Los Angeles Clippers: 2014-15 Season Preview

The Los Angeles Clippers open their second season under Doc Rivers with a burden of expectations that is still new for a franchise that was one of the NBA’s worst for decades.

Each of the last two seasons have brought new franchise records for victories in a season—56 in 2012-13 followed by 57 in 2013-14—but the Clippers have fallen short in the postseason.

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Last year, the Clippers fought through the unprecedented distractions of the Donald Sterling scandal but went down in the Western Conference semifinals to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

L.A. remains one of four active NBA franchises to never reach the conference finals—the Charlotte Hornets, New Orleans Pelicans and Toronto Raptors are the others—and breaking through that barrier has to be considered the minimum for 2014-15 to be considered a successful season.

The good news for the Clippers is they bring back their All-Star duo, point guard Chris Paul and power forward Blake Griffin, along with one of the premier rebounders and rim protectors in the NBA in DeAndre Jordan.

But after an offseason of limited additions, the pressure will come from within to improve this season. For starters, the Clippers have to hope J.J. Redick can remain healthy for a full season after he was limited to just 35 games last season. He is the team’s most consistent three-point shooting threat (39.5 percent last season) and is vital to creating the floor spacing for Griffin to do his thing inside.

Rivers has complete operational control of the club and a new owner in Steve Ballmer who should be much less likely to create the kind of environment that Donald Sterling plunged the franchise into last spring.

That alone has to be reason for optimism.

2013-14 Vitals

57-25, 1st Pacific Division, 3rd in Western Conference

107.9 PPG/101.0 OPP PPG

Team Leaders

Points: Blake Griffin — 24.1 PPG
Rebounds: DeAndre Jordan — 13.6 RPG
Assists: Chris Paul — 10.7 APG
Steals: Chris Paul — 2.5 SPG
Blocks: DeAndre Jordan — 2.5 BPG