Los Angeles Clippers: Redefining ‘The Process’ en route to greatness

In today’s era of tanking, the Los Angeles Clippers are in a position to redefine ‘The Process’ in the NBA and set a new blueprint for rebuilding teams

The NBA is a copycat league. It is a phrase that fans of professional basketball have heard at one time or another. Paul Pierce said it multiple times last month in a panel at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference – and he’s right.

The Toronto Raptors wouldn’t have traded for Kawhi Leonard if Paul George hadn’t re-signed with a similar small-market team in Oklahoma City last summer. Similarly, teams around the league saw the success that the Golden State Warriors had in taking three’s, and also studied the analytical approach that Daryl Morey and Houston Rockets took in taking the shots with the highest expected return in basketball – 3’s, layups, and dunks. What followed is the 3-point revolution the league is currently going through.

The same copycat mindset applies to NBA teams that are trying to rebuild. Sam Hinkie took over as General Manager of the Philadelphia 76ers after a 2012-13 season that saw the Sixers go 34-48 and miss the playoffs. Despite having a promising young all-star in Jrue Holiday, Hinkie – a former coworker of Daryl Morey in Houston – realized that the best way to his team to rebuild was through the draft. His goal became to acquire the most possible high draft picks to give his team the best chance at landing those necessary stars required to win in the NBA.

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Within two years, he traded away nearly all the proven talent on the Sixers roster, including Holiday, Evan Turner, and Thaddeus Young and straight up tanked. The Sixers were historically bad, posting a grand total of 47 wins over the next three seasons – four less than the 51 they had this campaign.

Thanks to the draft capital compiled by Hinkie and some good fortune in the draft lottery, the Sixers eventually turned the franchise around, drafting Joel Embiid in 2014 and Ben Simmons in 2016 with the first overall pick both years. Embiid even nicknamed himself ‘The Process,’ as a reference to the mantra the Sixers preached during the Hinkie era: “Trust the Process.”

Hinkie’s resignation near the end of the 2015-16 season meant he wasn’t able to see his work come to fruition as a part of the Sixers organization, but the turnaround was complete last season as Simmons and Embiid led Philly to the third seed in the Eastern Conference and won a playoff series.

GM’s around the league noticed the success the Sixers enjoyed, and in recent years the ‘tanking craze’ has taken over the league. In fact, so many teams began intentionally trying to lose games that commissioner Adam Silver actually had to modify the odds for the Draft Lottery to diminish the reward for teams that tank. But still, this year, with the potential franchise-altering reward of adding Zion Williamson to their team, organizations like the Knicks and Suns have openly abandoned their desire to win and entered the race for the Duke star. ‘The Process’ has become the blueprint for teams looking to rebuild into championship contenders.

But there is one team that is trying to re-write the rebuilding formula and, if they are successful, they might just end up reconfiguring the next new prototype for rebuilding this summer. After six years of playoff disappointment, where the Los Angeles Clippers failed to make it out of the second round, star guard Chris Paul decided that enough was enough, and forced a sign-and-trade deal that would send him to Houston to play alongside James Harden, ending the famous “Lob City” era in Los Angeles.

Without Paul, the Clippers were never going to be title contenders, and owner Steve Ballmer had a decision to make. They could go the way of the Miami Heat, who, after losing LeBron James – one part of their “Big Three” – decided to try and remain competitive behind Dwyane Wade. In the years since LeBron though, the Heat have been mired in mediocrity, often ending up as one of the lower seeds in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt and losing in the first or second round of the playoffs. Without high draft picks or much cap space, the team hasn’t really been able to progress, and again, this season, find themselves firmly in the hunt for one of the last three seeds in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

On the other side, the Clippers could follow Hinkie and Sixers’ model and trade away all their assets to be tank for a couple seasons and acquire talent that way.

For Ballmer, the decision was easy. Via the LA Times:

"“That ain’t us. Nuh-uh, no way… People can do it their way. We’re going to be good our way. We’re not going to show up and suck for a year, two years. I think we got higher expectations on us than the long, hard five, six years of absolute crap like the 76ers put in. How could we look you guys in the eye if we did that to you?”"

Ballmer’s plan was to strike a balance – manage the rebuild transition in a way that the team remained competitive during that phase and give the fans a chance to continue to support their team.

And he hired people who echoed that mission. In Doc Rivers, he had one of the most respected coaches in the league, and he added Jerry West, NBA legend and the man who constructed the Warriors teams still tearing up the league, as well as Lawrence Frank, the longtime New Jersey Nets head coach.

