NBA on TNT's Charles Barkley is never one to mince words, often telling viewers how he feels about any particular player or team. Following the Golden State Warriors' defeat of the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals, Barkley made it clear who he believes will win the 2023 NBA title Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Warriors defeated the Mavs in five games, ending the extraordinary run by Luka Doncic and his Dallas team. No one picked them to go as far as they did, and that appears to be the case heading into the offseason. When asked about the future of the Mavericks organization and how they can become contenders led by Doncic, Charles Barkley expressed his reservations.
“They've got to get a lot better,” Charles Barkley claimed. “This year, to me, was kind of a fluke because next year, Phoenix — I don't know what the hell happened to Phoenix — but [the Mavs] are not gonna be better than Denver cause Denver's getting everybody back healthy. You know the Lakers are gonna do something. They're not gonna be better than the Warriors, so to me they gotta—.
That's when both Ernie Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal cut Barkley off to ask him about another team: “What about the Clippers?”
“My favorite next year is gonna be the Clippers,” Barkley responded. “When they get Kawhi Leonard and Paul George back healthy, with all the trades they made.
“So the Mavericks — as I told you last year about the Atlanta Hawks — that was fool's gold last year. That was more of a Philadelphia meltdown than the Hawks beating them. To me, it's the same thing this year with the Mavs. It was really more of a Phoenix Suns meltdown, but they got a long way to go to be a contender in my opinion.”
"My favorite next year is gonna be the Clippers. When they get Kawhi and Paul George back, with all the trades they made."
Charles Barkley has the Clippers winning the 2022-23 NBA Championship.pic.twitter.com/9QczvkBdbK
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) May 27, 2022
In past years, the one thing that has slowed down the Clippers has been health. Their inability to stay healthy throughout the Kawhi Leonard/Paul George era has been their undoing, but there's also an element of unluckiness to that.
Following the 2021-22 season's end, Clippers president Lawrence Frank spoke with members of the media to discuss the injuries to both Leonard and George.
“I think that we've gotten the injuries out of the way,” Frank said with a smile. “I'm looking forward to good health. Like, I think — not to make light of it, but you look at everything in terms of, like, the flukiness. Paul is literally against Portland diving on the floor for a loose ball, Nurkic falls … like the odds of that, that's not anything preventative you could do, no. Kawhi as he's going down in transition and he gets pushed and just … maybe if he gets pushed a little bit different way or maybe he never tears his ACL. It's nuts.
“I remember Milwaukee playing Atlanta, Giannis had that horrible, horrible fall and yet, like fine. Sometimes it's like that.
“For me, you examine everything, but I really do have good faith that we're going to get great health for not just those guys but for our team. We all acknowledge that injuries are part of it, but I do think that we're going to run to great fortune next year.”
Kawhi Leonard missed the entirety of the 2021-22 NBA season as he was recovering from surgery on his torn left ACL. While there's no timetable on his return, the current expectation is that Leonard will be ready for training camp in the fall.
If this Clippers team can stay healthy, there's no question they should be able to make a deep playoff run. Entering the 2022-23 season, they'll likely even be the odds-on favorite to come out of the loaded Western Conference.
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