Clipperholics Mailbag: LA Clippers questions after the loss to the Spurs

LOS ANGELES, CA – APRIL 03: Los Angeles Clippers consultant Jerry West talks with executive vice president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank at the game against the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center on April 3, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

Last One

Phew. Very great question here from Alfredo. Let’s dive in.

1. Sterling Ownership

I think this one is the most resolved out of the three listed. Jerry West himself is in part a product of the change from the ownership under Donald Sterling to the ownership of Steve Ballmer. Could you ever imagine someone near the caliber of West working under Sterling? I think not.

The best way to make people forget about that dark past is to just keep working to the future. By striving to be a premiere franchise in the league, people will forget all about Sterling. Yes, there will still be “LOL CLIPPERS” and “2nd team in LA” jokes thrown at us, but they feel a little easier to brush aside knowing we are fans of an actual competent franchise.

2. Doc as coach/GM/father

I’m not sure how much of this was West’s doing either. If you remember,

Ballmer demoted Doc in April of 2017 and didn’t hire West until June. That’s not to say West wasn’t negotiating with the team and possibly asked for this to happen, but we have no concrete evidence of any of this.

Edit: Apparently I cannot read and saw August 2017 as April. Oh well. I still think this decision was independent of West’s hiring, but it may be he had a slight influence. Regardless of who made the choice, it appears to have been the right one.

As for the father aspect, while I never fully got behind the “Austin is ruining the locker room” narrative, there had to at least be some awkward moments. I’ll defend Austin’s tenure with the Clippers until I die, but it was definitely time for both sides to move on. I think Jerry recognized this and jumped on the opportunity to grab a stop gap center while improving the locker room.

3. Lob City era

This one I do think Jerry West had a huge hand in. Everyone outside of the Clippers recognized that the team had hit their ceiling with the Lob City group. The Chris Paul trade worked out just because CP wanted to make sure he got paid. However, I don’t think anyone had the nerve to actually trade Blake Griffin until West came aboard.

It was something that we as fans did not expect and honestly I don’t think some of us have recovered from. Blake is still playing like an All-Star but the move just makes sense if you look towards the future.

Letting DeAndre this summer walk was also a smart move, but I’m not sure how much “letting” there actually was. DJ seemed to have his mind made up about half way through last season and you could tell by his effort on the court that he was checked out. Still, West and the front office didn’t go out of their way to court him and definitely didn’t fly the team to Texas to trap him in his house again.

That’s all for this week’s mailbag. Thank you to everyone who submitted a question and if I didn’t grab yours this time I apologize but keep submitting them each time we run this!