Superstar guard James Harden was recently granted his wish to be traded from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Los Angeles Clippers, which, as a result, formed one of the most intimidating rosters in the NBA.
The superstar foursome of Harden, Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard is about as intimidating as it gets on paper, but since these stars joined forces, it hasn’t worked out as the team had hoped.
It has been a struggle, to say the least, thus far for the Clippers to figure out how this new star-studded squad is going to work, with the team’s coaching staff seemingly baffled at trying to find a winning combination or rotation of these players.
The writing does seem to be on the wall that Westbrook needs to come off the bench as he did with the Los Angeles Lakers, but the team seems reluctant to make that move right now.
As a result of this disappointing start for the new-look Clippers, Nick Wright of FOX Sports believes that this squad won’t be making the NBA playoffs this year, via “First Things First.”
“I do not think the Clippers will be in the playoffs. They are not good. It doesn’t fit. The Nuggets, Warriors, Mavs, Suns, Thunder, T-Wolves are all definitely better than them. And then you have the Lakers, Kings & Pelicans.”
— @getnickwright on Clippers 3-game losing streak: pic.twitter.com/Jw8lN6373M
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) November 9, 2023
Whenever superstar players come together, especially when they’re as old as these four players, it can be difficult to build chemistry early on because they’re so used to running the show on their own or having one other star or superstar teammate.
What the Clippers are doing is not normal with so many stars on one squad, so this is expected, and to say they’ll miss the playoffs is a bit much so early into the process in Los Angeles.
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Former Player Makes Bold Prediction About James Harden’s Future