The evening of early October and the new NBA season approached when Steve Ballmer returned to the topic that had consumed eight years of owning the Clippers.
Within a West Adams compound hidden from the street by high walls, Palmer turned to Baron Davis, Paul Pierce and Jamal Crawford, the former Clippers who were sitting next to him during a test broadcast of the team’s new broadcasting service. As is often the case with Palmer, the conversation turned to heroics.
Palmer said, “My pattern is that you should only have one those comrades.”
Pierce, whose 2008 NBA title came with Boston alongside two other All-Stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
“You have to have a guy who is at least among the top five players to win the tournament,” he said. “So when you look at the championship teams, there were only a few who won it without a man considered to be in the top five. In our case with Boston, we had KG who was considered a top five man. And so Kouhi counts as that guy.”
“I think that’s the common formula for a championship competitor,” Pearce continued.
Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) and Paul George (13), cornering Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, are two of the NBA’s best two-way players.
(Gary Coronado/Trending News)
“You have to be closer,” Davis said. “I think the clippers got two locks.”
On a screen a few meters from their leather chairs, they watched Kawhi Leonard miss a shot, only for Paul George to finish possession with a basket.
“That’s the perfect example,” Crawford jumped. “Because Kawhi misses a shot and the ball goes back and PG, he gets the chance in the same possession, and the other near you hits it.”
The arrival of Leonard and George three years ago with a package deal of All-Stars was only supposed to change the conversation about the Clippers, a franchise that spent the first four decades with a few post-season appearances, only over the last decade to feature frequent and frequent playoffs. disappointment.
“I think both of us kind of inwardly had a promise – I know I did it for myself – to bring a championship here,” said George.
“We have a real relationship and it ends.”
– Kawhi Leonard, on his partnership with Paul George on and off the field
The All-Star duo brought the Clippers closer than ever – their first appearance in the conference finals in 2021 – but there was no parade on Figueroa Street. The collapse of the playoff ended their first chance to win a championship and Leonard’s injury derailed them in their last two matches. By the time the start of their fourth season together arrived in September, Leonard said, “It just seemed like it went by that fast.” George admitted that his window to win the title is shrinking.
No one can say whether the Clippers, with their laden roster of length, variety, shooting, veterans and well-documented injury history, would have a better chance of completing what the team describes as its “mission.”
Its achievement depends on the season’s difference. During bootcamp, conversations about clippers showed that they thought it could be.
They saw evidence of this in the initiative of players, including George, to lead and cover the costs of informal retreats in San Diego and Santa Barbara.
His coach Clint Parks said they saw it in Leonard’s commitment to a recovery regimen that “didn’t cut corners,” and his healthy first weeks of training after a 15-month layoff after knee surgery.
They hear it the way Leonard and George often talk, and the way they each describe the development of what Leonard called their “real relationship.” Leonard was among the few teammates invited to his Italian wedding in July.
“You don’t talk about basketball, [you] Talk about your life, and we’re just building the chemistry from there,” said Leonard.
George took the unprecedented step of pre-season by declaring himself the team’s second choice to Leonard’s No. 1, adding, “And I’m totally fine with that.”
Some took it as further evidence that more than a decade into their careers, ego has taken a back seat to sacrifice. She certainly distinguished herself from coach Tyronn Lue, who tested the potential and dangers of the two-star dynamic as Lakers teammate of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, and in Cleveland as coach of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.
In Leonard and George, he sees something that is not always the case.
“The most important thing is that only these guys can get along,” Lue said. “You know, 1A-1B, one-two, whatever you want to call it, just as long as these guys get together—they love to play with each other—that’s the biggest thing for me.”
As Leonard and George become increasingly comfortable within the organization, they also become more willing to do what might be uncomfortable for them during their first year together – take charge in the changing room.
The two, he told me, “definitely opened up a lot”.
Lawrence Frank, the team’s head of basketball operations, said George has embraced the challenge of “doing something that hasn’t been done in the history of this organization.”
After Lue publicly tore up the team’s unprofessional approach to their pre-season loss to Denver, George also dealt with their focus behind closed doors.
“We don’t all want to miss the opportunity we have,” said George. “There is a very good chance for us to go and win it.”
Clippers striker Paul George greets fans on the field before last season’s game.
(Ginaro Molina/Trending News)
“I shoot, even when he calls me,” said ranger Reggie Jackson, one of George’s closest friends.
George described his tandem driving approach with Leonard as “read the room”.
“Seeing whether T-Lue will be the good guy or the bad guy that day,” Leonard said. “You just kind of work in between because you don’t want your stars to say you’re not doing well, And the Your main coach. It brings you a lot of sadness. So if it’s one of those days when T-Lue is in a bad shape, it’s like, “Okay, let’s try to pick up the team.” And if he talks well, it’s like, “Well, we’re not doing this right kind of thing.”
