LA Clippers: These contributors may not be returning to LA next season

Did not meet expectations

Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley were slated to be the guards of choice for this team given their individual prowess on offense (Williams) and Beverley (defense). The fact that both came up short on their respective ends of the floor was damaging to say the least.

Starting with the perennial Sixth Man of the Year contender, Lou Williams got off to a rocky start before the postseason even began after controversially visiting the Magic City strip club in Atlanta for wings during a pandemic. Beyond that, his scoring just was not up to snuff. During the regular season, Williams averaged 18.2 points and 5.6 assists on shooting splits of .418/.352/.861.

In the playoffs, this dropped to 12.8 points and 4.2 assists and saw his 3-point percentage plummet to 23.5 percent. This team was built on the pick-and-roll prowess of Williams and Harrell (more on him later) off the bench that a loss of 5.4 points per game in a close playoff atmosphere is notable.

For Beverley, the defense was just not the same in the bubble and was a foul machine. In the regular season, he averaged 3.1 fouls in 26.3 minutes per game compared to 3.9 fouls in 20.8 minutes per game in the playoffs. This limited his defensive impact and combined with his injury issues rendered him a non-factor for most of the Denver Nuggets series.

The only reason these two could be on the move is they are the only realistic trade pieces the team has. Beverley is making $13.33 million next season and $14.3 million the following season while Williams is an expiring $8 million next season.

Changing the culture by swinging these two in a trade to bring back some shooting off the bench could be the change this team needs and would remove the main attitude from the team that got them mocked on Twitter by the Blazers. While that ultimately does not matter it would probably be nice to be less of a villain.