Steve Ballmer challenges Tyronn Lue, Lawrence Frank
The The Los Angeles Clippers were the biggest disappointment in the NBA this season, currently at 5-16 after Monday night’s loss to the Miami Heat. Some expected the Clippers’ season to finally start turning around Kawhi Leonard is back from injury, but Leonard’s 36 points against the Heat weren’t enough to keep Los Angeles from falling by 17 points in a game that wasn’t as close as the score suggested.
With the team already hoping for a playoff run in early December, some fans are wondering who will have to bite the bullet for the Clippers to contend, with a recent report from The Athletic’s Lou Murray shed some light on that.
“(Clippers owner Steve) Ballmer said The Athletic to talk to Lue and basketball president Lawrence Frank about how to turn things around. Ballmer also made it clear that the job to turn around was on Lue and Franco,” Murray said.
Murray also noted that “Only five teams have started 5-15 or worse and made the playoffs since the field expanded to 16 teams for the 1983-84 season,” one of which happened to be the 2022 New Orleans Pelicans team that beat Los Angeles in a playoff game.
Overall, things have been very disappointing for the Clippers so far this season, which is strange considering they are returning the same core of players that helped them win 50 games a season ago.
Sure, Los Angeles’ bench depth is basically non-existent this year, and they’ve also dealt with Leonard being out due to injury, but they still have too much talent on their roster to be among the worst teams in the league right now.
The Clippers will look for their sixth win of the season on Wednesday night when they continue their East Coast trip with a game against the Atlanta Hawks.
2025-12-02 17:14:00