Leonard and George’s willingness to speak, and their teammates’ willingness to listen, is not a small element that can determine their ultimate success. Just as a lack of cohesion in the locker room was a factor in 2020, Lowe said one of his biggest concerns about his deep roster is how much players are willing to sacrifice. Striker Marcus Morris Sr. has described this season’s camaraderie as the best he’s had since joining the squad in 2020 – but more important, Leonard said, is whether that energy lasts 20 or 40 games.
“As a player, you’re just trying to figure out who’s frustrated or see those points we’re falling behind and try to bring up those concerns, but it’s human nature, you know what I mean?” He said. “When I was coming into the league I didn’t like what I was doing but I did my job and I’m here now… It’s just about focusing on the team’s goal.”
Leonard enjoys the power of adulation and criticism not only for his championships with San Antonio and Toronto, or for his more prized World Cup Finals, but also for what his colleagues and executives describe as his unwavering work ethic as he recovers, often finishing weights exercises by the time members have arrived. team for training.
“Kohe won’t say much, he’s just doing his best,” said guard John Wall.
“This is the delicate balance of having two stars, essentially in the same position.”
– NBA Scouts regarding possession of players in control of the ball
Among scouts, there appears to be little doubt that Leonard could return to his NBA form. With Toronto in the 2018-2019 season, Leonard returned from a leg injury that marred the end of his stint in San Antonio averaging 26.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 60 regular season games before averaging 30.5 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.9 critical passes. He is a postseason who finished with his second title and Finals MVP honor.
The most pressing question for the Scouts, especially after witnessing the start of last season with George at MVP level last season with Leonard sidelined, is whether Lue and the Clippers can have the best version of George and Leonard at the same time.
“That’s the delicate balance of having two stars, primarily in the same position,” said one scout.
A few championship teams are built around the wings. Coaches, executives, and players have cited duo Joe Domars and Isaiah Thomas in Detroit, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago, James and Dwyane Wade in Miami, and Golden State’s long-running group Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Miami assistant Dan Craig watched in 2010, Wade and James, both dominant scorers on the ball before they united with the Heat, and they endured a “huge learning curve” during their first season to learning how to play effectively with each other while taking on the responsibility of making teammates Better.
Clippers star Kawhi Leonard (pointing) missed last season after recovering from knee surgery, while his teammate Paul George (second from left) played in only 31 games.
(Robert Gauthier/Trending News)
Craig realized similarities to the Clippers when he arrived in 2020 as Lue’s first assistant during Leonard and George’s second season.
“In my experience with Miami, it was something these guys had to learn as well. First, how do you play ball, and second, how do you play in moves together where you can bring out your strengths and the strengths of the team?” Craig said.
Midway through Lue’s first season as coach, in 2021, he and his assistant Larry Drew, Leonard and George held a long photo session together in a hotel room in Washington, D.C. to discuss the team’s struggles late in close matches. Lu described the meeting as a major advance.
“Obviously Kohi missed the whole last year, but I’ve definitely seen growth since I’ve been here in terms of playing together and playing with each other,” said Craig.
Including the playoffs, Leonard and George played only 50 games together in their first season and 54 in season two. After a separate season, they’ll run a clearly defined attack that Craig and Lowe credit for helping lower the learning curve and increase their output together. Lue said it won’t be “free-flowing,” but aims to call specific plays for specific players to get the ball in specific areas. There’s also optimism that Wall, whose average career assist is the seventh best player in NBA history, will help play the role of an offensive traffic cop.
“My view is that both guys have to do a lot for this team to be successful, and that’s dangerous,” Lue said. But the biggest part is about defense. I suspect [they’re] Two guys like locking corners and they can protect multiple locations, so that should be their way of thinking.”
Since Leonard does not play small games during the vacation period, his recurrence with George to restore their chemistry was limited during training camp. Their chemistry during the 2021 second-round series against Utah, when they both scored 30 points in two consecutive games before Leonard injured his knee, will not be restored immediately. Leonard warned that there would be an ebb and flow into his next year.
The Clippers, as emphasized by Davis, Pierce and Crawford, are a recipe for ultimate success—all-star talent, plenty of depth and Lue’s championship coach.
“The sky is the limit for our team,” Palmer said in June. “The sky is the limit and it’s going to be kind of our effort and energy, because of course you have to have a little bit of good luck to win the Larry O’Brien Cup, which we really hope.”
They made it very clear. Players walking in the lobby of their Playa Vista training facility during training camp passed a large screen TV. On it was the image of the Gold Cup awarded to the NBA champion, accompanied by four words.
one team
one task
One stops at two stars.