Los Angeles Clippers

Los Angeles Clippers fans can at least rest easy knowing their team will be motivated for the 2020-21 NBA season.

Patrick Beverley provided a glimpse into the squad's mindset Sunday and said players are "pissed off" after blowing a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN: 

"The attitude around here is guys are pissed off. Which is good. We should be pissed off after our exit last year in the playoffs. I think that within itself is extra motivation there, come in training camp with a team put together [that] looks good on paper [last season] ... and when you come up short, you get kind of pissed off.

"That gives you a little wood to kind of burn inside for the fire. So everybody is kind of pissed off, so it is a little quieter workplace and guys are more locked in, more focused, and that is the way it should be."

To call what happened a collapse would be an understatement.

L.A. had arguably the most talent in the league and was in full control of the series and well on its way to a much-hyped Western Conference Finals showdown with the Lakers. Instead, the Nuggets came storming back as Kawhi Leonard and Paul George struggled in Game 7, and the Purple and Gold marched on to a championship without much of a challenge.

Things will look different for the Clippers this season after they parted ways with head coach Doc Rivers and moved Tyronn Lue into the position.

Lue was an assistant coach with the Clippers last season, which is notable because George said on All The Smoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson that the team did not make many adjustments as it collapsed against the Nuggets:

His comments seemingly placed the blame on Rivers, but Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported there was a "lack of buy-in" with the team that started with Leonard and George. The preferential treatment the stars received apparently rubbed some the wrong way, which was surely exacerbated by the way the season ended.

If Lue can find a way to balance the chemistry on the team, this is still a championship contender.

While Los Angeles will miss Montrezl Harrell, it brought in Serge Ibaka and still has enough star power and depth to challenge the Lakers. If Beverley is to be believed, they are angry enough to do just that.

Doc Rivers doesn't think he was the only reason for the Los Angeles Clippers' playoff exit last postseason in his response to criticism from Paul George:

#Sixers coach Doc Rivers on Paul George’s comments about the Los Angeles Clippers lack of adjustments while blowing a 3-1 series to the Denver Nuggets in the second round of last season’s playoffs. Paul was also criticism of how Rivers, the former Clippers coach, utilized him. pic.twitter.com/2d2I1ODy2Q

— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) December 6, 2020

Rivers was fired as head coach of the Clippers this offseason after his team blew a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals. He was replaced by Tyronn Lue, who was an assistant on the team.

George put some of the blame for the loss on Rivers during an interview on All The Smoke:

Paul George talks Clippers chemistry issue on #AllTheSmoke next Thursday on https://t.co/YiP8zmH7Ef.@Yg_Trece pic.twitter.com/d3tNR171vV

— All the Smoke Fight (@ats_fight) December 2, 2020

"We lost. But during that whole process, we never worked on adjustments," George said (h/t Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN). "We never worked on what to do differently. We just literally having the same s--t happen over and over again."

Another complaint from George was that Rivers didn't play him to his strengths, instead using him "like a Ray Allen or like a JJ Redick—all pindowns."

The six-time All-Star spent one season with the Clippers after coming over in a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder. He averaged 21.5 points per game playing during the regular season, his fewest since 2014-15, and didn't make an All-NBA team after being first team in 2018-19.

The struggles continued in the postseason with inconsistency holding back the wing. He had 15 points or fewer in six of his 13 playoff games with Los Angeles.

George is clearly expecting more success under Lue, although Rivers doesn't believe things will be much different.

Rivers is now the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers and will try to help a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs last season.

Some members of the Los Angeles Clippers got an early start on making the media rounds this week, but the team officially met with members of the press on Friday to discuss what happened last season and their expectations for the 2020-21 campaign.

The Athletic's Jovan Buha reported on significant questions about their chemistry  in the wake of their playoff loss to the Denver Nuggets, Kawhi Leonard said they are taking steps during training camp to make sure that's not a problem this season:

Kawhi says that chemistry builds from Day 1 and that he and PG missing training camp due to injuries last season hurt the team from the onset. He said that he and PG participating in this season’s training camp should help improve the team’s chemistry.

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) December 4, 2020

The Clippers blew a 3-1 series lead to the Nuggets in the second round. They lost each of the last three games in the series, despite having double-digit leads in all of those games. 

"We shoulda won and coulda won," Leonard said when asked about the team being accountable for that loss. Just looking at it from my perspective we should have played better."

On the subject of accountability, Paul George seemed to put the blame for the Nuggets' loss on Doc Rivers' lack of adjustments as the series went on.

