Column: Feel-good Clippers story won’t end in triumph without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George

Ahead Nicolas Batum can’t assist however marvel: If the Clippers are enjoying this properly with out Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, how good will they be when their two superstars return?

“It’s pure,” Batum mentioned.

The Clippers are the extra likable of town’s two NBA groups, a set of nameless overachievers who erase gargantuan deficits and are positioned to succeed in the postseason.

They’re a feel-good story — for now.

This actuality will change when Leonard, George and up to date commerce acquisition Norman Powell come again from their respective accidents, whether or not it’s this season or subsequent. The Clippers wouldn’t be seen as a plucky little staff anymore. They might be contenders. They might be anticipated to win.

Realizing Steve Ballmer’s championship aspirations would require the Clippers to keep away from the identical issues they encountered the final time they had been on this place.

They must do a greater job of integrating Leonard and George.

Leonard is recovering from knee surgical procedure, George is working his approach again from a broken elbow ligament and coach Tyronn Lue can’t, or received’t, provide timetables for both of their returns.

“I’m uninterested in listening to that s—,” Lue mentioned Wednesday after he was requested for an replace on Leonard and George. “When they’re enjoying, I’ll let y’all know. I’m drained about speaking about them on daily basis.”

Lue’s frustration over the inquiries is misguided however comprehensible. The day the Clippers have their complete staff again collectively feels as if it’s someplace within the distant future. George might rejoin the lineup within the subsequent month and this might nonetheless be a misplaced season, through which case the hunt for the elusive first championship will carry over to subsequent 12 months.

Urgency will probably be heightened then as a result of Leonard will probably be 31 subsequent season and George 32. After subsequent 12 months, the Clippers’ nucleus might begin wanting outdated, the anticipated declines of Leonard and George coinciding with Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks coming into his prime. The younger cores of the Memphis Grizzlies and Phoenix Suns also needs to be additional developed.

There are putting similarities between the staff the Clippers have on the courtroom now and the staff they fielded the season earlier than they acquired Leonard and George.

Personified by the tenacious Patrick Beverly and Montrezl Harrell, the 2018-19 Clippers made the playoffs because the eighth-place staff within the Western Convention. Fashionable pondering was that the Clippers had assembled an ideal supporting forged for a participant comparable to Leonard, who was an impending free agent on the time.

They succeeded in signing Leonard and buying and selling for George the next offseason.

The end in Leonard’s and George’s maiden season with the Clippers: a humiliating elimination within the Western Convention semifinals after blowing a 3-1 sequence result in the Denver Nuggets.

The method of including two franchise gamers to a longtime locker room proved tough, notably in a season interrupted for 4 months by the COVID-19 pandemic and completed in a bubble at Disney World.

Chemistry shouldn’t be an issue this time. Leonard and George have performed with most of those gamers and there’s no query whom this staff was constructed round. As many touches as Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris Sr. are getting in Leonard’s and George’s absences, they know what their roles will probably be and why they’re right here.

“If they arrive again,” Batum mentioned of Leonard and George, “we’re going to be prepared for them.”

The 2 All-NBA performers have remained engaged by allotting recommendation to the staff’s youthful gamers.

“They’ve been nice, simply being round,” Lue mentioned.

From purely a basketball standpoint, these Clippers additionally look extra able to complementing Leonard and George.

They’ve a roster full of gamers who can defend a number of positions, together with Powell, a commerce deadline addition who’s at present sidelined with a damaged foot. They’ve plenty of shooters who can unfold the ground, comparable to Batum, Morris and Luke Kennard. They’ve depth.

What they don’t have is what they didn’t have once they collapsed in that sequence in opposition to the Nuggets two years in the past: a real level guard.

Leonard and George might be serviceable ballhandlers, however neither one is LeBron James.

Can a championship be received with a bunch of wing gamers and no pure distributor? The Clippers could possibly be a case research.

In fact, none of it will matter if Leonard and George aren’t wholesome. Reintegrating them again into the staff would require them to be on the courtroom first.