What more can the Los Angeles Clippers organization endure?
Years of awful basketball, the rise to first-round exits, and the scandal of a racist owner leading to a Hulu mini-series staring Laurence Fishburne in ‘Clipped’.
Then there was Kawhi Leonard suffering yet another indefinite injury, and now another scandal as a former trainer for the Clippers organization is suing the team for unsafe and illegal treatment of Kawhi’s injuries.
Clips fans may have been thrilled for the start of the season, with the addition of their new arena, the Intuit Dome. With a 2-2 start to the season, though, uncertainty still looms on the horizon.
As the start of the marathon NBA season continues, there will be plenty of questions surrounding the team: When will Kawhi be back? How big of a minute restriction will he be on once he can play consecutive games? How much will general parking be at Intuit Dome?…
One question trumps all. There is a former MVP on the team that everyone seems to have forgotten about. The question is: Will he be able to fill the void of Kawhi?
James Harden
The world has forgotten that James Harden even exists.
If you don’t believe it, ask Vegas why they set the line for the Clippers’ wins at 42.5.
After his departure from Houston and his antics in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, it’s difficult to remember him as anything other than the dude who got caught in a strip club without a mask in December 2020, or his ballooned physique in 2021.
The Beard had a fantastic tenure in Houston, winning the MVP in 2018, finishing second and third the following two seasons, and three consecutive scoring titles. Afterward, he forced himself out of Houston to join a failed superteam, and we would never see that version of him ever again.
Not an Angelic Start in City of Angels
Harden started 72 games last season for the Clippers and averaged 16.6 points per game on 34.3 minutes.
The drop-off in his level of play was noticeable not only in the counting stats but also in the eye test. Injuries were a factor over the Houston to L.A. timeline, and sharing the rock with Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Russell Westbrook, and Kawhi Leonard played a part in the dip in statistics. Though, the man was averaging a high of 36 in Houston. That’s a drop-off of over 50 percent!
There’s still hope he can bring a bit of a boom this season. His offensive production so far has been excellent as he is getting to the line to shoot nearly 9 free throws a game. He’s also 2nd in the league in assists per game. He is still trying to shoot himself out of a slump, currently sitting at 27% from long range.
With last year’s high-usage players (PG, Westbrook, Kawhi) out of the mix, the Clips will most definitely see better production from ‘the system’ as the season progresses. All it takes is a little MoreyBall, and Harden can still lead any offense to league average.
Tough Western Conference
Here’s the deal:
The West continues to prove each year that they are the toughest conference in the NBA. Kawhi could come back this year, but with the timetable being indefinite, how large of a minute restriction will he be on when/if he comes back? How many games will he sit out? Who do Harden and the Clips’ have as option number two? Will Norman Powell be ready to make the jump from perennial 6MOY candidate to start? He did drop 37 on Denver at 63.6% from deep the other night.
Nevertheless, I still have to imagine that an injury to Harden would make the Clippers go from a play-in team to a lottery team. They just lost to the Blazers in a game that only Powell and Harden scored over 10 points in.
With Harden and Stormin Norman being the only players on this roster consistently creating offense, it could be a long season in LA. But Harden has done more with less before. The answer for the Clippers might just be to unleash the Rockets’ “MoreyBall’ offense with Harden at the helm and hope your role players can knock down enough threes.
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