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#19 in the LBB end of the season team rankings...

Jul 11, 2024

After a break to allow for the draft and free agency to play themselves out (mostly), we’re back with our team rankings. While there wasn’t any movement in terms of the first 11 teams already ranked (I will be working to update the information on those organizations), free agency definitely shifted the positioning of some teams in the top-19. The biggest casualty in terms of their outlook for the next couple of seasons was the Los Angeles Clippers. While Los Angeles was bound for some attrition from their recently surprising regular season based on just age, their loss of Paul Geroge cleaves a huge hole directly through this team’s chances of being a legit contender, and really possibly even remaining a playoff team in the loaded West.

#19 Los Angeles Clippers

Record: 51-31 (5^th); 4^th in the West; 97.93 Pace (20^th); 117.9 Offensive Rating (4^th); 114.6 Defensive Rating (16^th); 3.4 Net Rating (7^th)

Total Salary Cap Allocations: $181,4944,170

Cap Space: $-40,906,170

Current Roster: Mo Bamba, Nicolas Batum, Kobe Brown, Cameron Christie, Amir Coffey, Kris Dunn, James Harden, Bones Hyland, Derrick Jones Jr. Kia Jones, Kawhi Leonard, ,Ternace Mann, Jordan Miller, Kevin Porter Jr., Norman Powell, P.J. Tucker, Russell Westbrook, Ivaca Zubac

Single Word Description: Disintegrating

Biggest Positive: Adaptability. Somehow, the Clippers have the longest current streak of consecutive seasons above .500 (13) in the NBA, and the seventh longest in league history. It’s not particularly close either, as the next longest current run is eight by the Milwaukee Bucks. Obviously, a lot of the credit here has to go to both head coach Tyronn Lue, who deserves some type of commendation for the calm way in which he has managed to navigate the choppy waters of injuries and roster churn—Doc Rivers presided over more winning seasons, but the Lob City Clips had a much steadier amount of consistency at the top end of their roster—and president of basketball operations, Lawrence Frank, who has pieced together competitive group after competitive group despite being the ugly step-child in Los Angeles. Of course, that Balmer money sure helps.

Lue, who has proven to be one of the more stylistically malleable coaches in the league, managed to absorb both the manic energy of Russell Westbrook and the requisite hijacking of pace of play that comes with adding James Harden, with aplomb. The Harden trade in particular seemed likely to upend things, with the Clippers losing their first six games after dealing for the embattled guard, only to then look like absolute world-beaters over their next 41 contests, going 31 and 10 during that span. Of course, as is always the case with Los Angeles—and Harden for that matter—the magic ran out as the season wore on, but what Los Angeles was able to do during that stretch was impressive nonetheless. Really, the only reason Los Angeles wasn’t dropped further in the rankings was because of Lue’s impressive ability to cajole seemingly any roster into a viable regular season machine—save the ’19 Cavs, who were beyond redeemable after LeBron’s speedy offseason departure. This year is going to present perhaps his biggest challenge yet, as the age of this roster, the unreliable nature of its stars, and the opening of a new arena is the type of convergence that typically leads to mental breakdowns. Good luck.

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Biggest Negative: Age. This Clippers 12-man roster has a knee-achingly average age of 31 years. For context, the Bucks were the oldest team by average age in the league last season at 28 years old, and they looked every bit of it. Worse still, in terms of projecting how these aged players are likely to perform, both Harden and Leonard each played their most regular season games in more than five years. Seeing as Kawhi had his regular end-of-the-year physical breakdown and Harden was his usual flight more than fight self in the postseason, there seems very little likelihood that the matter of literal years accumulated on the collective bodies of this group won’t become a major issue at some point—probably post-All-Star break.

What’s Next: The outlook is bleak for the Clips, as there is just no version of this team that feels more potent than an early round playoff exit at best—that’s counting on Kawhi injury luck, which is like saying you’re hoping for a cool summer in Phoenix. Sure, miracles happen, but I wouldn’t bet on it. The team’s two best players are both injury-prone, and the idea of this roster having to fall back on a creaky James Harden to lead them does not inspire much confidence. Harden is still a floor-raiser during the regular season, so it wouldn’t be shocking if the Clippers look plucky during stretches, but it would be flooring if they were anything better than in the mid 40s in terms of regular season victories.

What They Shouldn’t Do: Try to sell us on hope. The worst part about this situation is that the Clippers really have few outs. They likely don’t own their own first-round pick until 2029, and they have few tradable assets to be able to recoup draft equity if the bottom falls out this season. Part of what made the unwillingness to give Paul George the additional year on his contract such a strange line to draw in the sand is that the Clippers are cap-strapped, asset-poor, and don’t really have any feasible ways out of that situation after re-signing Harden and Leonard. It’s understandable being gun-shy on giving the injury-prone George that extra year, but they have no mechanism to get a player half his caliber, have been willing to spend unconscionably for a while—though the new second apron rules surely played a large part in this decision—and could have just dumped George in that last year as an expiring contract. Los Angeles really doesn’t even have any young developmental players to be excited about, as Bones Hyland and Kevin Porter Jr. are the youngest players (both 24) that could potentially be in the rotation. No offense to Bones, and all offense to Kevin Porter, but if you’re betting on either of those guys as your future, you might as well just pack it in now.

Is There Hope?: Hell no. In fact, were it not for Ty Lue’s ability to get this team to play competitive basketball in whatever iteration they present, and that they do still have a solid collection of good veteran players, I would have dropped this group even further. There is, of course, a world where Kawhi and Harden play as they did during that incredible mid-season run, but even if that were the case and this team makes the playoffs again next season, the idea that come playoff time you would have to count on Kawhi’s health, Harden being consistent, and Russ not being an absolute maniac, seems like a far-fetched proposition. Hard pass on this franchise after next season, yuk. I would apologize to the Clippers fans out there, but I only know one.

Links to Other Team Reviews:

#30 Brooklyn Nets

#29 Washington Wizards

#28 Portland Trail Blazers

#27 Detroit Pistons

#26 Charlotte Hornets

#25 Toronto Raptors

#20 Golden State Warriors