National Anthem during a pre-season game between the Sacramento Kings and the LA Clippers (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
The LA Clippers unveiled plenty of attractive features on Friday at the Intuit Dome, the privately financed arena in Inglewood, Calif. slated to open for the 2024-25 season.
Will this upgraded arena also feature a championship product? The Clippers failed to win an NBA championship with both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George for the past five years. George accepted a more lucrative deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. And the Clippers just unloaded Russell Westbrook in a sign-and-trade to Utah.
That leaves the Clippers with Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and role players with the task to produce enough excitement and wins in their first season at Intuit Dome.
“The West is tough. It’s going to be competitive. We still have two Hall-of-Famers, MVP and Finals MVP on our team,” Clippers owner Steve Ballmer said. “Let’s face it. Most people would be salivating to have two guys like that on their team. We have a lot of good and great players actually that fill in, play defense and play tough.”
The Clippers also had that identity in the past five years with Leonard and George. Yet, they only made one Western Conference Finals appearance amid overlapping injuries both to their stars and role players. That reality did not deter the Clippers from granting Leonard a three-year, $152.4 million extension through the 2026-27 season. That gave the Clippers’ pause, however, from granting the same commitment to George.
George shared on his podcast that he “felt disrespected” the Clippers initially offered him only a two-year, $60 million deal. Though the Clippers eventually made a three-year offer, they declined both to add an additional year and a no-trade clause. That prompted George to accept a a four-year, $212 million max deal with Philadelphia.
“I love Paul,” Ballmer said. “Let’s start with Paul as a human being. Paul is a great human being. I really enjoyed my opportunity to get to know Paul and Paul’s family. So on a personal level, I hated it. From a basketball perspective, Paul is a fantastic player and future Hall of Famer. But we knew we needed to continue to get better.”
It also didn’t help that the Clippers would have faced punitive penalties for exceeding the NBA’s so-called second apron set at $189 million. Teams that spend over that amount no longer have a full midlevel exception and can’t sign players to veteran minimum deals.
Amid that framework, the Clippers believe they improved on the margins.
They retained Harden, who accepted a two-year $70 million contract after showing encouraging signs with embracing various roles as both the Clippers’ first, second and third option. The Clippers also bolstered their defense by signing Derrick Jones, Nicolas Batum, Kevin Porter Jr. and Mo Bamba. The Clippers dealt Westbrook to Utah in exchange for Kris Dunn, who arguably could bolster the team’s backcourt with better defense and fewer turnovers than Westbrook might with his erratic play often overshadowing his intensity.
“A bunch of dogs on the defensive end. We’re excited to get after it,” Clippers forward Terance Mann said. “We already started talking about it. We’re excited to pick up dudes full court, get into passing lanes, get stops, shoot threes and dunk the ball. We’re excited to get out running.”
The Clippers will get out and run in an arena with better perks than what they had at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles. The Clippers won’t have the share the same venue with the Lakers and will have more flexibility with their scheduling. The Clippers unveiled “The Halo Board,” an oversized scoreboard that will show the game, replays and detailed statistics in sharp detail. And Intuit Dome will feature plenty of toilets, grab-and-go concessions and portable phone chargers to ensure fans mostly remain in their seats.
Whether the Clippers contend for an NBA title will ultimately determine how loud their fans cheer.
“If we stay healthy and play well, I think every team has to have a little bit of luck,” Ballmer said. “But our two guys at the top are pretty good. I’ll take our guys that flank around them.”
Mark Medina is a longtime NBA reporter that includes stints as a Lakers blogger with The Los Angeles Times (2010-12), Lakers beat writer with the Los Angeles Daily News (2012-17), Warriors beat writer with Bay Area News Group (2017-19) as well as an NBA reporter/columnist for USA Today (2019-21) and NBA.com (2021-23). Medina is also an NBA insider with Fox Sports Radio and frequent contributor to CBSLA's SportsCentralLA with Jim Hill and with Spectrum Sportsnet.
