I keep hearing that the Clippers are poised to do well all of a sudden. I thought the owner didn’t give a rats ass about wins because he makes enough money as it is off the team?? Enlighten this non-NBA fan about what’s going on, please.
What you heard is only partially true. On the one hand, they haven’t been run at a Cleveland Indians-in-“Major League” level, where the owner is TRYING to lose games by employing all horrible players. But for a team in a major market, Sterling has rarely shown a willingness to go over the salary cap or even into the luxury tax to field a winning team. I personally think he gets a bad rap in this respect; everyone said he would never sign an expensive free agent, but they matched the Heat’s offer to Elton Brand some years ago (at 6 years, $82m) and also paid big bucks to Corey Maggette, Baron Davis, etc. Some of these signing may not have been prudent but it also showed a willingness to spend money if the player was right.
For their team this year, they came into the off-season with a slew of young players and other assets (like first-round draft picks). They were able to leverage their young players into Chris Paul, the superstar PG from the Hornets, and pick up Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups (who was waived by the Knicks) with some of their cap space. They don’t have much depth, but their starting five is quite good and they should be a top-6 team in the Western Conference.
There are plenty of valid reasons to complain about Donald Sterling (on a personal level, he is a scumbag) but after matching a 4 year, $43m offer to DeAndre Jordan, I don’t think being a cheapskate is one of them.
What happened is that the Clippers got the top pick in the draft a few years ago and chose well; Blake Griffin is quickly becoming one of the big stars in the league. This offseason, the Hornets (who are owned by the NBA) were trying to trade their star player, point guard Chris Paul. The Hornets agreed to trade Paul to the Lakers, but the NBA rejected the trade for reasons that were never really explained. The Clippers were basically the only other team making an offer and they eventually worked out a trade. So now the Clippers have Paul, who might be the best point guard in the league, plus Griffin and a few other complementary pieces, and they’re in position to be one of the better teams in the conference.
The Clippers have been horrible under Sterling. They’ve had two winning seasons and won one playoff series in his ~30 years as an owner. Things are poised to change. Why? I’m not really sure. Maybe he’s changed his strategy now that he has a major marketable star, maybe a second star player fell into his lap and even he couldn’t blow it; maybe the new collective bargaining agreement also helps.
Does this have anything to do with this mega TV contract that I’ve heard allowed the LA sports teams to spend like mad?