Los Angeles Clippers
The 2024-25 Los Angeles Clippers can be defined by unexpected overachieving fun, but to the same end result.
What did we learn?
Expectations flip flopped for the Clippers.
Before the season, they were left for dead.
Nobody wanted anything to do with the Clips. They let PG walk and Kawhi was injured, it was just James Harden and the bandits. Everybody and their mom was on the Clippers Under 35.5 wins.
But then the season commenced and not only were the Clippers winning, but they were fun.
We made the realization early on that the Clippers will always be better suited to be the scrappy underdogs than the front-running bimbos.
It was Dec. 1 and we were already saying:
There is not a team whose preseason Over/Under prediction that we regret more.
Watching this Clippers team has been a pleasure, one of the great underrated surprises and joys of the first month of the season.
Harden IS the system. That’s not a joke. Neither was this defense that had a shot in the arm with the arrival of Kris Dunn and Jeff Van Gundy.
With Harden leading the way, turning back the clock as the team’s No. 1 option like he was back in Houston, the Clips had Norm Powell step up as the No. 2, getting straight buckets and scoring a career-high 21.8 points per game after 13.9 last year off the bench.
Ivica Zubac also had a career year, holding it down as the 2-way force on the interior and rounding out the Clippers makeshift Big-3.
That’s right. Harden, Norm Powell and Zubac flanked by defense-oriented and selfless guys bought in playing sound team ball.
We can’t emphasize that enough: this group played as a team. And the defense was seriously legit. The No. 3 defense in the league.
Dunn was a defensive menace. DJJ provided length. Zubac roaming and swatting.
Ty Lue and JVG had this unit prepared on a nightly basis to give them the best chance of winning with what they had available.
Then Kawhi made his season debut, returning and looking like the same robot Kawhi. That’s when the Clippers ripped off a month-long stretch of having the No. 1 defense in the NBA.
They did hit a rough patch in February when Norm Powell missed some time with a knee, strengthening his case as vitally important to the success of this team.
The Clips turned it all around in March, their best offensive stretch of the season. Zubac racked up a 28-20 game and Kawhi scored 25+ eight times over the last month of the season.
Going into the playoffs vs. a thin Nuggets team that just fired their coach, all of a sudden, everybody was bought back in on the Clippers.
That first-round series was a battle, but the Clippers eventually fell short again, losing Game 7 in rather embarrassing fashion — down by 38 points in the third quarter.
Harden laid another elimination-game egg, scoring 7 points total on 2-of-8 shooting, added to his lengthy, lengthy list of playoff stinkers. He did have 13 assists, but that doesn’t come close to getting him off the hook.
Now the Clips are right back to where they once were.
But the aging stars are a year older and the expectations are forever sliding.
The water is choppy and the weather is unclear.
At least this season was so damn fun.
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Additional Notes
It was on low volume, but Amir Coffey might have had the quietest 40.9 percent from 3 shooting season in the NBA this year. The Foldier Soldier (!!) never gets old. Shoutout Brian Sieman.
Bogdan Bogdanovic was a good and underrated buy-low acquisition at the trade-deadline. It’s a shame Terance Mann didn’t work out here, but they smartly moved off his contract.
Shoutout 36-year-old Nic Batum who hit some big-time 3s in the Denver series.
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Did our preseason Over/Under prediction hit?
At least the new stadium is super cool! Under 35.5 wins.
Clippers 2024-25 record: (50-32)
Not by a long shot.
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What’s Next?
Harden is a free agent with a $36-million player option. The Clippers finally seem like the perfect spot for The Beard.
A backup center seems like a good idea. The makeshift work-in-progress guys of Mo Bamba, Kai Jones and eventually Drew Eubanks didn’t exactly translate to the playoffs. (Bamba and Jones were long gone and Eubanks only played garbage time.)
It seems like a good idea to try to develop the youngin’s here: Kobe Brown and Cam Christie did not see much playing time at all last season.
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Favorite Clippers Highlight of the 2024-25 Season:
STRAIGHT COOKING.
