Nobody believed in the Clippers…Now, who’s laughing?

Nobody believed in the Clippers…Now, who’s laughing?

When James Harden got traded to the Clippers on October 31st 2023 there wasn’t really much excitement it’s because we all assumed that James Harden was done he was washed and this Clippers team was washed with years and years of untimely injuries to their stars and an aging roster that’s literally the oldest

Team in the entire league with an average age over 30 years old it didn’t look good when the Clippers lost five straight games immediately after trading for James Harden as the critics were flabbergasted on why they’d make this trade to begin with they gave up basically the rest of their first round

Picks for the foreseeable future I mean they didn’t have many left to begin with but now they don’t have a single first round pick until 2030 cuz they traded away all of their assets to compile this roster they have now it’s safe to say the Clippers are in

Such a precarious situation putting all their cards into this squad you see here with no future ahead of them but at least they do have a plan they went all in for a reason and whether or not it works out their window to win the championship is still open except how

Long will it be open for on paper the Clippers have a stacked roster of superstars most of whom are past their primes but they’re still quite good and in the past several years injuries have gotten in the way of their goals so after years of Misfortune in Five

Seasons since the arrival of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard they only had one real playoff run with both of them healthy basically coming into the 2023 to 24 season no one had any expectations of the Clippers after kawhai went down with yet another injury in the playoffs we

Didn’t have much hope that this team could ever pull it together now they finally are so how were they able to turn this whole thing around after such a shaky start to the season let’s take a look how’s it going folks my name’s Andy and without further ado let’s

Begin the Resurgence of Kawai Leonard for several years whenever you ask somebody who the best players in the NBA are they’d probably say Giannis yic maybe embiid or Luca oh and also Kawai when he’s healthy that’s what people say you have to add the qualifier healthy before you mention Kawai because he’s

Been so injury-prone that you rarely ever see him at full health since 2019 following wise championship in Toronto he’s been plagued with injuries from a torn ACL to a torn meniscus both of which happened in the middle of the playoffs it seemed like his body was simply breaking down and he couldn’t

Handle the wear and tear of the rigorous NBA schedule anymore that’s certainly what it looked like in 2024 however Kawai has come back in full force playing almost every single game now including backto backs which he’s always sat out since he came to LA this surprised some folks especially after

Another knee surgery there were doubts that he’d ever be the same player again yet unlike his older contemporaries Kawai is still playing just as well as he did back in his prime he’s averaged over 24 points a game on ridiculously efficient percentages even by his standards as he’s always been a hyper efficient

Player this is next level in fact in a 30 game stretch nobody has put up these kind of numbers before just watching him play now it seems familiar yet different at the same time some things remain the same his methodical approach his cerebral play style every movement every

Decision he makes seems like he calculated it in his head like a true robot as evident by his absurdly low turnover rate you know people have joked about that ever since he came into the league that he plays like a robot efficient emotionless and deadly but it’s actually true whenever he catches

The ball you can tell he has an entire flowchart in his head if the defender does this he’s going to counter it and do this if the defender does that he’s going to do this for a player like Kawai his game at its core hasn’t changed much over the

Years however because of all the surgeries and Rehab it’s taken a toll on his athleticism so with all that time to recover he spent those years refining every little aspect of his scoring ability very rarely do we see him explode to the basket anymore or blow

Past the player instead he uses his wide frame to move Defenders out of the way and his large hands give him a controlled dribble that dictates where he wants to go that’s why even if he’s a step slower than he used to be he still gets to a spot whenever he wants to

Whether it’s a face up move or a post move he has the entire bag just in terms of pure scoring I don’t think anyone in the league has a bag as deep as kawai’s and his scoring has taken another leap this year he’s making his shots at the

Most efficient rate of his entire career when we talk about Kawai I feel like we never mention his defense anymore I mean that’s what he’s known for for most of his career but nowadays it’s been overshadowed by his offensive game make no mistake he’s still the best defender

On this team while the CLI ERS are certainly a well-rounded team filled with Talent from top to bottom it’s pretty cut and dry that Kawai has been carrying them the entire season yet despite that he’s still not getting the respect in the MVP discussion on the February 6th MVP ladder rankings he’s

Only eighth even though the Clippers are competing for the top record in the west we should see him move up the ranks soon defense is important the Clippers haven’t been a great defensive team partly due to their age but because Kawai has been shouldering the burden on

Offense it allows guys like George and Westbrook to put in more effort on defense Kawai has been putting more effort defensively too believe it or not Westbrook has been fantastic holding opponents to just 43% shooting from the field that is currently the best out of anyone on this

