For its season preview series, NBC Sports is focusing on teams at a crossroads, franchises where this season feels like now or never — either it works, or the wrecking ball could swing through the roster next summer. To start, the Los Angeles Clippers.
PLAYA DEL REY, Calif. —There was an unexpected zen energy to Clippers media day. This is a veteran team with a lot of continuity that was calmly going through the motions as it had many times before.
The sword hanging over this franchise went unspoken and largely ignored. But it was there.
Welcome to the fifth season of the Kawhi Leonard and Paul George era for the Clippers. Four years of spending a lot of Steve Ballmer’s money with little to show — one trip to the conference Finals. That’s it. It’s not what anyone expected when the Clippers pulled off the blockbuster trade in 2019 that landed them George (with Leonard coming as a free agent because of it). There can be no other word than disappointment.
Combine that disappointment with both Leonard and George being able to leave as free agents after this season — unless extensions are worked out — not to mention a thinner and aging group of role players around the stars, and this feels like a now-or-never season for the Clippers. Either they push their way to the top of the West this postseason or major changes are coming.
LA Clippers 2023 Media Day
You would not have known that at media day. There was no sense of desperation. No vibe of “We need to trade for James Harden” — his name never came up, and he seemed at best an afterthought.
“Our main focus going into camp is ‘this is who we have,’” coach Tyron Lue said. “So we want to focus on that and want to give our best shot and that’s what we’re focused on. So I’m not really focused on trades and outside noise.”
What about the pressure? Was Lue feeling the weight of this being a now-or-never season for this version of the Clippers?
“No, I don’t approach it like that,” Lue said. “I approach it by just doing everything the right way and putting yourself in position to be successful. And if you do things the right way every single day, you can live with the results.”
The players echoed that theme.
“I think you know every team comes into media day/training camp trying to win the championship and that’s the goal…" Russell Westbrook said.
“But championship or bust mentalities, to me, that’s just not a real thing. It’s like a thing that [the media] make up. Like we need to win a championship or bust, but that’s not true. You could have accomplished a lot more, you can create a brotherhood, you can learn so much more about people, you can figure out ways how you to improve as a team, collectively.”
Something else everyone agreed on — any hope of a Clippers push starts with health. It’s an all too rare thing for this franchise in recent years.
“Just being healthy. Having a chance to finish the season with our guys being healthy,” was Lue’s key to the season.
Kawhi Leonard missed all of the 2021-22 season following an ACL tear, and he was eased back into his minutes and workload last season. Leonard appeared healthy by the time the playoffs rolled around — he looked dominant in the first two games against the Suns — but Paul George was watching from the bench with a shoulder injury. Then Leonard tore his meniscus and missed the final three games against Phoenix as the Clippers exited in the first round.
Leonard worked to recover from another knee surgery, saying he is all the way back, but added he didn’t do anything different this offseason to stay healthy. He also isn’t worried about the NBA’s new player participation policy — when asked about it he responded, “What is the policy?”
“I’m not a guy that’s sitting down because I’m doing a load management…" Leonard said. “If I’m able to play, I’ll play basketball. You know, I work out every day in the summertime to play the game not to sit and watch people play.
“No league policy is helping me to play more games.”
“Not trying to really get around it — if our players are healthy they’re gonna play,” Lue said of the player participation policy. “I know it’s a big thing like our guys don’t like to play or whatever, but that’s not true. Our guys want to play, unfortunately, they’ve had injuries. And so just staying healthy… make sure that we’re not causing any other significant injuries by playing through certain injuries. So, if our guys are healthy, they’re going to play.”
Injuries and recovery from them have led to a lot of nights off for Leonard and George — last season, Leonard played in 50 games, George 56. Fair or not, the Clippers have the reputation as the poster children for load management, and Lue was clearly frustrated last season with the constantly shifting lineups he had to roll out.
This season, from the top on down, talk around the Clippers has been more about a focus on the regular season.
“Our approach this year for me is, let’s do everything we can in the regular season and let’s let the playoffs take care of itself…" Lue said from training camp in Hawaii. “Let’s get to the playoffs being in the best shape we can be in and we’ll take it from there.”
2023-24 Clippers Roster
The Clippers’ roster — even without a lead guard who has a legendary beard — is deep with talent. Westbrook will start at the point, Terance Mann is an up-and-coming wing that every team that talked trade with the Clippers this summer tried to poach, they have a rock-solid center in Ivica Zubac, plus role players such as Bones Hyland, Nicholas Batum, Norman Powell, Mason Plumlee, Amir Coffey, and Robert Covington.
“I love our team, the way it’s constructed now we have a lot of pieces, a lot of versatility,” Lue said, later adding, “That’s our biggest thing, just having an urgency to know that when Game 1 starts we want to be ready with everybody to play right away.”
This Leonard/George era has permanently changed the Clippers for the better — this is a legitimate and respected NBA franchise now (one about to move into a sparkling new building next season, the Intuit Dome near the Rams’ Sofi Stadium). The Lob City Clippers started the trend to respectability — the franchise drafted Blake Griffin and traded for Chris Paul to make one of the most entertaining teams of a generation. But Leonard and George CHOSE to come to the Clippers. That’s different. That choice, plus Ballmer’s money and a remaking of the organization top to bottom, has the Clippers as a respected franchise by players and agents. The days of being a laughingstock are gone. And if things don’t work out, team president Lawrence Frank and the front office’s jobs are not in jeopardy, league sources told NBC Sports. Ballmer wanted the team to take a big swing, they did, and even if it missed on the court it was a hit for the franchise in ways that matter long term.
However, big playoff wins would cap the journey. If that doesn’t happen this season, good luck predicting what comes next.