Here's what George told Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on the All The Smoke podcast, via ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk:

"We are talking amongst each other like the conversation is, we are going to be all right. The conversation should have been like, nah, we need to change this, we need to switch this up. I don't think we deserved it. We wasn't prepared enough going into it. ... We didn't put the work into it. It was kind of just like, yo, we got PG, we got Kawhi [Leonard], Lou [Williams], Trezz [Montrezl Harrell]. We going to be straight; we are going to figure it out."

George took a very different approach when discussing what went wrong on Friday. 

"The fact that I gave up 3-1 series sits with me and haunts me. ... I want to clear things up: I respect Doc," he said. 

Rivers has since moved on to become head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers after stepping down on Sept. 28. Tyronn Lue is taking over after being an assistant on Rivers' staff last season. 

George also said he's his own "toughest critic" and called last year "unacceptable" for himself. 

One significant step George said he wants to take is moving into more of a leadership role, alongside Leonard. 

"It has to start with us, and from there we can enforce that on the team," the six-time All-Star explained.

Leonard's approach to leadership may have started during free agency when he made a very blunt recruiting pitch to Serge Ibaka:

Kawhi Leonard said he sent Serge Ibaka a text at the beginning of free agency asking: "You coming or not?"

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) December 4, 2020

Even though that may not be the most conventional sales tact, Leonard made it work because Ibaka opted to sign a two-year deal with the Clippers. 

Ibaka and Leonard were teammates on the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors team that won the NBA championship. Their pre-established rapport should help the Clippers build the chemistry that seemed to be missing throughout the 2019-20 season. 

The Clippers will begin to answer questions about what kind of team they are going to be right out of the gate. They open the regular season on Dec. 22 against the reigning NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. 

Paul George can become a free agent after this season, but the six-time All-Star hopes to play the rest of his career with the Los Angeles Clippers.  

"I want to retire a Clipper," George told reporters on Friday. 

Despite finishing last season as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, the 2019-20 Clippers team was reportedly a mess behind the scenes.

Per Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the Clippers reportedly had chemistry issues caused in part because of the preferential treatment given to George and Kawhi Leonard. 

George's reported special treatment, in particular, seemed to rub teammates the wrong way.

"George, while a perennial All-Star and All-NBA candidate, didn't carry the same cachet with his teammates [as Leonard]," Buha wrote. "There was a sentiment among certain teammates of, 'What have you accomplished in the playoffs?' multiple league sources said."

Los Angeles has made significant changes trying to capitalize on its window of contention with George and Leonard. Tyronn Lue is replacing Doc Rivers as head coach. Serge Ibaka, who was teammates with Leonard on the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors, was signed as a free agent to play center. 

George is from the Los Angeles area and has close ties to the city, but the Clippers' results this season could end up determining the future direction of the franchise. He can opt out of his deal and become a free agent next summer. 

The Los Angeles Clippers hired Tyronn Lue to replace Doc Rivers as their new head coach, but the team's championship expectations will remain in place heading into the 2020-21 NBA season.

L.A.'s exit from the playoffs was more about the manner than the result. It held a 3-1 series lead over the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals before losing three straight games to get eliminated, and Rivers left the organization a short time later as part of a "mutual decision."

The Clippers' core from last season, led by Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley, remains in place, and the team should remain a top contender in the West despite the coaching change. They also added Serge Ibaka in free agency to help replace the departed Montrezl Harrell.

Let's check out all of the important information for Los Angeles' upcoming campaign after the NBA's first-half schedule release on Friday. That's followed by a look at the most intriguing games and a record prediction.

               

2020-21 Clippers Schedule Details

Season Opener: 

Championship Odds: +650 (via FanDuel Sportsbook)

First-Half Schedule: NBA.com

        

Top Matchups

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers are the team to beat not only in the West but in the NBA as a whole, and that makes the Staples Center rivalry the unquestioned biggest matchup to watch for the Clips.

They split four head-to-head meetings during the 2019-20 regular season, but the long-awaited clash in the Western Conference Finals never materialized because of the Clippers' shocking exit. The Lakers proceeded to rout the Nuggets en route to the NBA Finals.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis now represent the measuring stick for any superstar duo in the league, whether it's Leonard and George, the Brooklyn Nets' Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, or any of the other standout combos.

A couple statement games during the regular season could help bolster the Clippers' confidence heading into the playoffs, where a meeting with the Lakers will likely loom again if they want to make the Finals.

              

Philadelphia 76ers

Rivers landed with the Sixers shortly after his departure from L.A. Philadelphia is a team in a similar position, accumulating talent led by Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid but having been unable to get over the hump in the playoffs to seriously chase a title.

It creates a dual-storyline matchup with the Clippers. Not only facing off with their former coach, but meeting with an opponent that's following a similar path to see which one is farther ahead in a crowded group of second-tier championship hopefuls.

The teams split two meetings last season, with both winning at home. The cumulative score was 240-239 in favor of Philadelphia, showcasing how closely matched the teams were, and there shouldn't be a significant difference this time around.

