Los Angeles Clippers: 2018-19 NBA season preview
By Luke Swiatek
Best-case scenario
Butler demands out once and for all, and the Timberwolves run out of leverage. They agree to trade Butler and Gorgui Dieng‘s big contract for Gallinari, Teodosic, Marjanovic and a draft pick.
The Clippers’ starting lineup of Beverley, Bradley, Butler, Harris and Harrell instantly becomes one of the most athletic and grittiest defense units in the league.
Off the bench, Lou Williams and Gortat run pick-and-rolls like they were made for each other. SGA and Robinson show flashes of their long-term abilities, and veterans Mbah a Moute and Scott fill their roles perfectly.
Butler becomes an underdog candidate for MVP after leading the Clippers to the fifth seed in the West.
Worst-case scenario
The team doesn’t make any trades, content to wait for the offseason to add a player. Teodosic, Beverley, Bradley, Gallinari and Gortat all struggle through various injuries again.
The inconsistency of having a different lineup every other night keeps the team from ever settling into a rhythm, and the only constant is Williams’s scoring.
To try to overcome the issues the team has early in the season, Doc Rivers decides to play his vets more heavily. Harrell is stuck playing 12 minutes a night, and SGA and Robinson only come out of the G League when another injury occurs. Wesley Johnson starts some games. Enough said.
Plagued by injuries and a lack of high-end talent, the Clippers fall to eleventh in the West and bow out of the playoff picture entirely.