For the LA Clippers, Playoffs or the Lottery is a Win/Win

The LA Clippers are on the edge of the playoffs. There are reasons to want the team to make the 8 seed or enter the lottery, and either situation is a win for.

Going into the All-Star Break, the Clips find themselves in the 8 seed , 0.018 ahead of Sacramento in the win percentage column. Some fans find themselves pulling for the team to win enough to get into the playoffs, while others want to see LA miss the playoffs. The LA Clippers sent away a lotto protected pick to the Grizzlies (who would later send it to Boston) for Jeff Green in 2016. So if the Clips miss the playoffs, they keep the pick, while a postseason trip means the pick is gone.

In truth, it’s a win/win situation for the Clippers. There are good reasons to cheer for either outcome, which puts fans in a very relaxing position; there aren’t very many bad outcomes on a night to night basis. Let’s have a look at the arguments for making the playoffs vs. keeping our pick.

The first, and maybe most obvious, argument in favor of gunning for the preseason is just that it’s fun to see your team in the playoffs! The Clips don’t have the storied postseason history of some other teams, so fans love to see the team in the playoffs. Plus, with so many young players on the roster, isn’t postseason experience invaluable?

Playoff basketball is a different animal than the regular season. This season could be an opportunity for guys like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jerome Robinson and Landry Shamet to get their first taste of postseason action, without the pressure of expectations for a deep run.

The counter-argument is that the Clips would almost certainly face the Warriors in round 1. As much as this team has overachieved in the regular season, playoff Golden State is a buzzsaw. At the most, Clippers fans would be expecting a 5 game series, but likely a sweep. That probably wouldn’t affect the morale of our young guys, but it wouldn’t be the most auspicious of playoff debuts.

These Clippers just aren’t built for the playoffs. The past five champions ranked 17th (GS 2018), 5th (GS 2017), 3rd (CLE 2016), 4th (GS 2015) and 16th (SAS 2014) in 3 point attempts in the regular season, and 1st, 1st, 4th, 2nd and 3rd in FG% at the basket. For what it’s worth, GS 2018 and SAS 2014 were top in the league in 3PT%, so they were still scoring well from 3.

Those are the most efficient shots, and they’re the shots that carry an offense through a postseason. In contrast, the Clippers currently rank dead last in 3 pointers attempted and 25th in FG% at the rim. So their postseason experience would likely be 4 games long.

Now that said, winning isn’t the only reason to make the playoffs. The Clips are poised to be big players in free agency this offseason. Making the playoffs could go a long way to convincing Kawhi Leonard or Kevin Durant that they are the missing piece to turn the Clips into contenders.

Also, it might be true that LA isn’t built for the playoffs, but games aren’t played on paper. Fans who want to see the Clippers in the postseason would rightfully argue that anything can happen in the playoffs. And how sweet would it be to achieve the impossible and knock off the Warriors? That can’t happen if the Clippers are in the lottery.

Those who would rather see the Clippers miss the playoffs and keep the pick would have the (also totally fair) argument that a team can never have enough assets. That was the driving force behind “The Process” in Philadelphia, and it worked out very well for them.

If the Clippers were to keep a pick in the 10-14 range, might they have enough ammunition to move up in the draft? It’s hard to say if they would even want to try, but it would be much easier to move up from, say, 12 than to buy their way into the draft from nothing.

There are very promising answers to the Clippers woes on offense in this draft, especially closer to the top. And the big name free agents could see all the young talent that the Clippers have as a way to extend their primes. Not to mention that another pick would make the Clips’ offer for Anthony Davis just that much more enticing, if they want to make one.

No matter which side of the aisle you sit on, the future is promising for the Clippers. Whether you’re cheering for wins or cheering to keep the pick, you’d be hard pressed to say there’s a very bad outcome to this season for our LA Clippers.