Among the few silver linings that 2020 has still to offer, there is one good news for sports fans like myself. The NBA will officially be restarting their season tomorrow afternoon before proceeding to a three-month conclusion to the season. For the past few months, all that could be done is place wagers on what would happen if the world was right enough to allow something as trivial as basketball to return, filling our lives with this exhilarating entertainment for a few hours a day. Not only will there be way more games than normal, but it will be more manageable, lacking the overlap that your average season usually has.
All things considered, the warm-up to tomorrow’s launch has been a successful one that has defied any hurdle. With painstaking effort to make this a reality, I want to thank everyone under NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for being considerate and diligent with operations to make this a reality. In a time where other sports industries are still failing to get off the ground, it’s a miracle to know that The NBA has an exceptional track record.
But anyway, I want to do something that I haven’t felt comfortable doing over the past few months. Without a game to really use as a backdrop, I haven’t been able to share my personal pick for who I think should win The NBA Championship this season. With special circumstances, this may be a bit more muddled than normal and means that there are way more obstacles to get one coherent answer. Even then, I have spent those months when games were active watching teams and finding the ones that I admire most.
And the one that I think stands up above the rest is The Los Angeles Clippers.
I understand that there is this perverse rivalry between the two Los Angeles teams. Because of their history, The Lakers are perceived as the favorites to win. After all, they have the most consistent stats in the western conference. There’s so much more to their narrative if they win, including how LeBron James managed to win championships with THREE different teams. It’s the comeback story everyone wants to believe for an all-timer. But even if we were to take The Lakers seriously, I don’t think he deserves MVP. To me, Anthony Davis is the shining future of The Lakers and has done more to make 2019-2020 better than 2018-2019.
With that said, I have personally found their recent line-up to be a rather boring team and put myself in the strange camp across the hall, in the other locker rooms. It’s the one who plays at best like the little brother who has never been as good as The Lakers because, in all honesty, they have never won a championship. They have little to prove for themselves especially since they’ve rarely been consistently great. They have to advertise this season by saying “L.A. our way,” and it still feels like overcompensation.
But man oh man do I think that coach Doc Rivers and crew have just had a better time putting together a team. Sure their manager looks like he’s having too much fun at press conferences, but what he has done has been a slow assembly of a secretly great team. When it was announced over a year ago now that Kawhi Leonard and Paul “PG-13” George was coming to The Clippers, confetti may as well have shot out of a cannon.
They were the missing pieces necessary to build a really good team into a great team. It’s true that their records don’t always reflect this. They aren’t exactly as reliable as The Lakers in dominance. But that is to ignore what makes them equal parts great as they are frustrating.
To be a fan of The Clippers right now is to see fleeting moments of greatness. Ask any professional analyst and they’ll tell you that we have yet to see their full potential on the court. They have rotated line-ups so many times that they hold the record for most changes. There is something unexpected about their average game, and I’d argue that it makes them the most exciting team in the west. Not since The Golden State Warriors a few years back has a team had a roster with so many secret weapons that you could find a third-quarter surprise mixing up the game, causing a 15 point comeback that would put them in the lead. What they lack in immediacy they more than make up for in the long con.
If I have any skepticism about their upcoming luck, it will be that I believe they are a team that benefits from momentum. In the games leading up to the quarantine, I recognized the potential starting to take shape. The rough patches were finally being smoothed out in favor of the team that I knew they could be. Much like an average game, there is something to be said for them playing together a month in, when they understand each other’s rhythms so perfectly that it becomes one fluid motion.
That’s of course because they have some of the best players both as starters and supporting. On the frontline, you have Kawhi Leonard and PG-13, who together have worked as an indomitable force. Whether they share the court or alternate, they have control over the team that catches the other team off guard, constantly making you question decisions. While I think that PG-13 is the better of the two, I do love Leonard’s quietness, his willingness to let the ball-playing do the talking (even if it lead to one of the strangest cross-promotions in recent memory). Also, if he wins the championship it would mark an incredible turnaround from last year when he lead The Toronto Raptors to their first-ever championship.
From there you go to the supporting team, who includes one of my absolute favorite players. The simple truth is that I love Patrick Beverley. Whenever he is on the court I can’t help but watch him. He has so much energy that he often runs laps around the offense before they dribbled once. His eccentricity has caused him to be so aggressive and sometimes mocking (I am really looking forward to The Houston Rockets match-ups) that he is a jester. A talented jester who can deliver when he needs to. Also, I seriously don’t think he should do post-game interviews because he just has too much of that free-spiritedness in him when he talks.
