Clippers face long journey after James Harden trade: ‘It doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to win’
With 4:25 remaining in the fourth quarter and his team down 16 to the Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue emptied his bench.
Out went James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook. In came unrecognizable names to close a game the Clippers hoped they’d win on the road.
It was a disappointing way to end a game for a team with reinforced championship aspirations. Acquiring a player like Harden does just that — makes an already lethal Western Conference contender that much more dangerous.
It gives the Clippers four future Hall of Famers. Two former league MVPs, a Finals MVP, and two perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidates. All on the same roster. All with the same goal.
Harden’s arrival supercharges the Clippers. It also presents questions the roster must come together to solve.
Superteams come with championship aspirations and leave ringless with regularity. The Clippers want this to be different.
“Just because you acquire a guy like James Harden, it doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to win,” said Lue. “You’ve got to put the work in. You’ve got to be ready to sacrifice. So our guys understand that.”
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Harden seems happy. Happier than someone who’s been through his set of circumstances should be.
Two seasons ago, he’d volunteered to vaccinate Kyrie Irving himself if it meant getting his former Brooklyn Nets co-star back on the floor on a consistent basis.
The following season, he forced a trade to the Philadelphia 76ers, then forced another one after an erosion of trust with the Sixers front office made Harden hellbent on leaving Philly for good.
That’s Irving, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey — now Leonard, George and Westbrook as superstar teammates. And before his trade to Brooklyn, Harden had run the superstar gamut in Houston, recruiting Westbrook, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard during his extended tenure with the Rockets.
He forced a trade from there to Brooklyn, too.
“You make it sound so bad,” he joked about his resume of All-Star teammates. “One thing about me: I can play on and off the ball. I’m very versatile. So for me it’s easy. It’s just getting to know each other.”
For Harden and the Clippers, it’s about getting into game shape, then getting on page with the rest of his teammates.
After all, Monday night marked four months plus one week from the day Harden opted into his $35.6 million player option with the 76ers, solely for the Sixers to trade his contract in a deal with the Clippers.
He held out of all but one day of Sixers training camp while working through his trade request. Then he took the floor for the Clippers without much of a ramp-up.
“It felt kinda weird out there not really having a preseason game or participating in a full training camp,” he said. “None of that. It was just basically winging it. But tried to go off my basketball instincts and what I’ve been doing for the last few years. Just going out there and playing and thinking the game and trying to make the game easier for everyone else.”
The all-world playmaker felt gassed in his first NBA minutes of the season. Harden said the Clippers staff initially tabbed him for 28 minutes in his debut, but that he pushed back for 31 to 34 minutes. He finished with 17 points on six-of-nine shooting from the field to go with six assists and two turnovers.
“He got tired [after] a couple stints or whatever and had to come out, but I thought overall just orchestrating, making the right play, making the right passes, pick and roll, it was really good,” said Lue. “It’s gonna take a little bit of time to get in game shape. We understand that, but his presence on the floor was definitely felt.”
Harden’s teammates already feel his impact. He puts the ball in shooting pockets with the seams lined up for shooters to lock-and-load. He takes the pressure of initiating offense off his teammates and shoulders it on his own.
“Great showing. He looked in rhythm. I know his conditioning was a little off. But other than that, he looked great,” said George. “Made shots. He got guys involved. He made impact on defensive possessions.
“I think all the build-up to it [the trade], it happened. And now I think we can just get to work and work as hard as possible to make it work.”
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The Clippers have to be ready to shoot. It’s the biggest difference with Harden quarterbacking the offense versus the plan the team had before the trade became official at the start of the season.
Westbrook, George and Leonard are all used to creating offense for themselves as individual talents. Lue looks at them as cooks, and Harden is a master chef.
“I just hope when they’re cooking, they’re not eating all the food,” Lue said ahead of tipoff. “That’s the biggest thing, man. That’s gonna be my job, to make sure I manage it, make sure everyone is in a rhythm on a nightly basis. That’s my job. I’m excited to see it tonight, see how it looks. And we can go from there.”
The Knicks were a tall first order for a Clippers kitchen still organizing the back of its house. The Knicks turned the Clippers over 22 times and obliterated them on the glass, 48-31. The Clippers have four All-Star names on the back of their jerseys, but the kinks in the offense are apparent.
“James plays totally different from Russ. Russ plays totally different from me. We all play totally different from Kawhi,” George told The Daily News. “I think that part is the good part about it all. None of us have the same play style, so when we figure it out, we’ll all just find our niche and what we can do to help the team win.”
On one possession, Harden got by his defender downhill in a pick-and-roll situation and rifled a kick-out pass to the right corner like he’s done thousands of times in his career. But this time, one corner was occupied by two teammates: Norman Powell, who was already in Los Angeles prior to the Harden deal, and PJ Tucker, who came over from the Sixers with Harden.
Powell caught the pass, pirouetted along the sideline, then dumped the ball off to Tucker, who lost it out of bounds.
“Yeah it’s a little different. All training camp and the first five games, we’ve been telling guys to cut when Kawhi or PG are coming off the pick and roll to give them space, but when James handles the basketball, try to be more spaced and stay in our spots because he can make the pass and make the reads,” Lue said. “So that’s gonna be a little different for us, but it’ll just take some time. That first half just defensively we were really good, so that’s something for us to grow on. We’ll go from there.”
There’s also the question of who truly closes games with a win on the line. On Monday night, Lue called Leonard’s number often in the second half as the Clippers attempted to keep the game close.
“Everybody has to sacrifice. But I thought the matchup with Kawhi, we could attack that a little more,” Lue said. “We’ve gotta make sure we keep everybody engaged, as well as PG, offensively as well.
“Russ and James have led the league in assists the last four, five years. They’re capable of making those plays and setting guys up and making sure we’re in the right spots. So I don’t think it’ll be a problem at all.”
Leonard said everyone has to be ready to make a play in crunch time
“No, it’s gonna be like that,” he said. “We have a lot of guys who can score the ball, I’m not the only one. So I’ve just gotta be ready when my number’s called.”
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This could have happened later in the season. The fact that it didn’t only helps the Clippers in their chemistry-building quest.
This trade came five games in, though the breadcrumbs have been there since the start of the summer. Lue said he’s played his rotations out “thousands of times” in his head.
“We have a long time to get it together, understanding what we have, understanding different combinations and how we want to play,” Lue said. “I think this trade being so early helps us out.”
It’s clear the Clippers are a juggernaut on paper. Harden knows from his time in Brooklyn what’s on paper doesn’t always check-out on the court. His Nets had a 13-3 record in games he, Durant and Irving played, but due to injury and off-court issued, the trio never stayed on the floor.
Now on the Clippers, the focus is back where it should be: on basketball.
“I mean, it was a lot going on through my mind but just happy to be out there and able to hoop,” Harden said.
The Clippers are a loaded contender residing in a stacked Western Conference. They hope to unseat the reigning champion Denver Nuggets, but will have to battle Durant’s superteam Phoenix Suns, the Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors and other dark horse West contenders to realize their full potential.
With Harden quarterbacking, the Clippers like their odds.
“It felt good. Unlimited possibilities,” he said. “Now we’ve kinda ironed things out. I’ll watch some film, get better, it’s a process we have to go through as a group. But like I said. Unlimited possibilities.”
George said this is the best shot to win a championship in his career.
“Absolutely. When it comes down to the talent aspect, this is one of the most talented teams I’ve played for,” he said. “But we’ve gotta make sure it translates over to the court. We’ll figure it out. First game. A lot of moving pieces, but it was fun playing on the court with those guys. A lot of optimism going forward.”
