The Los Angeles Clippers have been one of the most successful NBA teams the last 3 years but that’s on a regular season scale. The playoffs have been a different story altogether. The Clippers, since Doc Rivers arrival have won 56, 57 and 53 games but never made it past the Western Conference Semifinals, what gives?
Obviously, with those numbers during the regular season, talent is not the issue as they have three of the best at their positions in Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and not to mention the 6th Man of the Decade, Jamal Crawford but still. It’s something missing there and you will catch a deadly migraine trying to figure out what it is. Could it be the coaching? Rivers has won before and honestly with less talent. What about leadership? That falls on the shoulders of Paul and he has failed in Los Angeles just as he did in New Orleans but even that can’t account for playoffs failures. It can’t be the scheme as the Clippers rank 7th in points scored and 7th in points given up, so what is the issue?
The issue may be, that there is no issue.
Some teams are just not meant to be together and this may be the case with the Clippers. Maybe the curse on the Clippers still exist. The last we heard of it was during Griffin’s rookie season when he got injured like so many previous Clippers before him but he returned the following season and all was well. Then the Hornets trade with the Los Angeles Lakers was vetoed by the league and Paul ended up with Clippers. Maybe that was part of the curse as well. To add more to it last season there was speculation that Center Jordan and Paul didn’t get along, which caused Jordan to bolt in free agency to the Dallas Mavericks, only then the have the team barricade themselves inside Jordan’s house until he changed his mind and decided to come back to LA. How did that turn out, another early exit from the playoffs.
Now, Griffin is the talk of trade rumors, this might be his last season in a Clippers uniform, if so this will end the run of one of the best regular teams in the NBA. The current roster is still loaded from top to bottom as they’ve added a few more veterans in, Alan Anderson, Marreese Speights, Raymond Felton and Brandon Bass as they gear up for another title run. But will this Clippers team go down as one of the biggest bust ever?
A new season brings new hope but that dark cloud that’s been hovering over this franchise for years has shown no sings of moving along. A championship will be their only escape but if they can’t figure out what their inner issues are they will become just another good team that didn’t meet expectations.