Los Angeles Clippers: Can Lee Jenkins help write a winning script?

Former NBA writer Lee Jenkins looks to help turn things around for the Los Angeles Clippers as the team’s new Executive Director of Research & Identity

The Los Angeles Clippers have been considered the other basketball team in Los Angeles for decades. LeBron’s decision to suit up for the purple and gold this offseason hasn’t helped changed that notion.

But the Clippers have just made a stunning move of its own that has as much of an impact on basketball in L.A. The hiring of Lee Jenkins to the Clippers front office will be instrumental in allowing the squad to create its own identity.

Jenkins served as a lead NBA writer for Sports Illustrated over the past eight years. His new role as the Executive Director of Research & Identity for the Clippers isn’t a typical career move for a guy like him.

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"[via SI.com]“SI remains the ultimate platform for sportswriting and I would not leave for another media outlet,” shared Jenkins in a Sports Illustrated article announcing the move. “I was offered an extraordinary opportunity to work in the front office of an NBA team and see the league I cover from a different angle.”"

While the 40-year-old will be looking at the NBA from a new perspective, it is the approach that he has developed as a writer and observer of the league that has the ability to propel the Clippers to new heights. Los Angeles has enough X’s and O’s aficionados in the front office. Doc Rivers can huddle up with Jerry West and Lawrence Frank whenever he wants to discuss the fundamentals.

What the Clippers desperately needed was someone innovative like owner Steve Ballmer. Someone who has a knack for seeing the need for cohesiveness. The man responsible telling the world that LeBron was returning to Cleveland in 2014 possesses both.

But perhaps the most coveted attribute that Jenkins possesses is the ability to remain objective. It is a mandatory skill at any level of journalism, let alone a senior editor for Sports Illustrated. It is also an area that the Clippers desperately needed to improve. Doc’s son Austin Rivers was reportedly the reason that Chris Paul ditched the Clippers for the Rockets in the first place.

Former Clipper Glen Davis couldn’t agree more.

The Clippers are getting more than just an honest opinion when it comes to Jenkins. He’s spent a considerable amount of time with some of the top stars in the NBA. He’s created an environment with players that allows for him to have candid conversations about some very uncomfortable topics. How else would he have been able to pen the story of Lamar Odom’s downward spiral that ended up in a Las Vegas brothel?

Jenkins can apply those same skills as a part of the Clippers recruitment committee. He possesses the personal relationships that are required to persuade some of the league’s top talent to join L.A.’s other team.

Three of his recent articles for Sports Illustrated feature Victor Oladipo, Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard. The one-on-one time spent with each of those All-Stars could come in handy as they are all scheduled to hit the free agent market over the the next three offseasons.

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The Los Angeles Clippers are expected to miss the playoffs in a tough Western Conference for the second-consecutive season, securing a lottery pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. That draft pick, with the addition of a few free agents, could bring back the expectations the Clippers once had for the Lob City tandem of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Who better to help write that story from within the organization than Lee Jenkins, a basketball writer himself?