Why The Los Angeles Clippers Need To Revamp Their Entire Roster After There Shocking Loss Agianst The Denver Nuggets.

The Denver Nuggets have once again shocked the world and defeated the second-seed Los Angeles Clippers in a game seven performance that is almost laughable to comprehend. With Kawhi Leonard being the former champion and finals MVP, NBA fans across the globe set high expectations for the Clippers to go to the finals, but they could not make it past the second round of the playoffs. This loss is more detrimental than any other loss in NBA history because the Denver Nuggets not only came back from a 3-1 lead, but they decimated the Finals MVP while embarrassing Doc Rivers, the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. This team was projected to win it all this season by many analysts, and to see the result is amusing. On the other side, the Denver Nuggets expose Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the rest of the roster by out-playing them mentally and physically. In games five and six, the Clippers had a massive lead but choked towards the end due to how confident and comfortable the Nuggets are. Losing this series against a young, capable up incoming Denver Nuggets team is disgraceful, especially when looking at how much promise this team had at winning it all! However, what aspects of this team fulfilled the Clipper’s continuous curse? 

From the beginning of the playoffs, the biggest disappointment has easily been Paul George! Even though the Milwaukee Bucks, the first seed and Toronto Raptors, the former champions, lost in the second round, their defeat doesn’t come close to the Clippers losing. Unlike those teams, the Clippers were the favourites to win it all for most fans hence why this defeat is so similar to the Lob City Clippers, where Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were always known as contenders, and that’s it! Fast-forward to four years, and the Clippers would shockingly continue their cold streak of failing to come out of the Western Conference semifinals. But Doc Rivers and Kawhi Leonard should not take the blame for this defeat. Paul George, who was All-Star this season while being a nominee for the MVP award last season, played abysmal basketball while failing to own up to his talk! In the first round of the playoffs, the Clippers barely scraped off the Dallas Mavericks, and yet George and Patrick Beverly had the nerve to disrespect and heckle the Portland Trailblazers! Their confidence was pure, but the way they used it was insufficient as Paul George failed to score anything at an efficient rate. If the Clippers want to win anything in the perceivable future, they need to decide whether or not keeping Paul George is worth it! His production on both ends of the floor is a disgrace for an All-Star and is the sole reason as to why the Clippers lost momentum in the second round. If your second star fails to produce any winning value to a franchise, chances are the aspects such as mentality, focus, confidence, and belief will slowly diminish. In the 2019 NBA playoffs, the Boston Celtics, who were heavily favoured to make it to the conference finals, would be extinguished against the Milwaukee Bucks due to lacking those factors. Kyrie Irving was the leader and the best player on the team at the time, which means that his actions would reflect the rest of the franchise. His lack of enthusiasm on the court would lower the motivation for the rest of his team hence why they lost the way they did against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Similarly, Paul George failed to contribute in any form in the playoffs where it mattered the most! His inadequate production would reflect his teammates due to how big of an impact he has on the Clippers organization. If he fails even to do that, then explain how the Los Angeles Clippers could even have a chance at making it to the NBA Finals, let alone winning the second-round? The only excuse that Paul George has is, he was not the root cause of the Clippers chemistry issues as they lacked one key factor that they failed to consider. 

Before the regular season started, the Los Angeles Clippers announced that their star player, Kawhi Leonard, would have load management for the entire regular season! The fact that this was even allowed was laughable as it is, but the Clippers wanted Kawhi on load management to ensure his health while also revealing that the Clippers are a playoff team. That statement is ironic because championship teams know that to become an elite playoff team, aspects such as experience, chemistry, confidence, and trust are crucial pieces that are glued together when playing in the regular season! The regular season is to build playoff teams, but the Clippers flipped the script and decided that playing as a full unit every game is not worth it. This was the root cause of the Clipper’s failure as they never meshed as a team. Rather than building with what they had, they would trade for even more starting calibre players and expect them to have reduced roles under limited time. With so many great players on one team that all demand the basketball, the chances are that the chemistry would fail, especially if the team lacks any experience or trust within each other. Many organizations in NBA history would stack up their team and become the best team on paper to find out that they are, at best, a first or second-round exit! The Clippers need to clean up their errors and realize that stacking up assets and focusing on having the best team on paper isn’t going to win any championships. Instead, working with the assets and developing the chemistry within each player will, in theory, grant them better playoff success hence why the Denver Nuggets were able to come back from a 3-1 lead twice! They had chemistry, trust, confidence and mentality. The Clippers may have looked to have been the better team, but the Denver Nuggets outplayed and out-witted the Los Angeles Clippers from the very beginning. 

Lastly, having a coach who has blown 3-1 leads while having the worst success in the playoffs, according to NBA history, should be a factor when deciding whether this team is ready to contend. Doc Rivers is one of the greatest coaches of all-time as he led the Boston Celtics to a championship while making the finals twice. Rivers would also ensure their relevance for many seasons after his title but would end up leaving an established Boston Celtics team for a rebuilding Los Angeles Clippers team where he would start the curse. Sure Kawhi and Paul George failed to make shots in game seven, but Doc Rivers needs to take a considerable chunk of the blame as he has blown leads countless times when coaching the Clippers! For the last seven years, Doc has led the Clippers to the playoffs, which is an accomplishment but would fail to make any impact afterwards. If the Clippers want to win, they need to make bold strides just like Masai Ujiri did last year with the Toronto Raptors. No one expected Kawhi to lead the Raptors to a championship, but taking that risk is all a contending team needs to continue their organization’s enthusiasm. Steve Balmer needs to make an executive decision and fire the man who ignited their curse and look to change the Clippers’ culture and identity. For years this team has been a laughing stock, and now that this terrible loss occurred, it will forever be echoed in their new arena! 

In the end, the Clippers were heavily disappointing and failed to meet all expectations. The fact that this team was favoured to win it all this season makes this loss even more disgraceful. The Clippers have work to do and need to improve chemistry before they sign any other players. Steve Balmer’s priority should be trading away Paul George as he is slowly evolving to being a kryptonite to any team he joins. Doc Rivers should be next in line as the Clippers need to find a new identity and winning culture.