Who knows, if everything falls into place perfectly, the teams could meet again in the NBA Finals.

             

Season Forecast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MSCVikOX-U

The Clippers' playoff disappointment overshadowed an otherwise strong first season of the Leonard-George era. They finished second in the West with a 49-23 record and tied for second in the NBA with an average point differential of plus-6.4.

That said, the postseason collapse left a sour taste in the team's mouth, and it showed through in rare pointed comments from the typically soft-spoken Leonard, who told reporters L.A. needed to "get smarter as a team" after getting knocked out by the Nuggets:

"Just being smarter, us being able to know what to do in situations when guys are playing certain ways and seeing how we can get some execution down the stretch and guys knowing exactly where they need to be in crunch time or in situations where you can't put the ball in the hole. Those are the big things. That's what championship teams have. They have chemistry. ... They know exactly what to do."

Last season showed how good the Clippers can be when they're firing on all cylinders. This season will be about building better chemistry to make sure they can win even when not on their A-game.

Los Angeles should once again cruise toward a playoff spot, so its final record won't have a ton of meaning unless it ends up in the race for the top seed heading into the last weeks of the campaign. It should quite easily move past the 50-win threshold.

The story of the Clippers' season won't be written until the playoffs, though. The West is absolutely loaded with legitimate contenders, so along with the improved chemistry, they're going to need to avoid any major injuries in order to make a title run.

Regardless, anything less than the franchise's first championship will likely be viewed as a disappointment.

   

Record Prediction: 47-25

Not surprisingly, the Los Angeles Clippers' playoff collapse against the Denver Nuggets remains a sore spot for Marcus Morris Sr. 

The Clippers blew a 3-1 series lead in the conference semifinals and lost Game 7 by 15 points.

Still, Morris insisted to reporters Thursday that Denver "wasn't better than us." He appeared to defend his position on Twitter:

I stand on what I say!

— Marcus Morris (@MookMorris2) December 4, 2020

Morris isn't entirely wrong. Los Angeles had almost the entirely same squad from the one that earned 48 victories in 2018-19 while adding Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to the mix.

That the Clippers dropped three straight games to the Nuggets underlined their biggest problem, though.

The Athletic's Jovan Buha wrote a lengthy postmortem, reporting that the treatment afforded to Leonard and George rubbed some players the wrong way. Los Angeles didn't have much cohesion on the court, either, leaning far too much on the talent of individual players.

JaMychal Green, who signed with Denver after spending the last year and a half with the Clippers, provided what could be read as a critique of his old team while explaining his decision to join the Nuggets.

"Blowing a 3-1 lead, [Denver] just fought," Green told reporters. "It just showed you the type of heart they had."

The Clippers lost reigning Sixth Man of the Year Montrezl Harrell but replaced him with Serge Ibaka, and they signed Nicolas Batum to shore up their depth on the wing.

As long as George and Leonard stay healthy, the Los Angeles Lakers' stiffest competition for the 2021 title might be right in their backyard. But the 2020 playoffs showed how having the best team on paper doesn't count for much if the players aren't working together on the court.

Kawhi Leonard apparently made a strong impression on Serge Ibaka when they were teammates with the Toronto Raptors during the 2018-19 season. 

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Ibaka said his friendship with Leonard led to him joining the Los Angeles Clippers as a free agent. 

“Hey what’s up, bro? Are you coming or no?”

Serge Ibaka describing how Kawhi Leonard recruited him to the Clippers 🤣 pic.twitter.com/uxGtivcwAs

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) December 3, 2020

After Montrezl Harrell left the Clippers to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, they countered by giving Ibaka a two-year, $19 million contract. 

JaMychal Green also left as a free agent to join the Denver Nuggets, leaving the Clippers without much depth at center. 

The addition of Ibaka has been widely praised, with Rohan Nadkarni of Sports Illustrated calling it possibly "the savviest move of the offseason."

When Leonard signed with the Clippers in July 2019, Ibaka told TSN Sports' Josh Lewenberg he spoke with the two-time NBA Finals MVP. 

"After he made his decision, we spoke on the phone," Ibaka said. "I said 'you know what, bro, I'm a little sad you're leaving us, it's disappointing as a friend, but I'm happy for you."

Ibaka has averaged at least 15 points per game in each of his past two seasons with the Raptors. The 31-year-old set a career high with 15.4 points per contest in 2019-20 and shot 38.5 percent from three-point range. 

Leonard and Ibaka played together for one season, which ended with the Raptors winning the NBA championship. The duo will be hoping to repeat that success this season after reuniting. 

Los Angeles Clippers forward Paul George admitted his team didn't make any adjustments after going up 3-1 in the Western Conference Semifinals against the Denver Nuggets before falling in seven games. 

