LA Clippers: Now or Never | Real Ones | The Ringer

LA Clippers: Now or Never | Real Ones | The Ringer

Is this the Clippers last legit shot at a title and one of the things that uh that really struck me you know uh Harden last year of his deal uh Kawai has gotten an extension but it seems like with all the injuries that they have had over the last few years combined with

The playoff disappointments um we know how hard this league is and I want to start with you Raja um based on what they’re doing right now I think they’re fourth in the Western Conference they are they have shown inklings of them trying figuring it out you know behind the uh the great

Play of kawhai and Paul George what is the if you’re on the Clippers right now Raja what is the urgency this year when you’re healthy relatively speaking you know Westbrook is is is uh is rehabbing and trying to get back into the fold but how if you’re if you’re a a veteran in

That locker room what are you tell telling the guys about the urgency for this team to try to go make a run and try to win a title when it nothing else is promise Beyond this season yeah I mean we’re at a code red um level in terms of our sense of

Urgency to win this year um for for a number of reasons you know you you just talked about contract situations and what we look like moving forward from that regard but let’s let’s assume everyone stays I mean Kawai is an older player now who to be fair was injured a

Lot when he was younger that that that usually doesn’t get better as as as you play more basketball um Russell Westbrook you know I’m a Russ stand but we’re we’re on the back end of that right and so every year there’s going to be a slight decline to what percent or

Degree I couldn’t tell you definitively but it’s just not it’s not getting better at this point do you know what I mean so yeah you you coupled that with the fact that this year it feels kind of wide open in a way that you might not say every year like

Obviously there’s Denver that won it last year and the and and Boston looks great at times but you have to look around and think that if you’re in that upper echelon of teams in either conference that that provided you get some good draws and you’re healthy this

Is a real opportunity of a year so when you put all of that together if I’m one of the vets in that locker room that’s just what I’m saying to folks like listen guys this this is a year where if we can get healthy down the stretch if

We can find our stride um you know and we’re locked in in a way that someone else might not be if they’re a higher seed than us or or what have you we could we could do this and so for all of those reasons let’s let’s get this done

Right now Howard with with this specific team you know it has its roots to the 29 the summer of 2019 and I’m sure me and you both were in Vegas and when it was in the struggle of the night we’re just seeing Oh Paul George and kawhai are

Going to the Clippers and there was this assumed um notion that this will lead to multiple years of not only contention but just titles and also a pendulum shift in Los Angeles right now the Clippers throughout the regular season over those last few years have been the

Better team over the Lakers and have been um have made strides to to maybe one playoff run in the bubble if you want to say that was legitimate to uh compete for a title if they don’t do it this year what does that say for you know the front office

And all everything that it took to get those two guys and what will the Legacy be of that night if they not necessarily this year but in the next few years if they don’t win what does that say for this team and what they and the ambition

That they had on that night there’s a lot that’s happened in the last like five years obviously since that that incredible um that coup like it was a coup the Clippers I can’t emphasize this enough over the years the Clippers had never been a destination ever ever ever

Ever the fact that they got two of the top 15 top of wherever they were wherever Kawaii and Paul George were at that moment in time in 2019 that is Earth shattering that is is uh that is that just changed the way I think everybody thought about the

Clippers and I think that that endures right they’re going into their own building for the first time in their entire Southern California history they will have their own home starting in the fall and they will go into it with at least kaai maybe it’ll be kawhai and Paul George and James Harden probably

Will that’s that would be my guess and like this is a new era right like it started with you know the shift from Sterling to balber um it starts with with all kinds of things like there’s a lot of little things along the way too like even the Doc Rivers era

There with Lob City with Paul George and Blake Paul George EXC Chris Paul Blake Griffin DeAndre Jordan that group every single piece of this has moved them forward and kind of taken them out of you know the the dark ages of the Clippers just being a perennial laughing

Laughing stock um so I think like there’s a permanent change in how we view them they’re no longer squandering their best asset which is that they’re located in LA and that other team in La the one with all the banners and all the glamour they only got 15 roster spots so

If you want to live in LA and want all the things that come with that there’s another option now and I and for decades like the Clippers were not a realistic option so I say 2019 No Matter How This Ends right if the season uh ends in the first round for them if

