It’s been doom and gloom and sadness for LA Clippers fans since the team’s collapse. Let’s look at some reasons to be hopeful for the future.
There’s been a boatload of despair going throughout LA Clipper fandom now that the season is over for the team. Believe me, I get it. The team that was title favorites for most of the season blew a 3-1 lead and didn’t see the conference finals. It’s enough to get any fan down in the dumps.
But it’s not time to call the whole experiment a failure. This season was a disappointment, but it doesn’t mean the team won’t be in contention for the near future. Let’s look at three reasons that fans of the Clippers should be optimistic looking ahead.
1. We still have Kawhi Leonard.
Number one, for me, is that we still have one of the best (if not the very best) player in the NBA. In a league where you need a superstar to win, the Clippers have Kawhi Leonard. Simple as that.
Coming off of a year in which Kawhi was named All-NBA Second Team and All-Defense Second Team, the 29 year old Forward is not showing signs of slowing down any time soon.
The Klaw has improved every year of his career. In his early to mid twenties, he pushed his scoring averages from the low teens to the mid twenties per game. This came at the cost of his rebounding, which dropped from the 7 range down to the 5 range.
Then in his late 20s, he figured out how to keep that high scoring average while bringing the rebounding back up. He also started improving his playmaking; before this season, his highest assist average was 3.5 a game, then he racked up 4.9 a game this season.
For a team that doesn’t currently have a playmaker on the roster, I would expect Kawhi to work on his distributing game in the offseason. If he can move from an average playmaker up to the realm of good, that will add another dimension to the offense, which was noticeably missing in the 2019-2020 season.