Ty Lue and the LA Clippers will enter the 24-25 season trying to remain competitive despite the loss of Paul George to the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency. The Clippers have only missed the playoffs in two of the previous 13 seasons.
"When you lose a guy of Paul George's stature, instantly people [think] oh, they can't win or they're not going to be competitive," Lue told ESPN last week. "But that just challenges me even more. OK, people are counting us out or people don't think we're going to be good. That right there just gives me an extra dose of [motivation].
"I can't wait to prove everybody wrong."
The Clippers are hoping to get a healthy season out of Kawhi Leonard and will have a training camp to further integrate James Harden.
"It will make a huge difference," Lue said of having an entire camp with Harden.
"Having to learn [how to best use him] on the fly was tough... What he's shown us is that we can run a pick-and-roll ... scoring the basketball, making plays for each other, making it easy for everybody to play."
