As the Portland Trail Blazers get ready to face off against the Los Angeles Clippers this coming Sunday for Game 1 of round one of the Western Conference playoffs, this is your friendly reminder that the Clippers shouldn’t be this good. Thanks to a power move made by the league five years ago, the Clippers lucked out on a player that has propelled them to great, though unfulfilled, heights.
In December of 2011, then-NBA Commissioner David Stern nixed a deal that would have sent New Orleans Hornets star point guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers to play alongside Kobe Bryant, who at the time was still in the midst of his prime. The deal also would have sent Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets, while the Hornets would have received Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, Lamar Odom and Goran Dragic as well as a 2012 first-round pick. But Stern vetoed the deal while he was acting as owner of the league-owned Hornets. Since then, fortunes haven’t been the same for any of the teams involved in the proposed deal.
Stern’s rejection of the trade, buoyed by many other team owners who voiced their disdain over the deal (besides Lakers owner Jerry Buss, of course), was the league’s way of trying to keep small-market teams on par competitively with big-market teams, especially coming off the heels of a five-month lockout where one of the main goals was to help small-market teams keep their star players. Now, here was the behemoth Lakers franchise ready to take away the best point guard in the league from little ‘ole New Orleans. Stern, in order to sustain all reasoning for the lockout, forbid the deal and kept Paul on the Hornets and also kept the Lakers from growing into another super power at the expense of a smaller franchise.
Less than a week later, however, the NBA agreed on a trade that sent Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers. In return, the Clippers sent away Eric Gordon, present Blazers Chris Kaman and Al-Farouq Aminu, along with a first-round pick. Last I checked, the Clippers don’t reside in a “small-market” city. But, they were mired in a years long parade of losing. Because this deal was seen as a better option for the Hornets than the preceding Lakers trade, the NBA agreed to let this particular transaction happen.
Since then, the Lakers haven’t been contenders since. In fact, they’ve been downright awful for the most part. The Rockets later acquired James Harden and Dwight Howard and were good for a spell. The Hornets acquired Anthony Davis from the lottery but have yet to find significant success. The Clippers, meanwhile, have turned around their once joke of a franchise into a winning one ever since the trade. Paul, along with All-Star Blake Griffin and defensive stalwart DeAndre Jordan, have helped the Clippers become contenders every year, though they have yet to make even the conference finals.
While the Clippers have had a lot of talent surrounding him, make no mistake, Chris Paul is the engine that drives this team. He is the main reason the Clippers are winners, and a possible dark-horse to win the title this year. Yank Paul off this team and what you have is a good, though not contending, NBA club. Paul doesn’t just put up All-Star-type numbers every year, he isn’t just one of the greatest point guards of this generation; he is bona fide leader among players. It’s Paul you see yelling and screaming at his teammates. It’s Paul who sets the tone and tempo of every game. It’s Paul who makes the Clippers as dangerous and formidable as they are.
The best thing that ever happen to the Clippers was Stern vetoing that initial trade between the Hornets and Lakers. As a result, the Lakers’ future immediately went up in flames when they later acquired an over-the-hill Steve Nash and man-boy Dwight Howard. The Clippers’ future as been, for once, on the right side of opposite of the Lakers. They have a winning tradition for the first time in ages. Chris Paul, with an assist from David Stern, is largely responsible for the Clippers uprising.
So, congrats, Clippers fans, a franchise changing player fell into your lap and your organization instantly became perennial title contenders. But, even with Paul, this L.A.- based, step-child of a team has failed to take full advantage of having the best point guard in the league not named Stephen Curry. I don’t see them making the NBA Finals this year, not with the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs as Brontosaurus-sized road blocks along their path. In fact, their good karma period may be ending quicker than they realize. The Blazers are motioning toward the upside of good karma that is long overdue to them. David Stern can’t help the Clippers this time. First round prediction: Blazers in six.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