During an appearance on All The Smoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on Wednesday, George said a lack of preparation cost the Clippers a chance to advance.

George said:

"During that whole process we never worked on adjustments. We never worked on what to do differently.  We're just literally having the same s--t happen over and over again. It started to play a trick on you like 'Man, what's going on?' We're talking amongst each other, the conversation is like, 'Nah, we're going to be all right,' the conversation should've been like, 'Nah, we need to change.'"

According to George, even after the series became 3-2, the Clippers felt confident they were going to win and brushed off the loss as a minor setback. By the time the balance of the series had clearly shifted, L.A. wasn't in the mindset to make any adjustments. 

"At the end of the day, I don't think we deserved it," George said. "We wasn't prepared enough going into it. ... We didn't put the work into it." 

The guard also revealed a lack of practice throughout the year led to issues with chemistry on the floor. Head coach Doc Rivers ultimately took the fall for the debacle, with the team firing him at the end of September. Former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue was brought in for the 2020-21 campaign. 

Yet according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the "lack of buy-in" began with the tone set by George and Kawhi Leonard. 

Preferential treatment for the high-profile duo reportedly included giving them control of the team's practice and travel schedule and playing time and personal security guards and trainers. 

"How do you ever build a strong team with that s--t going on?" a team source told The Athletic. "I thought from the beginning: We're doomed. Kawhi wants too much special treatment."

Lue will have to balance the happiness of his two marquee players with an urgency to win. A meltdown against Denver in the postseason may have been the end result of a reportedly dysfunctional campaign, but the problems appeared to have run deeper than one series.         

The Los Angeles Clippers are set to waive center Joakim Noah, a move that will likely mark the end of his NBA career.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Tuesday that Noah's agent, Bill Duffy, said that the 35-year-old is "likely headed toward retirement." 

The Chicago Bulls drafted Noah with the No. 9 pick in 2007. He spent nine seasons in Chicago, earning his two All-Star nods, before stints with the New York Knicks, Memphis Grizzlies and Clippers.

The move comes as the Clippers re-signed Reggie Jackson to a one-year contract. ESPN's Bobby Marks reported that the team was just $1 million below the league's hard cap, so waiving Noah's $2.6 million, non-guaranteed contract made space on the payroll.

Noah appeared in five games for the Clippers last season in his return to the court from an Achilles injury that prematurely ended his 2018-19 season in Memphis, during which he averaged 16.5 minutes per game off the bench. He added 7.1 points and 5.7 rebounds on 51.6 percent shooting that season after an injury-plagued campaign with the Knicks. 

Through the past three seasons, he appeared in just 54 games between surgeries and a 20-game suspension for violating the league's anti-drug policy. 

The Florida product's best days of basketball are certainly behind him. At the height of his career, highlighted by an 80-game All-Star campaign in 2013-14, Noah averaged 35.3 minutes and 12.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals for the Bulls. 

Reggie Jackson will reportedly remain with the Los Angeles Clippers.

The 30-year-old agreed to a one-year contract with L.A. on Tuesday, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Jackson has experienced something of an up-and-down career since the Oklahoma City Thunder selected him in the first round of the 2011 NBA draft. He often found himself behind Russell Westbrook in the rotation with OKC and didn't have much opportunity to facilitate when they played together given the other's position as a ball-dominant playmaker.

As a result, the Boston College product averaged 9.0 points and 3.0 assists while shooting a mere 28.8 percent from three-point range with the Thunder until they traded him to the Detroit Pistons in 2015.

Jackson wasted little time making an impact in Detroit and averaged career-best totals of 18.8 points and 6.2 assists per game in his first full season with the team. He also helped lead the Pistons to the playoffs by appearing in all 82 games and averaging 15.4 points and 4.2 assists a night during the 2018-19 campaign.

The fact that he shot 36.9 percent from three-point range that season surely helped bolster his stock across the league after he was inconsistent from deep in OKC.

However, he was out from Oct. 24 through Jan. 22 in 2019-20 because of a back injury, and Detroit ultimately bought out his contract before the Clippers signed him in February.

He was largely overshadowed in Los Angeles given the presence of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Lou Williams on a championship contender, but he notably connected on 41.3 percent of his three-pointers in 17 regular-season games, continuing the shooting improvement from the previous season.

Jackson's shooting is now something of a positive, and he should theoretically still be in his prime.

L.A. can also take solace knowing he has extensive experience coming off the bench and running a second unit beyond this past season thanks to his time with the Thunder and can attack the basket if his outside shot isn't falling.

This may not be a season-altering re-signing, but Jackson is an offensive-plus player who can help the Clippers make a championship push in 2020-21.