The Los Angeles Clippers are shifting into a brand new enviornment, the Intuit Carried out, this coming season, however there doesn’t appear to be any actual pleasure surrounding them proper now.
They not too long ago misplaced one in every of their two stars in Paul George when he joined the Philadelphia 76ers, and after years of early postseason exits, pundits simply don’t consider in them the way in which they used to.
However Clippers proprietor Steve Ballmer sounded a defiant tone when speaking to the media, and he mentioned his group will nonetheless contend for the NBA title whereas praising its expertise.
“We nonetheless have two Corridor of Famers, MVP and Finals MVP on our group,” Ballmer mentioned.
Clippers proprietor Steve Ballmer on whether or not group can contend for an NBA title subsequent season pic.twitter.com/9GO2OkAHpi
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) July 19, 2024
The Clippers have been the darlings of the nationwide media since 2019, once they acquired George and fellow All-Star ahead Kawhi Leonard, and so they had been picked a number of instances to win the world championship.
However after 5 years of the George-Leonard tandem, they’ve only one journey to the Western Convention Finals to point out for it.
As Ballmer famous, they nonetheless possess Leonard, a two-time NBA Finals MVP, James Harden, a former common season MVP and three-time scoring champion, and a slew of serviceable position gamers.
Nevertheless, Ballmer additionally conceded that the Western Convention is hard, and the Clippers have clearly taken a step backward.
They gained a considerably modest 51 video games and completed fourth within the West this previous season, however they misplaced within the first spherical of the playoffs to the Dallas Mavericks.
Leonard missed time within the postseason for the fourth straight yr, and that needs to be talked about as the most important cause why the 2024-25 marketing campaign shall be one other disappointing one for Los Angeles’ “different” professional basketball franchise.
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