Remember the plucky, lovable LA Clippers who captured the imagination of the basketball world by pushing the heavily favored Golden State Warriors to six games in the first round of the playoffs? A few months later, the hunters have become the hunted. Here's what to know, watch for, and expect from the revamped Clippers in the 2019-20 NBA season.

Roster

LA enjoyed the biggest summer coup since LeBron James and Chris Bosh took their talents to South Beach with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat nearly a decade ago.

The presence of Kawhi Leonard alone would have changed everything for the Clippers. He's a top-three player about to enter the thick of his prime, and he is perfectly suited for the culture and identity this franchise has been fostering under Steve Ballmer, Doc Rivers, and Lawrence Frank since breaking up Lob City. Surrendering Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, and a trove of draft picks to bring in Leonard and Paul George is a gamble LA would have made 100 times over.

Ballmer has made no secret of his desire to compete at the highest levels of the NBA, and acquiring Leonard and George vaults this team to the top of the championship hierarchy. What could separate the Clippers from an overcrowded field of title contenders, though, isn't just basketball's best tandem of wings since James and Wade, but a supporting cast that affords Rivers key lineup flexibility and the option to rest his injury-prone superstars as needed.

Patrick Beverley is still the heartbeat of LA, and he could enjoy the best season of his career offensively while shouldering fewer ball-handling responsibilities and subsisting on a healthy diet of spot-up tries from deep. Retaining Landry Shamet was no doubt a high priority for Frank during trade discussions with the Oklahoma City Thunder for George, and it's easy to see why. He already moves better without the ball than the vast majority of shooting specialists, and the youngster has a more versatile offensive skill set and better physical profile defensively than it seems on the surface.

It will be fascinating to see how Rivers doles out minutes on the perimeter in crunch time. Can he really leave Lou Williams, late-game assassin, on the bench? Certainly not in the past, but that's a viable option now that Leonard and George are around to soak up late-game usage. Rodney McGruder and Jerome Robinson will get some burn during the regular season, too.

Depth is one of this team's greatest strengths, especially up front.

The Clippers rewarded Ivica Zubac with a four-year deal in free agency, cementing him as their starting center of the present. He was awesome as a rim protector with the Clippers after the trade deadline, a reality that led to team-wide defensive improvement, but still has deficiencies on both ends that can be exploited by good teams. The same goes for Montrezl Harrell, to a larger extent on defense. JaMychal Green is rock solid and thrived as a small-ball center against Golden State, a role he's unlikely likely to play next spring with so many potential championship teams featuring elite traditional bigs. Moe Harkless factors in here, too, and so do George and Leonard, both of whom will see significant playing time as de facto power forwards.

LA doesn't have a panacea up front. All of the pieces on the interior offer more strengths than weaknesses, but could still be played off the floor in certain situations. The lineup and stylistic flexibility made possible by so many worthy rotation players, though, could potentially compensate for that reality given how different Zubac and Harrell are in particular. They aren't the centers normally associated with teams boasting realistic title hopes; most of those contenders didn't have wings the likes of Leonard and George, either.

Expectations

This season isn't championship or bust for the Clippers. Every team subject to a major offseason overhaul deserves a grace period to establish the on- and off-court chemistry necessary to win in June. The 2008 Boston Celtics are an anomaly. George's pair of summer shoulder surgeries loom large, too, especially given recent reporting that he won't be ready to start the season.

Still, LA is broadly considered the most likely team to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy at season's end for a reason. Its combination of alpha-dog star power and proven, dynamic depth is unparalleled, and Rivers has re-cemented himself as one of the game's most valuable coaches after his reputation took a hit during the Chris Paul and Blake Griffin era.

The Clippers could very well win their first title in franchise history this season, and anything less than an appearance in the Western Conference Finals – where they've never been before, by the way – should be considered a failure.

Notable Games

11/13 at Houston Rockets – Do James Harden and the Rockets still deserve the status as serious title contenders? That answer hinges on whether he and Russell Westbrook are able to successfully coexist – not just on offense, but defense, too. Who better to test those questions than the Clippers, especially if George is ready to go by mid-November.

12/6 at Milwaukee Bucks – The Bucks were the best team in basketball during the regular season in 2018-19, and it wasn't particularly close. The in-games of this potential NBA Finals matchup are likely to prove even more instructive than the result itself. Is it still possible for Leonard to thwart Giannis Antetokounmpo one-on-one after an offseason the reigning MVP spent stewing over his lackluster performance in last year's Eastern Conference Finals? We'll begin to find out in early December.

12/25 vs. Los Angeles Lakers – The battle for Los Angeles, and maybe the championship, will have begun when these teams meet on opening night. But George will be sidelined for Part 1, ensuring the league's marquee Christmas Day is a much more telling indicator of what could happen should these cross-arena rivals go head-to-head in the playoffs.

3/18 at Denver Nuggets – The Clippers' final matchup with the Nuggets, perhaps their most likely competition at the top of the Western Conference standings, could be crucial to deciding home-court advantage in the playoffs.

Projected Record: 58-24

No team in the NBA has a higher two-way ceiling than the Clippers, and they'll show it throughout the 82-game grind. The franchise-wide preference of limiting wear and tear on Leonard and George, though, may keep LA from earning the top postseason seed in the West … but not by much.