After another early exit, the Clippers proved you can’t buy NBA glory

After another early exit, the Clippers proved you can’t buy NBA glory

Over the past three seasons, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has spent more money on player salaries than all of his rivals except the Golden State Warriors. The Clippers’ payroll topped $200 million this season alone, a staggering sum that reflected only a small percentage of the former Microsoft executive’s investment in his passion project. Ballmer paid a then-record $2 billion to buy the Clippers in 2014, and he has spent an estimated $2 billion more to construct Intuit Dome, his futuristic new arena that opens in Inglewood, Calif., next season.

But Ballmer’s decade of decadent spending has proved that money can buy respectability in the NBA — but not glory.

The Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Clippers from the playoffs with a 114-101 home victory Friday in Game 6, sending Ballmer and company home in the first round for the second straight season after they missed the postseason altogether in 2022. Though the series began on an optimistic note with an impressive Game 1 victory, the Clippers spiraled into another early exit. Franchise forward Kawhi Leonard returned from an extended absence because of a knee injury for Games 2 and 3, but his limited mobility and ineffective play disrupted the team’s rhythm and chemistry. The Clippers shut him down before Game 4 and subsequently crumbled without him.

With the series tied at 2 entering Wednesday’s Game 5, the Clippers lived down to their long-standing reputation as big-game flakes with a demoralizing 123-93 home loss. This was sour note stuff: The Clippers’ final home game after 25 years at downtown Los Angeles’s Crypto.com Arena was their worst playoff loss in franchise history. The Mavericks followed that up with an emphatic Game 6 win as their star tandem of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving easily outplayed Paul George, James Harden and Russell Westbrook.

“When you’re in that small group of teams that have a chance and you don’t quite get everything out of what you put into it, it’s frustrating,” said George, who had 18 points on 6-for-18 shooting in the finale. “We didn’t do enough to move on. That’s on us.”

With another campaign ending with a whimper, it’s fair to ask what, exactly, the Clippers have to show for Ballmer’s generosity.

In the 10 seasons before his arrival, back when the disgraced Donald Sterling was still the owner, the Clippers tallied a .463 winning percentage — a 38-win clip across an 82-game season. During Ballmer’s run, that number has jumped to .605 — equal to a 50-win clip. In the 10 seasons before Ballmer, the Clippers won three playoff series and missed the postseason six times. Under Ballmer, they have won four series, made the franchise’s first Western Conference finals trip in 2021 and missed the playoffs just twice.

Ballmer’s billions have buoyed the Clippers through countless injuries to Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Leonard and George, ensuring the Clippers’ lows aren’t nearly as low as they were under Sterling, who was banned by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for making racist remarks.

But the highs the free-spending Warriors have enjoyed — four championships and six Finals appearances since 2015 — have nevertheless proved elusive. Golden State cultivated a long championship window because it drafted centerpieces Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson; Ballmer, by contrast, unsuccessfully attempted to reverse-engineer a contender in 2019 by poaching Leonard in free agency and trading a huge stockpile of draft capital to acquire George.

Besides his ambitious arena project and his big swings for Leonard and George, Ballmer has poured resources into his coaching staff, front office, practice facility and medical team, plus a host of community service initiatives. He has paid up to keep his stars in place and bolstered his team’s depth with midseason trades in recent years. He then acquired Harden from the Philadelphia 76ers last fall to add a fourth future Hall of Famer to his roster.

The go-for-broke strategy worked well enough during the regular season — Los Angeles ran off an impressive 26-5 stretch starting in December and finished fourth in the tough Western Conference with 51 wins — but it predictably went belly up in the playoffs. The Clippers were the NBA’s oldest team, and they showed their age against the Mavericks. Leonard, 32, was unable to complete the season healthy for the fourth straight campaign. George, 34, and Harden, 34, lacked the stamina to score consistently in the decisive final two games. Westbrook, 35, was almost entirely useless, shooting 26 percent for the series.

“It’s always the what if,” Clippers Coach Tyronn Lue said, nodding to Leonard’s absence. “I give our guys credit for sticking with it through all the ups and downs and all the negative scrutiny. … There’s nothing I would correct. We did what we had to do. We fought through a lot of adversity. We got to this point, and it’s just unfortunate we ended up shorthanded.”

The major theme of this NBA postseason has been a wholesale changing of the guard: Veteran headliners such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Curry, Jimmy Butler and Damian Lillard have been replaced by younger stars such as Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton. The Clippers, like the Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, are clearly on the wrong side of the trend.

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard attempted a comeback from a knee injury during a first-round series against Luka Doncic and the Mavericks, but he was unable to complete the postseason healthy for the fourth straight year. (Harry How/Getty Images)

Leonard, George, Harden and Westbrook are years removed from their most effective postseason play. While Leonard smartly inked a three-year, $152 million extension in January, George has a $48.8 million player option for next season and Harden is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer. The Clippers must decide whether they want to re-sign George and Harden — knowing they can’t realistically deliver a championship at this stage of their careers — or attempt to retool with a younger and less expensive roster.

Of course, George and Harden will have their own say in the matter. Given this summer’s weak free agent crop, George will enjoy healthy interest from outside suitors. Harden, however, will have fewer options after repeatedly burning bridges during recent stints with the Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers.

George was noncommittal when asked about his future with the Clippers, although he said he could envision himself continuing to play with Leonard and Harden.

“Yeah, if it works that way, absolutely,” he said. “I haven’t even got to that yet. I look forward to going back and just letting everything decompress. Talk to my family. Be around family support and then address the next step.”

Ballmer’s history as owner suggests he would rather vastly overpay for the privilege of playoff embarrassment than save some money and risk falling back into the lottery. If that philosophy holds, George and Harden are likely to be major offseason winners.

The same goes for Lue, who said he hopes to sign a contract extension with the Clippers after he surfaced as a possible candidate to replace Darvin Ham, who was fired as coach of the Lakers on Friday.

“I didn’t come here to bounce around and go all over the place,” Lue said. “This is where I want to be. Hopefully, [the Clippers] feel the same way. … [Ballmer] is a real fan. He treats us like family. He genuinely cares about each individual. When you have an owner who really respects who you are as a person, that means a lot. He cares about the wins. He’s fired up and passionate about it.”

Clippers Coach Tyronn Lue said Friday he hopes to sign a contract extension. (Sam Hodde/Getty Images)