Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Los Angeles Clippers

[ElectricMayhem]

Without either of their $44 million dollar men, the Clippers got clipped by New Orleans. We shall now cut them open and see what's inside...

Here is the data from last year's Post-Mortems:
Post-Mortem Results I: GM Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results II: Coaching Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results III: Performance Compared to Expectations
Post-Mortem Results IV: Rising/Treadmill/Waning

Team Name: Los Angeles Clippers
Record at Time of Death: 42-40 (.512)
GM: Michael Winger (2017-) (President: Lawrence Frank)
Coach: Tyronn Lue (2020-)

Offensive Rating: 25th
Defensive Rating: 8th
Rebound %: 26th
Turnover %: 14th

GM: Change or keep?
Coach: Change or keep?
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year?
Rising, falling, or treadmill?
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Notes:
Players under contract next year:
Paul George ($42m)
Kawhi Leonard ($42m)
Norman Powell ($17m)
Marcus Morris ($16m)
Luke Kennard ($14m)
Reggie Jackson ($11m)
Terrance Mann ($2m)
Jason Preston ($2m)
Brandon Boston Jr. ($2m)

Team Options:
Ivica Zubac ($8m)

Player Options:
Nicolas Batum ($3m)

Free Agents:
Robert Covington
Rodney Hood
Isaiah Hartenstein
Amir Coffey
Xavier Moon
Jay Scrubb

Dead Money:

Previous Post-Mortems:
30. Orlando Magic
29. Detroit Pistons
28. Houston Rockets
27. Indiana Pacers
26. Oklahoma City Thunder
25. Washington Wizards
24. New York Knicks
23. Portland Trailblazers
22. Sacramento Kings
21. Los Angeles Lakers
20. Charlotte Hornets
19. San Antonio Spurs
18. Cleveland Cavaliers
17. Los Angeles Clippers

[CIN-C-STAR]

Decent chance they lose Batum, Covington and Hartenstein in the offseason.
A lot of people are saying they will be favorites next season when healthy, but I really think this season was their best opportunity but unfortunately for them they just never got healthy.
Obviously still a contender going forward if they get Kawhi back, but likely to lose some depth.

[Sofia]

If I was told that Kawhi missed the whole season and Paul George would only play like 33 games, I would say they would be sub 0.500 so 42-40 seems like overachievement. The role players are strong but missed the guys that could just get a bucket when needed (including most of Powell’s tenure so far).

Makes sense to run it back again and continue to load manage Kawhi and PG for the playoffs.

Anyone who suggests replacing Lue is trolling, and Jerry West can keep working his magic in the shadows.

Find a way to bring Bobby Cov and Hart back.

[Wammy Giveaway]

It worked. The person who broke the news of management conflict got what they wanted: a distraction to prevent Clippers from pulling off their comeback magic. Also contributing to their demise was their failure to take lottery teams seriously. This one hurt the most of all: it is the first time a playoff certainty was defeated by a lottery team to take their spot in the playoffs. Clippers did this before to the Warriors in the 2012-13 season, and it resulted in the Warriors becoming NBA champions (granted it was two years away, but still, an omen).

The dynamic duo of George-Leonard is admirable from a culture perspective, but let's be real, they need to be like the rest of the greats. They need one more superstar; particularly a superstar center. They have never had one in franchise history - all the best centers ended up on Lakers or other true championship contenders. Sure, Clippers did have All-Stars in Kaman and Jordan, but they were one-hit wonders. Their best center was actually a small forward pretending to be one, Bob McAdoo, during their days in Buffalo as the Braves. Look at this year's rebound tally; near last in offensive rebounds alone. Zubac is a role player at best. They did make up for their Lob City small forward gaffe by bringing in lots of small forwards who could range triangularly from guard to center, but the rebounding, ugh.

One more thing: by the Clippers being eliminated from the playoffs, Chris Paul has won. The main lesson is this: take lottery teams seriously. Or else they'll take their place.

[ElectricMayhem]

They played admirably this year despite missing their two stars. Reggie and Morris can really step up when they need someone to be the man, but I'm less excited about them as supporting role players. Still, assuming George and Kawhi's health, which, who knows, they should be a contending team next year. I was a bit surprised that they haven't picked up Zubac's option yet. He's well worth $7.5, a year.

[RamonSessions7]

Getting there and almost beating the Pels without their 2 stars was still a solid run. Great year from them outside of the injuries

[spanishninja]

If I was told that Kawhi missed the whole season and Paul George would only play like 33 games, I would say they would be sub 0.500 so 42-40 seems like overachievement. The role players are strong but missed the guys that could just get a bucket when needed (including most of Powell’s tenure so far).

Makes sense to run it back again and continue to load manage Kawhi and PG for the playoffs.

Anyone who suggests replacing Lue is trolling, and Jerry West can keep working his magic in the shadows.

Find a way to bring Bobby Cov and Hart back.

counterpoint: the west was unusually weak this year, especially with the Lakers being an even bigger disappointment and Warriors having injuries throughout and Nuggets being a one-man show. Clippers are deep enough that I wasn't surprised they ended up 42-40 even with the Kawhi and PG injuries.

