Four years later, we await the L.A. takeover

The Lakers won one title and then struggled, and the Clippers keep waiting for absent friends.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

We’re closing in on the fourth anniversary of the day Los Angeles gained exclusive possession of the Lawrence O’Brien Trophy.

It would spend the rest of its golden years with the Lakers or the Clippers. The rest of the NBA might as well have sought relegation.

The Lakers got Anthony Davis from New Orleans in exchange for Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart,, Lonzo Ball, the draft choice that became De’Andre Hunter, three other draft picks or swaps, and a $500 gift certificate at Sit ‘N Sleep.

The Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and, following his instructions, picked up Paul George from Oklahoma City in exchange for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, the 2022 draft choice that became All-Rookie selection Jaylin Williams, three other first-round picks, and a LOBCITY California license plate.

The Lakers/New Orleans deal happened before free agency opened up. The Lakers were in the running for Leonard, who was coming off a Finals MVP season during the Toronto Raptors’ title march. So were the Raptors. Since the Lakers had already made their primary move, the Clippers needed Leonard like they needed plasma. Their viability in the market was at stake. Sticking with the status quo would have been boring, a capital offense in the L.A. sports world, like making a movie that features human beings who can’t fly or turn their hands into spikes of steel.

The other thing you don’t do in L.A. is look back. Something might be gaining on you, including your miscalculations. On Thursday, league-approved sources claimed that the Clippers were the front-runners to become the next stop on James Harden’s traveling (and charging) quest for an NBA championship.

In any case, July of 2019 altered history almost as profoundly as the millennium scare.

The Lakers did indeed win the 2020 NBA championship with Davis and LeBron James. They didn’t make the 2021 playoffs, didn’t escape the first round in 2022 and were swept in the Western Conference Finals in 2023, which was hailed as a glorious and gallant “playoff run.”

The Clippers blew a 3-1 Western semifinal lead over Denver in 2020, played well to get to the conference finals in 2021, didn’t escape the play-in tournament in 2022 and were first-round losers this spring.

Against all odds, the rest of the league kept functioning. Milwaukee won the 2021 NBA championship with a conventionally-built roster. Golden State completed its round trip from hell to win in 2022. Denver was the 2023 champ with second-round pick Nikola Jokic, ACL graduate Jamal Murray, and a bunch of others who were considered either too brittle or too pedestrian to really help anyone.

Again, the Lakers knew full well that the Davis trade would endanger them in the long term, and they took that risk to win a title, and that’s a defensible plan. The Clippers are the ones who bought the dream without reading the Carfax.

Leonard and George are together only a little more often than The Hangover cast. The Clippers are 96-46 when they’re in tandem, but that’s only 142 games in four seasons. Whether Leonard is a slow healer or whether he insists on playing only when he’s 100 percent or whether he really is taking the Clippers on an epic ride is not the issue. It doesn’t matter whether he is really hurt. We can only assume that he is. The point is that he doesn’t play enough basketball, not for that money or that salary-cap strain.

There was precedent, clear for all to see, including the Clippers.

In 2017 San Antonio played Golden State in the Western semifinals. It was leading Game One, 78-55. Then Zaza Pachulia of the Warriors encroached on Leonard’s landing space and knocked him out of the game. The belief was that Leonard had merely reinjured an ankle that had idled him during Game 6 of the previous series. Maybe he’d be back for Game 2. Okay, Game 3. Well, at least next season. 

Instead Leonard was diagnosed with a complicated quadricep tendon injury, and wound up seeking his own doctors after the Spurs officially cleared him to play. He played only nine games in 2017-18, and the Spurs traded him to Toronto for DeMar DeRozan. Leonard still only played 60 games for the Raptors, but then led them into the playoffs.

That is the diminishing rope of hope that the Clippers hang onto. But in 2020, Leonard and George were healthy together. The Battle of L.A., which seemed so inevitable the previous July, was obviously coming to the Covid-19 bubble in Orlando. Then the Clippers blew three consecutive leads against Denver after they led that series, 3-1. In their Game 7 men-to-mice faceplant, Lenny and George went 10 for 38 and totaled one free throw attempt. 

To be fair, George was a warrior in the Clippers’ 2021 run, and Leonard was right there with him until he suffered the torn ACL that cost him the entire 2021-22 season. George never played in the most recent Phoenix series, and Leonard scored 38 in a Game 1 win, 31 in a Game 2 loss, and then took a seat. When it was over, coach Tyronn Lee stated the obvious: You can’t win without your best players.

Gilgeous-Alexander, 24, has since become Oklahoma City’s best player and, in fact, a first team All-NBA selection. He has averaged 24.7 points in his three OKC seasons, 31.3 this season. Maybe that type of production wasn’t obvious, in his rookie season for the Clippers, but his talent and playability certainly were.

And maybe the Clippers wouldn’t have won the West with Gilgeous-Alexander and their usual bag of draft picks. But slapping together two or three max-contract players and expecting them to function smoothly is not a given. Look at Luka Doncic/Kyrie Irving, or Julius Erving/George McGinnis, or Harden/Chris Paul. It’s only a tribute to LeBron James’ greatness that he’s been able to make it work three times now.

The Nuggets should be the new model. They have constructed a present and a future by going through the drafts, developing what they have and showing patience with players and coach alike. As it is, the Clippers, like the Chargers, spend the off-seasons luxuriating in the completeness of their roster, then wind up starting the next off-season earlier than they should.

Meanwhile, the Lawrence O’Brien Trophy continues to vacation in different time zones. The Clippers’ part of LA must not be L’OB City after all.