NBA: Fans, Los Angeles Clippers’ quick rebuild and more
Los Angeles Clippers are truly a summer away from contention
Everything can change in a summer. The Miami Heat went from a first round exit in the Eastern Conference playoffs to adding LeBron James and Chris Bosh in the same summer to catapult them to four straight NBA Finals and two titles. LeBron’s return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, coupled with trading for Kevin Love, saw another quadrant of Finals appearances for LeBron.
Sometimes singular moves to a great team in place can alter a franchise. Steve Nash rejoining the Phoenix Suns after a terrible 2003-04 season is a perfect example. The Suns had everything in place to become a contender out West and then partnered Nash with Mike D’Antoni, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, a young Amar’e Stoudemire and the Brazilian Blur, Leandro Barbosa.
Those teams became a staple of the 2000s with Nash winning consecutive Most Valuable Player awards. There’s a team with everything in place in today’s NBA that is already doing well and offers an attractive product that could result in immediate contention.
The Los Angeles Clippers are the 6-seed in the Western Conference at 39-29 and 8-2 in their last 10 games. They have zero All-Star appearances on their roster and traded away Tobias Harris midseason, yet this group of tough-minded players in a ball movement-friendly system installed by Doc Rivers is all but in the playoffs and has its eyes on bigger things this summer.
The Clippers are primed to build on their quick rebuild after losing all of their players from the Lob City era with two max slots open, every key contributor outside of Patrick Beverley is under contract for next season and the passionate leadership from owner Steve Ballmer and the NBA’s greatest team builder in Jerry West offers arguably the best owner-vice president of basketball operations tandem in the league.
They are the favorites to land Kawhi Leonard this offseason and who knows who else they can lure to L.A.? The other team in town is in turnstile compared to the Clippers, who have size, shooting, two of the best bench players in the NBA, great complementary players, an experienced coach used to managing all types of personalities and stability throughout the franchise.
With the Golden State Warriors in danger of losing Kevin Durant this summer, adding Kawhi and another strong player could thrust the Clippers into serious contention out West. It seems like Jerry West has built title team after title team forever, and him being equipped with this much cap room and roster talent in place is as good of a situation a team looking to make a jump can be in.