The Los Angeles Clippers would’ve been a contender in any of the last ten years of competitive basketball. Chris Paul and J.J. Redick are both having fantastic individual seasons, and the team still hasn’t seen what its ceiling is once Blake Griffin starts to feel comfortable in the lineup again.
The Clippers have shown flashes of being an elite team in the past; however, they never seem to keep that going for a few months in a row. They have enough talent to beat anybody, but they just haven’t figured out how to blend their abilities.
The playoffs are going to be tough for the Clippers to navigate. They might be able to get out of the first round, but even that isn’t a foregone conclusion. The Portland Trail Blazers won’t be an easy out, and then things will get even trickier in the second round. The Clippers will have no chance against the Golden State Warriors, and that will be where their season ends if they advance past the Blazers.
Paul and Griffin will be crucial to how the Clippers execute in the playoffs. They haven’t gotten along very well in their time together, and Blake didn’t help matters by punching out a team employee earlier this season. Griffin is such an athletic player that it would be foolish to give up on him, but the Clippers will have to take a hard look at their roster this summer if things don’t play out in their favor this postseason. They have been underachieving for the last two years, and the moment has arrived to do something about that.
Head coach Doc Rivers is facing an uphill battle with this squad, and they’ll be lucky to get out of the first round. We’ll just have to watch what kind of focus they have to start things off.