The Clippers Aren’t Committed to Tanking, and That’s Okay
People expected LA to blow it up once Chris Paul left, but the Clippers are proving there’s still a will to compete
While the Warriors sit back and talk about what shirts they’re going to wear at next year’s championship parade and how they’ll make fun of LeBron’s hairline this year, the NBA is in total chaos. Stars are going back and forth, rumors are coming in by the minute, and the battle between Woj and Shams Charania over who’s going to break news first is like a battle in Game of Thrones on steroids. We’re seeing teams either stock up on nukes in the shape of disgruntled superstars in order to join the ongoing arms race, or unload pieces to the highest bidder, or any bidder as long as they can just sulk in the shadows of the NBA until the Warriors are done waging war on everyone foolish enough to pick up a basketball.
Then, there are the Clippers.
Plenty of people have been speculating on what the Clippers should do for years considering their championship window was closing and their annual loss in the first or second round of playoffs was starting to feel like going to Hershey Park for the sixth year in a row. Sure it’s amusing, but those rides aren’t exactly getting newer. Who knows if that window was ever truly open, but with Chris Paul heading south to Houston, it’s confirmed that it’s now shut. Yet instead of curling up in a ball and dying, the Clippers are remaining-dare I say it- competitive.
Thanks to the death of anything that would have once been considered parity and the birth of superteams, teams no longer wish to be competitive. It’s like there are two paths- one where you take your hopes, dreams, and high expectations to the butcher shop down by the Golden Gate Bridge where they can be chopped up to form their newest ring, or you can choose the past of tanking, where you take up other hobbies such as knitting or claymation while the pointless NBA season carries on. Instead, the Clippers chose the third option. The one where you aren’t gunning for a championship, or for the first pick in the draft. You’re just happy enough to win basketball games.
In return for Paul, LA received a slew of semi decent players, including Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, Lou Williams, and Sam Dekker. The only thing less attractive than the idea of those players alone pushing for a playoff spot is the shirt Clippers’ staff members wore once Blake Griffin told them he’d keep tearing down rims in the Staples Center.
While Hollywood’s favorite pioneer isn’t enough to single handedly keep the Clippers afloat, this team decided to pass on that always attractive “eject” button, and to continue to make moves to give the Clippers a band of capable players that might actually mold into a basketball team.
For those keeping track, that’s not that bad of a team. Yes, Chris Paul is one of the best point guards in the last decade. Still, is it that slanderous to say the Clippers might have actually gotten better this offseason? They have inside-out scoring with Griffin and DeAndre Jordan clogging the paint to shooters in Williams, Gallinari, Dekker, and more. Chris Paul’s NBA All Defensive First Team play is immediately replaced by Beverley, and Teodosic becomes the pass-happy point guard to keep Lob City alive and well.
All they have to do is scour the globe to find the science that can merge Beverley and Teodosic together, and it’ll be like Chris Paul never left, became happier, and more proficient in Serbian. While they may not be able to find that technology before the season tips off in a few months, they did find the ability to create a team that can still earn a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Many people call that basketball limbo, which is fair. The idea that if you aren’t gunning for a championship, you’re just wasting your time and money does make sense, to a degree. But let’s be realistic here; the Clippers weren’t winning a championship then, and they aren’t now. No one seriously thought they should trade the core of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan because they were too good, but not great, right? Life after Paul isn’t going to make the Clippers much better, but it may not make them much worse either.
What would they have gotten instead if they let Griffin walk and traded Jordan for another piece? Five or six years of complete misery? On paper waiting for a high lottery pick to turn into a superstar is great, but the game isn’t played on paper, and the Clippers have already dealt with bottom feeding for long enough. Before Paul got there, the Clippers made one playoff appearance in 14 years. Why would you ever in your right mind want to go back to that?
As strange as it sounds, gunning for a championship isn’t always the answer. There’s no reason to get rid of stars like Griffin or Jordan just because you won’t be towards the end of either side of the spectrum. Instead, they’re now still a 44+ win team (give or take a few wins and injuries), are still currently the big brother to the Lakers in LA, and are still a few lucky bounces away from being a contender.
Who knows? Maybe Griffin and Jordan continue to get better now that hardass point guard Chris Paul isn’t screaming at them for 82 games a year. Maybe they somehow poach a top trade piece or free agent to put them back towards the top in the coming years. Maybe a young player like Montrezl Harrell, Sindarius Thornwell, Kyle Wiltjer or Brice Johnson blows up and becomes a superstar, or the Warriors end up hating each other and the West becomes wide open.
Nobody knows the future, but most can agree on one thing. Winning is more fun than losing. At this point, the Clippers will continue to do more of the former than the latter, and that’s all you can ask for.
