NBA: Who is the best duo from each franchise’s history

Best duo from LA Clippers history: Chris Paul and Blake Griffin

You don’t need me to tell you how terrible the LA Clippers were prior to the “Lob City” era, but I’ll recount it anyway: the franchise moved from Buffalo in 1978 and proceeded to give the city of San Diego — and later Los Angeles — an on-court product akin to expired milk sitting outside on a hot day.

That is until the team drafted Blake Griffin with the number one pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. His skills remained a work in progress, but the former Oklahoma Sooner averted some of those early question marks with a healthy offering of dunks (he would become a much better all-around player as time went on).

Those Griffin SportsCenter highlights were often cool, but as the Clippers’ 30-52 record showed, the team needed something more. Good thing then-NBA commissioner David Stern was around to lend a helping hand.

Prior to the 2011-12 season, Stern, who oversaw the New Orleans Hornets while waiting for someone to purchase the team, nixed a trade that would’ve sent superstar point guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers, citing that the deal wouldn’t have been in the best interest of the Hornets. This allowed the other L.A. team to swoop in and acquire him shortly after and what resulted was a level of prosperity that the Clippers had seldom experienced.

With Paul orchestrating the offense and heaving alley-oops to Griffin — and DeAndre Jordan — the Clippers briefly usurped the Lakers as the most talked-about basketball team in the city. Sure, they never made it past the second round, but Paul and Griffin (.229 combined WS/48) elevated the franchise to heights it had never experienced. Without it, they may have never gotten to see a 2019-20 roster that features Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.