LA’s Other Team

The NBA trading deadline is less than 48 hours away and usually this is a time of moves for teams looking to get to the pinnacle of basketball, an NBA Championship. However, up until now, this strike-shortened season has seen very little movement by any team. That’s pretty surprising when you think that many teams with one crucial move could move into the short list of serious contenders. We’d all agree that the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder are that short list of teams. Who can join them? Who has the ability to join them? How about the recent consistent playoff teams, the Mavericks, the Magic, the Nuggets, and the Hawks to name a few? Well the Mavericks are a mess, as bad as it can get for a defending champion. Dirk is not the Dirk from a year ago, Lamar Odom is lost and the team is somehow considerably older. The Nuggets and the Hawks are always exciting to watch but always seem to be a player away. So why not trade for that player? Because if Carmelo Anthony wanted out of Denver, it must not be that great of a destination. Atlanta has never been a great destination, so that eliminates them. Then there is the Magic, who are ready to give Dwight Howard the farm, well, at least the power to run the organization. It doesn’t seem fathomable for everyone to be happy in that situation, so Orlando is going on hope. How about the perennials? The Celtics are on their way out and have been shopping Rajon Rondo, their best player and only real asset under the age of 30. Other than Ray Allen, the Celts have nothing that anyone wants. The Lakers are always going to compete, whether or not they can land Howard or Deron Williams or a package of pieces. While they need to upgrade to win it all, it is not a necessity to continue being the NBA’s elite franchise. I use the word necessity, and I mean the word necessity as a thought of who really needs to make a move more than the others. The list of teams above has the ability or the need, but not both, save for one team not yet listed: the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984. In the 27 years prior to this year, they have made the playoffs four times, winning only one series. In some ways, this franchise has been more snake bitten than other sports franchises. Yes, that includes the Cubs. You see, the Cubs have been close and have had marketable stars to keep them interesting and competitive. The Clippers have had Danny Manning, Elton Brand, and an owner not willing to spend any money. Then a funny thing happened a few years ago. They won the lottery, thus the rights to Blake Griffin. Although he did miss his entire rookie season to injury, the drafting of Griffin could be a franchise changer. If you didn’t believe it then, believe in another funny thing: the Clippers somehow landed superstar point guard Chris Paul after the NBA put a nix on his move across the hall to the purple and gold. Add Chauncey Billups, Caron Butler, Mo Williams, Kenyon Martin and others, and all of a sudden the Clippers have themselves a quality squad. Chauncey gets hurt, but with Butler, Mo, K-Mart and now Paul, they have the tools to groom Blake Griffin. They have prior experience with battles in past playoff success and heartache. The pieces are falling together. Youngsters DeAndre Jordan, Eric Bledsoe, and Reggie Evans among others give their fans excitement and a reason to watch. They also give the team something many other teams don’t have, options. Jordan, Bledsoe, Evans, they could all be used to acquire a quality, veteran shooter/defensive specialist, say Ray Allen for one. There’s the ability, now here’s the need:

With all the Dwight Howard talk and the Lakers possibly trading Pau Gasol and/or Andrew Bynum, along with the “why can’t LeBron James finish?” hype, here may be the most important question not being talked about. Will Blake Griffin opt out this year or next? He’s explosive and talented and a fan favorite. While the jury is still out on if he will become more Vince Carter (all hype, little substance) than Kevin Garnett (lots of hype, all substance), the Clips need to put their best foot forward to keeping Griffin their franchise guy. That leads to another point not being talked about; will Chris Paul stay after next season? After all, he will become a free agent after the 2013 season. So the Clippers have a year and a half to prove to their two all-stars why Los Angeles can be big enough for two teams. Here’s what they could do:

By trading DeAndre Jordan and Eric Bledsoe for Ray Allen, they become an automatic serious contender for a championship…this year. You tell me with a starting five like Paul, Allen, Butler, Griffin and either K-Mart or Evans at center, that those five couldn’t go toe to toe with any other five? Then with Mo Williams, K-Mart/Evans, Bobby Simmons and Randy Foye off the bench, this team becomes a solid nine deep. They definitely get to the conference finals if not further. Blake stays for another season and you have either Chauncey Billups or Ray Allen, or both, return. The Clips, by losing Jordan, can offer a mid-level contract to one or both veteran guards and gear up for one more season to win the trophy. More importantly, owner Donald Sterling has made aggressive moves to win now and put a quality and entertaining roster on the court to make his case to keep Blake Griffin and Chris Paul with the franchise long term.

While this is only a theory, it is definitely a slippery slope, and a critical time for LA’s other team. They could rise to the top of the NBA and possibly go on a five-year run of incredible success. However, one wrong move, or a move not made, and the Clippers could fall into their normally familiar doldrums: lottery picks year after year and never getting out of the shadow of their older brother, the Lakers. The NBA will be fine regardless of the Clippers rise or fall. But, and it is a huge but, what happens next to the Los Angeles Clippers? Especially if they can’t get to the top.