Subscribe
Follow Us
Many viewed the Los Angeles Clippers as perennial title contenders from 2012-2017. However, the team, led by Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, JJ Redick and Jamal Crawford, never reached the heights many anticipated.
While they won over 50 games in five consecutive seasons, they failed to advance past the second round of the playoffs. Crawford said the team's unwillingness to have difficult conversations, namely Paul and Griffin, played a role in their lack of postseason success.
“Honestly, I’ve never once, and I was with them for five years, and I’ve never once seen them two have a blow-up,” he said of Paul and Griffin on The Podcast P Show with Paul George. “That’s what was weird about it, like I’ve never once seen them go at each other. Not in a film session, not in a meeting, none of that. It was more so like we didn’t really talk about those things if there was something [wrong]. It was never like an air-out session with those two, none of that. It was always like weird because it was never like oh that’s why they’re mad at each other.”
“I honestly think, personally, to be very honest with you, I think we weren’t mentally tough as a group, not any one person. I thought when adversity hit sometimes we went like this ( hands going away) we didn’t come together like this.”
Paul and Griffin are known to have had a contentious relationship, although details of the rift never leaked.
Examining Clippers' failures with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin
Former Clippers head coach Doc Rivers felt Paul and Griffin's differing personalities led to their chemistry issues, which he said pre-dated him taking over as head coach and were never addressed.
“They both were so different,” Rivers said on the All The Smoke podcast. “Chris is the most competitive guy you can be around. There was damage done already before I had gotten there. And I heard about it, but it was such a passive-aggressive [dynamic], it wasn't out there… And that's what killed me because you would have a talk with them both and everything's good. It was a difficult group because they both are extremely competitive, they definitely had something [going on].”
Paul said he appreciated Griffin more after their time together ended.
“You don't realize what you have until it's gone,” he said in 2020. “Me and Blake absolutely had our issues here and there and whatnot, but I actually appreciated Blake a lot more after I left.”
The Clippers lost three times in the second round of the playoffs with Paul and Griffin. They blew a 3-1 lead against the Houston Rockets in the 2015 Western Conference semifinals before losing in the first round the following two seasons.
The Clippers traded Paul to the Rockets during the 2017 offseason before dealing Griffin to the Detroit Pistons at the 2018 trade deadline.
