When ESPN interviewed Some executives and scouts have been looking at which teams had the worst offseasons. The Clippers came in third. They lost Paul George this summer to the 76ers and replaced him with Nicholas Batum and Derrick Jones Jr. The consensus is that this is a team poised to take a step back in a deep West. They might not even make the playoffs.
That’s not how Tyronn Lue sees it, as he told ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk.
“When you lose a guy of Paul George’s stature, people immediately think, ‘Oh, they can’t win,’ or ‘They’re not going to be competitive.’ But it challenges me even more. OK, people underestimate us or think we’re not going to be good. It gives me an extra boost of motivation. I can’t wait to prove everybody wrong.”
Lue said he felt invigorated after spending the summer with USA Basketball and helping him win gold at the Paris Olympics (something he said after being part of Steve Kerr’s staff at the FIBA World Cup a summer ago).
He also got James Harden for a full training camp (the Clippers traded him a few weeks into last season).
“Learning how to best use him on the fly was tough… What he showed us is we can run pick-and-rolls… score baskets, make plays for each other, make the game easy for everybody.”
Combine that with a healthy Kawhi Leonard (who was sent home by Team USA but Lue said he’ll be ready for training camp), better depth and Jeff Van Gundy as the lead assistant and defensive coordinator, and the Clippers will be good.
The quality of the team will depend on the health of Leonard and Harden and the level they can maintain over 82 games. However, without George, it’s hard to envision the Clippers as contenders on a 12-man Western team hoping to make the eight playoff spots. That said, with the energy of a new building and still plenty of talent on the roster, sleep on these Clippers at your peril.