It’s if we just if it’s a catastrophe if they all get hurt again whatever it is and they never win a championship 2019 still mattered getting Paul George and Co Leonard I think still mattered um all that said and I’ll I’ll I’ll we can come

Back to this but I I was ready to dismiss it Logan when you sent me the text about is this it that felt very dramatic is this it is it now or never and then the deeper I dug in and well we can get back to it but I the more I’m

Starting to think I do think this is it like I I do think it’s kind of now or never for this group the reason why I asked it and I’ll do this to to to pose this question to Raja the reason why I asked the question

Was we know there’s only a finite amount of time to win at the level of the Clippers aspired to win at right and you need there’s a finite amount of time and there are only certain players that can help you do that if you look over the

Last couple of years what happens Kawhi Leonard you know messes up his knee right that just erases a whole season then Paul George hurts his shoulder there’s so many injuries with him right even with and the the overriding notion was if this team ever gets healthy this team ever gets healthy they’re the

Deepest team in the league they’re coached by one of the best coaches in the league in Tao but we also know when you get to this point how hard it is to sustain and when you have a when you have we me and Roger talk about this all the time when you

Have a chance to go win you have to do it and at the fourth seed when you have an aging core in the way that they do playing healthy and as well as they played in certain times right I was watching this team against Houston last

Week and just how good that they can be in spurts but this this isn’t none of this is Promised right Raja like none of this can end up happening if and if you look at their next year for instance right they’re another year older kawhai it’s it’s another chance for kawhai or Paul

George to get injured in that way we know James Harden doesn’t have that more more years left this and and nothing and this is the the chance for them to in the way that they’ve been playing this season it’s finally a chance for them to actually make doe on the promise that

They made a few a few years ago and even that isn’t PR is because the two guys that they’re relying on are injury-prone the third guy that they’re relying on doesn’t really play well in the playoffs uh when it matters the most of James Harden and then you have then who are

You then that just makes the urgency all the more palpable right rajer you know there there are a lot of things that that point to this this being the year that they need to get this done right and and just generally speaking windows don’t stay open forever you know you

You’ve got a core whether you’ve whether circumstances circumstances in the past you know haven’t allowed you to really capitalize on everything that that you’ve got there or not that’s besides the point like your window is rapidly shutting and and you did like I didn’t say Paul George but another one that’s

That’s injured a lot like that those things don’t get better when you have guys that are just on the other side of their prime or maybe still in their Prime to a degree um the urg it is now like it it’s it’s a now thing because you just typically don’t get healthier

While you’re playing the same amount of minutes and carrying the same sort of load if that makes sense you you you’re not going to you know your skill sets like like Russ’s and James Harden once they peaked and theyve plateaued for a while and they’ve been at the highest level they

They don’t have a Resurgence and then just get better at the tail end of their career that doesn’t that that and that really if ever happens and so you got to go out there and win that I would just add one more thing to it is

Great as tyo is and he’s I I believe tyo is fantastic I’ve said this before but I also In fairness talk about like messaging and when you’re really close to to winning but it never you you just don’t get over the hump like at some point the messaging becomes like

Stale and you know I do think certain coaches have a way about them that that keeps it fresh for longer than others can and I think tyo falls into that category but that’s just another piece of that puzzle you know of of of why we would want to get this thing taken care

Of this year and so you know again I I think if I’m a vet in that locker room I’m I’m trying not to make it a pressure cooker of a situation for some of the guys that might not be at the same point in their

Career as I am you know I don’t want to add any additional pressure but I certainly I certainly want us to understand that that that we’re fully capable of this and and this is of all the years an excellent opportunity for us to really put our best foot forward

And win a championship cuz it’s it’s really you know it’s really right there and I said it before like if you look around you know we do this a lot you guys might not want to admit to it like when they’re talking about who you want

To draw in the first round and oh we don’t care we just want to play that’s [ __ ] people are looking around all the time people are looking around all the time saying man you know we ain’t worried about that you know like it happens all the time and

So as as it pertains to them this year if you’re looking around there may be teams they don’t want to see but I think big picture they’re looking around saying this could be Had

On the latest ‘Real Ones,’ Logan Murdock, Raja Bell, and Howard Beck discuss the latest playoff push by the Los Angeles Clippers, and how this might be the Clippers’ last chance at a championship.

Check out the Bill Simmons YouTube channel: youtube.com/billsimmons

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