I got a chance to talk to Frank at the 2017 MIT Sloan Conference, and, as a huge Nets fan myself, told him about how I grew up watching him coach my favorite team. His response shocked me:

"“I’m sorry.”"

Now, granted, the Nets weren’t the most successful team under Frank, but it was still surprising to hear his reaction to meeting a lifelong fan. However, in hindsight, his response made sense and followed the beliefs that Ballmer, Rivers, and West had. During his time in New Jersey, Frank saw how a team’s extended bad play on the court could affect the fans permanently, and knew they couldn’t go through the same thing in L.A.

So just days after trading Paul away to the Rockets in a sign-and-trade deal, the Clippers traded away Jamal Crawford, Diamond Stone, cash, and a future first-round pick for veteran Danilo Gallinari, who would end up being one of the key stabilizing forces during the rebuild. The moves seemed odd for a team looking to rebuild, but West and Rivers saw Gallo as the perfect stopgap for their team. Just under two weeks later, the Clippers signed Blake Griffin to a huge 5-year $173 million deal, committing to the Oklahoma product.

Less than seven months after signing the five-year deal, Griffin was gone. West had traded the Clippers star for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovic, a 2018 first round pick, and a 2019 second rounder. While none of the players were very young, they were all solid players at the time, and Rivers knew he could maintain the winning culture with them on board. The Clippers finished the season 42-40, outside the playoffs, but still a competitive year, nonetheless, and a far cry from the 10-72 seasons of the Sixers.

And this past offseason, the organization did perhaps an even better job. It elected not to bring back DeAndre Jordan, the final member of their triumvirate, and picked up two young, promising guards through the draft in Jerome Robinson and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. While Robinson has been hampered by injury, Gilgeous-Alexander has performed admirably after being thrust into a starting role and has really impressed with his defense.

After Tobias Harris flew out of the gates and kept the team in the playoff hunt by averaging 20.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game while coming remarkable close to the famed 50/40/90 shooting line (he was shooting .496/.434/.877), the front office shipped him and his expiring deal off of the Philadelphia 76ers for a couple veterans, Landry Shamet, two future first round picks, and two future seconds. Not a bad coup for a player they would have lost for free anyways this summer.

The next day, they got rid of Avery Bradley and his nearly $13 million-dollar salary for the expiring deals of serviceable role players in JaMychal Green and Garrett Temple capable of playing minutes off the bench. And to put the cherry on top of the cake, in a bizarre deal by the Lakers’ front office, the Clippers were able to acquire promising young center Ivica Zubac for an aging Mike Muscala from their noisy neighbors.

Even before Harris, the team really didn’t have that bona fide star that almost every other team in the Western Conference playoff race had. Instead, the Clippers relied on a strength in depth, with the league’s highest-scoring bench unit, fueled by Sixth Man of the Year candidates Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell. This gritty, tough, team with Doc Rivers’ coaching, has defied all the odds to lock down a playoff spot in the brutally difficult Western Conference.

They managed to do so over the other inhabitants of the Staples Center. A certain team who wears purple and gold that had a certain someone named LeBron James still play 55 games for them.

On top of all of that, the Los Angeles Clippers are also one of the best positioned teams for the future and, more specifically, this summer. Through the trades over the past two years, West and Frank have acquired all three of the key ingredients for a rebuild: Draft Capital, Solid Young Players, and Cap Space. The Harris deal gave the Clippers four additional draft picks, and while their lottery-protected first round pick will go over to the Celtics this summer as a result of L.A. making the playoffs, the Clippers still have more than enough capital for the future.

In Gilgeous-Alexander, Zubac, Harrell, Shamet, and Robinson, the Clippers have some young players with serious NBA upside, not to mention the invaluable leadership and scoring of Lou Williams coming off the bench.

Lastly, and perhaps most excitingly for Clippers fans, the team has a clear path to two max free agency slots if it can get Danilo Gallinari’s projected $22+ million off the books. And many prospective free agents are reportedly going to consider the Clippers this summer. While Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving seem more likely to jump ship to the bright lights in New York City, Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler both seem to have the Clippers high on their list.

Adding both, or even just Leonard and someone else like Khris Middleton, would instantly transform the Clippers into title contenders.

This summer, the Clippers have a chance to redefine ‘The Process’ in the NBA and set a new blueprint for teams to follow on how to rebuild without putting fans through tanking. And, in a copycat league, other teams are likely to follow suit.