Stoplights over spotlights.
Yellow lights on a good day.
So far, the Clippers’ Kawhi-and-PG era has been stop-and-go, somewhere between a slog and a slow burn, dissatisfying because the goal, of course, is for the Clippers to claim their first NBA championship.
The deals the team made at Thursday’s trade deadline didn’t quicken anyone’s heart rate, nor will they accelerate the team’s pace in its run up to the postseason.
Because it’ll take at least a few weeks, after all, to figure out how to play with the new guys, Eric Gordon, Bones Hyland, Mason Plumlee and, perhaps, a point guard off of the buyout market.
Possibly someone like Russell Westbrook, the polarizing player the Lakers just traded to Utah. The Jazz are expected to release him, at which point there’s reportedly a real possibility – for worse or for worse – that he’ll become a Clipper.
But whenever, if ever, the new-look Clippers settle into a rhythm, let’s be real: It’s up to their stars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, to get the team out of neutral and into a race that got more crowded this week.
It’s been so slow-going the past few years, in part, because of the injuries – and incessant, subsequent injury management – experienced by the Clippers’ leading tandem.
The most inopportune knee knock in franchise history, Joe Ingles’ second-round playoff nudge, resulted in Leonard’s torn ACL, costing him the rest of that 2021 postseason, all of last season and slowing him still. (On Friday against Milwaukee, Leonard will miss his 20th game this season due to right knee injury management; they’ve gone 9-10 in those games so far.)
But maybe it’s also the natural order of things, gravitational pushback in line with Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams’ stance that: “Everything you want is on the other side of hard.”
It’ll be easier for the Suns to clear that divide now, with the acquisition of Kevin Durant from Brooklyn in Wednesday night’s stunning…
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