Then you look at players like Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell. While the former is vying for yet another Sixth Man of the Year Award this year (fun fact: Williams named his son Syx because of this), he believed that a lot of credit should go to Harrell. I’d fully agree because Harrell is that aggressive, tank-built player who gets in the paint and dominates when he needs to. If Leonard or PG-13 isn’t on the court, I feel like we’re in safe hands with him. Add in guys like Landry Shamet, Reggie Jackson, and Ivica Zubac and you got a team that doesn’t really know when to quit (obviously there’s more).
While many have argued that The Clippers’ best games are ahead of them, I understand those who just want to dismiss them. After all, they’ve lost games to The Memphis Grizzlies and The Phoenix Suns for lesser reasons. They don’t always bring their A-Game. Due to injury, PG-13 didn’t debut until a few months into the season. Because of injury, almost every player (including Beverley with what I’m sure was a self-inflicted concussion) have missed games.
The polite way of looking at this is that they’re trying to keep the players from being overworked. I understand this mentality when compared to last year’s finals. No matter how you slice it, The Warriors are said to have lost mostly due to a tragic series of injuries. This is in large part from having to be overworked, relying on strategies that were falling apart. When you’re coming off of one of the most dominant teams in the league failing, it makes sense to want to simmer. Coddle injuries now so that they can play hardball when the time comes.
Though if we’re being honest, it’s still a very annoying part of being a fan of The Clippers. With The Lakers, you can expect James and Davis most nights. With The Clippers, you are getting one of the greatest crapshoots in modern basketball. Will Leonard be healthy enough to play? Will Beverley hold himself back from injury? I guarantee you that everyone has used this sick day approach a few times, and it’s really thrown my perception of some games off.
That is of course when they’re not doing one of the most dreaded phrases in modern basketball: load management. As a player, it’s the most sensible thing in the world. You don’t want to go the way of The Warriors. With that said, when your star players are more known for sitting out a few games monthly, it makes you wonder what’s going on. Is he really that great if you’re holding him back from being a more conventional player? The Clippers’ only excuse is that their team is good enough to work around it. Even then, without Leonard or PG-13, you’re not exactly giving your best.
I’m not saying that this team is perfect or that they have had the most enjoyable season. When they have components that work, I love them. They are electric. Elsewhere, I begin to understand the appeal of players like The Rockets’ James Harden who insists on playing so much. He may be redundant, but he has an ethic that has rewarded him nicely as the lead scorer of the season. We know what to expect, for better or worse, and that’s a relief if you’re judging not on the long term, but the game you’re watching now.
Doc Rivers would have to be foolish to not take advantage of current circumstances and unleash the whole beast. As far as I can tell, the core of the team will be in the bubble come their game on Thursday. I am excited to see them work together in top form, beating down The Lakers like I know they can. That’s the thing. Whereas LAL has two of the more dominant players, LAC has a bench that brings with it many sneak attacks. If Davis falls to injury, there’s a strong uncertainty of victory. Meanwhile if Leonard falls, there’s a supporting team that will bounce them back. It’s not a perfect strategy, but it’s one that will make you have a deeper confidence in their long game.
Personally, I would embrace the unexpected over the next three months. I’d love for certain teams to pull up a few surprises. Can The Dallas Mavericks pull ahead with the great Luca Doncic delivering some of the most entertaining performances? How about Zion Williamson and The New Orleans Pelicans, who remain my favorite underdog team even before he joined the team? Can The Raptors pull a championship AFTER losing their star player? So much can go down in this time, and I welcome it all.
I’d love to see The Clippers win, but I’m also aware of the highs and lows of their season. They have been a great team straddled by imperfect games. If not them, then I would argue that this is The Milwaukee Bucks’ year. To me, they are the perfect balance of star player and supporting squad that never disappoints. Given that Giannis Antetokuomnpo is shaping up to be the future of The NBA, I welcome it as this great symbolism.
Much like COVID-19, nothing anymore is certain. I am grateful for every surprise that we’re given, where something successful comes from a fraught period. I am thankful for every player sacrificing time away from their family to entertain us all, finishing a season that has had one of the greatest question marks in recent NBA history. I know that in theory this all doesn’t matter, but there’s something fulfilling about watching it, that it unifies us in discussion and hope. As much as I doubt I will ever root for The Lakers this season, I accept it more as friendly rivalry than some toxic fandom.
It’s just my personal opinion that The Clippers are better. I just hope that they prove this to the world come Thursday. I will be excited to find out. It’s awesome to have a good kind of unknown in the near future. It’s a much more pleasant and satisfying use of everyone’s time.
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