LA Season in Review: How Did the Clippers Claim the Top Spot?

As the end of the season approaches, there have been two drastically different seasons in Los Angeles. Here, we take a dive into 2018/19 for the LA Teams.

46-36, and 35-47. Those were the preseason projections from ESPN for the Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers, respectively. 35-44 and 47-32. Those are the current win/loss totals for the Lakers and the Clippers, as of the morning of April 5th.

Now that LeBron has activated offseason mode, it’s looking possible that ESPN might have nailed that 35-47! Unfortunately, they predicted the wrong LA team to be under .500. The Clippers spent all season showing that they’re not only the better LA team, but also the more professional LA team.

None of that should be very surprising, though. Two years ago, the Lakers decided to build their front office around Rob Pelinka (GM) and Magic Johnson (President of Basketball Operations): two guys who are famous as executives for doing… well… Pelinka was Kobe Bryant‘s agent? And Magic coached the Lakers for 16 games in the 90s.

Meanwhile, the front office for the Clippers is built around Michael Winger (GM) and Lawrence Frank (PoBO). Winger was a well respected executive for the Thunder, and totaled 12 years of front office experience prior to his current position, and Frank was a coach in some variety every year from 1992 to his hiring by the Clippers. Let’s not forget Jerry West. The Clippers shelled out to bring in the Logo as an executive consultant, and his fingerprint has been on the Clippers since.

From the beginning of this season, it seemed like LeBron James was the only player on the Lakers who was safe. It’s happened everywhere with James. At this point in his career, there’s no time for player development and bringing up young guys who can’t contribute right now. Sure enough, the trade rumor mill started early.

From the very public Anthony Davis trade saga to the media speculating on a Lillard trade, it didn’t matter if there was much traction or if the other side had any interest at all. What was important was that these young guys never felt permanent. Not only were the Lakers willing to listen to trade offers, they were actively shopping their young talent, especially for Davis.

Look, the NBA is a business. Trades happen. The concept of loyalty is often a one-way street; fans hate when players leave, but are all too happy to see a trade go through. But there’s something to be said for not making it blindingly obvious that your players are on the market.

How many times did the Clippers front office publicly put their players on the block? What’s that? Zero times? Oh I see.

And that’s despite the fact that the Clippers did make a blockbuster trade. The Tobias Harris trade caught everybody by surprise, and that’s partly because the Clippers know to keep these sorts of things under wraps. In the depth of the Anthony Davis drama, when some were speculating that the Clips might make some sort of Harris/Shai/Robinson trade? The Clippers pointedly did not make any such offer; they made it clear that their young talent was safe.

Shai especially has rewarded that confidence. Our own Joseph Raya-Ward broke down the awesome March SGA had. Our whole team was incredible. The Clippers had a middle of the road defense and the best offensive rating in the league in March!

The Clippers have built an organization that trusts their players and allows them to do what they do best. They have a bench that’s scoring more points per game than any bench this millennium, because they have guys who know their role and buy into the team culture. The Lakers’ bench sits at a comfortable 22nd in scoring this year, because they have a bench full of “characters” who are “Misunderstood. Underappreciated. Determined.”

This is all so evident in the numbers this year. The Clippers were a top 5 scoring team, while the Lakers were 16th. By net rating, the Clips were 12th, Lakers 22nd. All season, this Clippers team beat teams that they weren’t “supposed to.” Something which can not be said for the other LA team.

At worst, the Clippers will outperform their projection by 12 wins. If they win out, they’ll outperform by 15. At best, the Lakers can underperform by only 8 wins; if they lose out, they’ll underperform by 11 wins. Unsurprisingly, the Clippers have built a culture of working hard and putting the team first, while the Lakers have been LeBron and Assets – I mean LeBron and Friends – all season long.

Now it’s always possible that the Lakers convince Kawhi or Durant to join and trade for Anthony Davis. Maybe those guys are attracted to uncertainty and underperformance, and the Lakers reclaim the top spot. Or maybe a guy like Kawhi is interested in a great front office, great coaching staff and a team of overachievers who buy into the system 100%, and he comes to the Clippers. But that’s for another piece.