The Clippers dream of being a true title contender ended on May 14, 2015. That is the day of the Clippers shocking and bizarre meltdown against the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of the 2015 western conference semi-finals.
The Clippers were one quarter away from their first ever western conference finals and had a 13 point lead going into the 4th quarter, James Harden had been benched for poor play and the writing was on the wall for the Clippers to have their first opportunity to compete for an NBA Finals berth.
Then it happened.
The Clippers seemingly ran out of gas and had one of the worst quarters in NBA Playoff history, missing their final 14 shots and getting outscored 40-15 en route to a 119-107 loss, all the while James Harden was on the bench and Josh Smith and Corey Brewer (seriously) were raining down threes in a historic and shocking comeback.
The Clippers would lose Game 7 in Houston and never reach the second round again with their lob city core in two more seasons.
Countless Blake Griffin and Chris Paul injuries, a punched trainer, the DeAndre Jordan free agency melodrama and numerous failed attempts to get a legitimate starting small forward and later the 2017 free agency arrives.
Chris Paul decides that the Clippers don’t provide him the best opportunity to win an NBA title at the age of 32 and requests a trade to the Houston Rockets in which the Clippers acquire a number of decent assets on cheap contracts like Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell.
The Clippers reportedly are engaging teams like the Phoenix Suns in trades talks for DeAndre Jordan, and it is becoming more likely that they will allow Blake Griffin to walk in free agency.
Then comes Jerry West from the Golden State Warriors and seemingly a change of heart. The Clippers re-sign Blake Griffin to a five-year, $175 million contract and decide to build their franchise around him moving forward as a version of a point forward.
They conduct a sign-and-trade with the Hawks and Nuggets to acquire Nuggets small forward Danilo Gallinari and now, according to reports, they have signed elite European point guard Milos Tedosic to a two-year, $12.3 million contract to be their point guard.
Now the Clippers are projected to be just over the cap with a team that will seemingly be in the middle of a muddled mess for the final few playoff spots in an increasingly competitive conference. They will be led by a player who missed 81 games over the past three seasons, a center that may not be as effective without the alley-oop master in Chris Paul and another small forward that has struggled to stay on the court for the majority of his career.
Instead of blowing it up and bottoming out, the Clippers decided to retool their roster and get deeper with a number of solid NBA caliber players with the hopes of staying relevant and in western conference contention.
For the red-headed step child of the professional basketball sports market of Los Angeles, the little brother to the mighty and historic Los Angeles Lakers, trying to hold on to their relevancy may be the best move for a franchise that is not looking forward to another era of bad basketball and high lottery picks.
The Clippers have opted for mediocrity instead of irrelevancy, it may soften the blow in 2017-18, but it could be a mistake for the future of their franchise.