[Pachinko_]

I don't know what to say about them, another team that didn't have the players it was designed to have.
Good effort by the leftovers I guess?

[Captain Ballmer]

Find a way to bring Bobby Cov and Hart back.

I agree with Covington. But Hart really necessary? What he showed this season probably get him more then league minimum. I don't know Clippers willing to pay mMLE money to him.

He played total 15 minutes in the last 2 playin games, this is very low considering the circumstances Clippers in. When Kawhi-PG returns Covington's time on the wing positions will expire anyway so RobCov will be Ty's small ball center with Zu full time. I think he will look for more minutes and money, definitely have suitors.

Same might applied to Amir Coffey. Again he too showed enough to probably get him more then league minimum. But Ty lue played Reggie 42 and 46 minutes intead of giving him any meaningful minutes in playins. Considering the circumstances Clippers in(No Luke, No Kawhi 1/2 games of PG13 and Powell in minutes restriction) he don't have a role to play.

I don't know Clippers willing to pay around MLE money to him too. I think he will look for more minutes and money, definitely have suitors other than Clippers possible minimum offer.

Clippers should get young guard and continue develop BJ Boston. Might explore the market with Morris too.

[dockingsched]

They just need to hope their two stars are healthy. Everything else is in place. I doubt they’re thinking about moving on from PG or Kawhi, so really it’s just about doing it again and hoping they both are healthy.

[FJS]

I think they did a amazing year with those injuries.
Props to their coach and players.
I think it's a shame that a team with 6 wins less could play po winning that game when Paul George was out with Covid.

[JN61]

Thanks Clips!

[timO]

All about healthy of PG and KL.

Just do coasting in the RS and be ready por PO.

[Dadouv47]

Didn't think we would have a post mortem Clippers thread because they didn't want to die after making a big amount of historical comebacks during the regular season

The Clippers are doing a terrific job: FO, coaching staff, good trades/roles players under good contracts. I don't feel good about our future LAC picks. Only issue is that their two superstars (mostly Kawhi) are injury prone. They can be the best team in the league if both Kawhi and PG13 are healthy or a top 8-10 team in the West if they are out.

Some interesting/key moves in the offseason to make (need to choose who they will pay between Hartenstein, Coffey, Batum & Covigton). Big win if they can keep Hartenstein and another one from that list (likely Batum?).

[Bobbymcgee]

Clippers need to keep Leonard and George healthy going into the post-season next year.

Still not sure how they integrate Powell into the lineup. Does he come off the bench next year?

The Clippers also need a point guard. Reggie Jackson can't play 40 plus minutes a game. Lue wants the back up point guard to be Mann but I don't think that is to best use his skill set.

Clippers also need a younger, bigger and more athletic power forward. Morris is too small and old to keep playing the power forward spot.

Finally, it sucks that the Clippers are most likely going to lose Covington, Hartenstein and Coffey. Those are the type of players the Clippers need to help keep their star players healthy.

[slicedbread2]

The team did well in spite of the injuries, but man they got outworked in the end when Willie Green went fully Teddy Atlas on the Pelicans with his speech and it turned on a switch that caused the Pelicans to take the momentum away.

They were willing to take on a massive risk with Kawhi and PG-13 knowing their health issues and paid a king's ransom for it, but this may be looked back on as a potential missed opportunity knowing that the west is only gonna get tougher, but oh well.

They do have some major decisions to make this off-season and they'll have the following:

-Taxpayer MLE: $6,339,000. They'll have it to use even though they'll be hard capped. They may opt to use this on Hartenstein due to the fact that they only have non-bird rights with him.
-They have full bird rights on Covington and they can pay him a healthy sum to come back though it'll depend on what he really wants and if he can extract a bigger payday on another team with a larger role. I think he comes back but who knows.
-They have Nicolas Batum's early bird rights and can offer him a similar deal to what they paid out Reggie Jackson per the CBA's terms. Essentially I'd try and pay him as he's been a very valuable player and has done well during his time on the Clippers.
-Amir Coffey is a restricted FA and the Clippers have some leverage here that they can use. They should bring him back but they have a glut of guards so we'll see.
-If it was possible, I could see them trading Marcus Morris and Luke Kennard, but due to the fact that both have contracts that end in 23-24(Kennard's 24-25 is a T/O) and the fact that Morris's age+Luke's knee issues are a problem well good luck moving them. It'd open up a lot of playing time and bigger roles for the players they should keep but with no picks to trade till 28, it's best to scrap that idea.

Honestly they got some interesting decisions to make and we'll see what they do.

[Parataxis]

I'm shocked that so many people have them as 'performed as expected' or 'better than expected'.

At the start of the season they were expected to compete for a Chip. They didn't even make the playoffs.

[Roscoe Sheed]

I'm shocked that so many people have them as 'performed as expected' or 'better than expected'.

At the start of the season they were expected to compete for a Chip. They didn't even make the playoffs.

You expected them to compete for a championship without Kawhi?

[Roscoe Sheed]

I know it’s a risk to go after another injury prone player, but if Brogdon is available, they should go after him and bring Jackson off the bench

[Ballerhogger]

Keep the coach stay the course and hope kawhi and pg can have healthy season.