When asked during training camp in San Diego on Saturday if there was a moment he wishes he could go back in time and change from his team's Western Conference Finals run last season, LA Clippers star Paul George gave the same answer every Clippers fan in the world would give without a moment of consideration.

“I guess the moment was Game 4 in LA against Utah,” George said. “I guess that's the moment that we wish we could relive and have a different result to the ending of that.”

George is referring to the moment in which Kawhi Leonard tore his ACL when Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles bumped into him late in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals. It's the obvious answer, of course; if Leonard (who had been playing some of the best basketball of his career through LA's first 11 games of the playoffs) had not suffered what would turn out to be a season-ending injury, the Clippers would've had as good a shot as any team left in the postseason at making the NBA Finals.

They nearly did anyway. They took care of Utah by winning back-to-back games without their star, and pushed the Phoenix Suns to six games the following series. The Clippers showed resilience playing without Leonard, with George, Reggie Jackson, Terance Mann and the rest of the rotation stepping up in his absence. George says that while it was obviously a crushing blow to lose their leader for the postseason (and likely much of the upcoming season as he rehabs), he sees the small silver lining of getting a taste of what's to come this year.

“Can't change the past,” he continued. “Injuries happen. I thought what it did was allow us to see what we have without Kawhi there, and I guess get us prepared for what's to come this year until he's back. I thought it gave us a spark that we needed. For a lot of us, it was really our first time being back in that situation and being on that stage, where Kawhi has been on that stage and has won…so I think for a lot of us it was kind of ‘alright, we know what we've got, we know what we can do. He's done it, now it's our turn to show it.'”

This is the sort of attitude he and the Clippers will need to maintain if they wish to remain competitive while Leonard recovers. They don't own their own draft pick this season, and as a result have no incentive to tank should they underperform. They also have no timetable for Leonard's return, though he did say earlier this week that he wants to play this season should his rehab progress without any setbacks. If LA can stay in the playoff hunt (ideally avoiding the play-in tournament) and get Leonard back before the 2022 postseason begins, the Clippers could be the sleeping giant that teams will be trying to avoid in the first round.