Team I’ve always felt like Westbrook is one of those guys who if he was strictly a role player his entire career he would have incredible intang from his hustle plays to his offensive rebounding and high energy and it’s been paying off for the Clippers Paul George has always been a phenomenal Defender

Like Kawai it’s what he was known for for most of his career so despite his inconsistent shooting nights which still happen sometimes it’s his defense that’s been the source of stability anchored in the paint by aita zubats this Clippers team is very long very quick with great

Size at every position their lowkey one of the biggest teams in the league they have a mismatch basically every night due to their sheer size and that’s a huge advantage that will matter in the playoffs Harden’s Redemption for Harden this is his lowest scoring output and lowest usage rate

Since 2012 when he was the sixth man for the Oklahoma City Thunder however he has improved in other areas like his three-point shooting is at a career high over 42% his defense also took a step forward he defends the post quite well but even out on the perimeter due to his reduced

Role he’s putting more effort out there most importantly Harden now has a well-defined role on this team the Clippers don’t need him to score but they do need him to facilitate and be a traditional point guard over the years he slowly transitioned into this role and it finally

Clicked this is evidenced by the amount of times he passes the ball after driving to the basket over half the time 50.4% of the time to be exact compared to just 30% of the time back in Houston on a team surrounded by offensive threats this is ideal for

Him in the past during his time on the Nets or Sixers he always felt like he had to do more even if his game was slowing down after leaving Houston his roles on his new teams were undefined it didn’t help that he’d get into constant arguments with his coaches in particular

Doc Rivers who claimed it was quote challenging to coach him doc threw him under the bus pretty hard too even claiming Harden was so upset he got snubbed from the All-Star team that he stopped trying in the second half of that season I don’t know how true this is

Considering it’s coming from do rivers who seems to always throw his players under the bus but Harden did admit he was upset over his All-Star snub and he wanted more scoring opportunities on the Clippers however it seems like he’s had a change of heart now surrounded by a

Veteran team with plenty of teammates who’ve all grown up in California he feels at home at peace this is where he belongs we saw a similar Trend when Westbrook left the Lakers to join the Clippers he used to not like the idea of coming off the bench yet now he’s okay

With it especially when he’s backing up his friend and he’s playing with players that he respects this brings us to the final point of this video Tao’s uncanny ability to manage Superstars when LeBron and the Cavs won the championship Tyron louu was probably the last guy to get any credit all the

Credit went to LeBron and Kyrie and all their fantastic games but tyou rarely got recognized however out of all coaches in the league if you were to give a coach a roster stacked full of superstars or former Superstars which coach would handle them the best the answer answer

Is unequivocally Tyron Lou besides the few lineup changes he made like moving Westbrook to the bench which kickstarted their winning streak his main adjustments mostly come behind the scenes I think not wanting to step on each other’s toes I think having respect all four guys having a huge respect for

Each other sometimes that can be a negative because now they don’t want to do what they’re capable of doing that’s an interesting point he makes having too much respect for each other that you’re not playing to the the best of your ability and you’re kind of nervous

Around each other over time though the chemistry developed even after the losing streak early in the season Tyron louu was not concerned because he knew their struggles were not due to a lack of talent they needed time for everyone to get adjusted to each other and figure

Out the best ways to play off each other most importantly he stressed the improved communication on defense as the reason they’re playing better than ever plus the offense naturally got better over time and now they they have a top three offensive rating in the entire NBA it’s quite clear the ceiling of this

Team is Limitless from a pure talent perspective they are the most talented team on paper it’s just you know in the past several years the question of injuries age players being out they never put together a relatively healthy season until now this is part of the game though especially when you’re the

Oldest team sometimes all it takes is a little bit of luck let’s see if they carry this momentum straight into the playoffs because if they come fully loaded oh I think they have a great chance at winning the title thank you all so much for watching I hope yall

Enjoyed the video and let me know your thoughts on the occurrence of Los Angeles Clippers their window to contend is shrinking every year as they age and they have no assets no draft picks to fall back on they got a win sooner or later or else this entire Saga will be a

Complete waste I hope youall enjoyed the video and of course as always I’ll see you next time peace

In this video, we take a look at how the Los Angeles Clippers became one of the NBA’s most elite teams after a horrendous start to the season.

I make all kinds of NBA videos which include analysis, player stories, countdowns, and mysteries. Make sure to leave a like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video!

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Stats and box-scores from Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com, Statmuse.com, PBPstats.com

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