderline superstar player. Heck, he finished top 3 in MVP voting in 2019. And then he’s seriously put performances up. Some of these have been in a win or go home games. He’s had multiple games; he has to be better. And there shouldn’t be excuses. In 2019, it was the shoulder; in 2018, it was Carmelo.
And let’s not forget about Kawhi. Have a look at his incredible game 7 performance. In fact, now look at the whole Clippers. Their top 3 scorers somehow deserve credit; they did all they could. They all struggled. Their downfall, however, is not going to be Kawhi’s fault. Why? He did all that it takes; he got the shots he wanted; he just didn’t make them. These were shots that Kawhi typically misses. And that can happen when you make a living off making tough shots. Kawhi ditched the Raptors for the Clippers and ended up with the same result. Something he never liked.
Strategically, the most important flaw of the Clippers, which was always talked of but never fully addressed, was their chemistry and specifically their lack of playing time together. You can remember that Kawhi and Paul George played a combined 43 games out of a total 72 for the Clippers. That translates to less than 60% of games from their top superstars. They just didn’t have any identity or system. And then come to think about Kawhi, who has primarily been in structured teams with great coaches and management, like when he played for the Spurs and Raptors. Without a properly laid structure, you automatically lend yourself to letdowns, and this won’t turn to be a surprise.
Kawhi led all the Clippers in assists at 4.9 per game. That is not even it. There was apparently no true point guard that could operate the offence, and because of that, it landed on the team as a whole to get the offence moving. But because the Clippers had no chemistry, it turned into a hero ball for whoever possessed the hot hand that perfectly worked since the Clippers has so much talent. And while hero ball is perfectly on the go, it can’t be a perfect option for an efficient operating offence. For all the trash talk, Patrick Beverley ain’t doing much as a point guard. During the regular season, the Clippers featured at 22nd in assists per game. In that sense, we would say Kawhi is not LeBron. He’s not the guy running the offence; Paul George has, in the past, done that to some extent. But both of these stars had traditional point guards or guards capable of setting up teammates consistently. Kawhi had Kyle Lowry who performed; he had Tony Parker in the Popovich system; Paul George had George Hill, who at the time was a steady hand on the Pacers.
It has been known for a while that the Clipper’s locker room hasn’t been the jolliest of them all, as reports came out that they had mixed feelings about Paul George giving them pep talk after losing to in the western conference semi-finals. The first change that took place was firing a long-time Clippers head coach Doc Rivers and promoting assistant coach Tyronn Lue to take over the reins of leadership at the club. In Tyronn’s first media availability as the Clippers’ newly-appointed head coach, he discussed what went wrong in the Clippers locker room that led to such a disappointing end of their season. He also made it clear and dismissed the rumours that purported the Clippers players have any animosity towards each other. He continued on by saying, “When you talk about chemistry, it is more so Paul George came in and he had shoulder surgery, so he was out. Kawhi came in and couldn’t participate in the whole training camp. Then we lost Patrick Beverly in and out of the lineup a few times.”
Now, where do we expect the Clippers from here? Kawhi’s contract is up in 2020; Paul George’s also ends the same year. As of 2020, the Clippers will have to wait till 2027 for a chance to have first-round picks. That means no real trade assets besides the players they already have, again no cap space to add players. Practically, they are left with a few options. That is to either try again and make sure the team becomes a well-oiled operational machine or cut their losses and trade what they have, which is Kawhi. Trading Kawhi would, of course, shake the NBA again, but it also depends on him and what he really wants. He’s wanted to have some sort of offensive scheme from what he has always said, but unfortunately, the Clippers didn’t have that. Will he move or stay? And what’s next for the Clippers? The world is following with a keen eye.
Outro
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