On May 19, 2009, the Los Angeles Clippers won the NBA Draft Lottery and ultimately took University of Oklahoma star Blake Griffin with the No. 1 overall pick. Soon, the Lob City version of the Clippers would be born. More on that in a second. A hot second.
Of course, Griffin missed that entire first season with a knee injury, but when he took the floor for the first time in 2011-12, it was obvious that the Clippers landed a monster.
The following year, Los Angeles landed Chris Paul in a trade with the New Orleans Hornets, giving the club a trio of Griffin, Paul and DeAndre Jordan. That triumvirate would soon become known as Lob City.
The talent was just oozing on that Clippers team. Paul was the best point guard in the league at the time. Griffin was a stud. Jordan was an athletic freak who would soon lead the NBA in rebounding.
And yet, LA would never make it past the second round of the playoffs with that group.
Los Angeles made the playoffs six years in a row between 2012 and 2017, and the end result was always the same: disappointment.
So, why were the Lob City Clippers unable to win a championship? Was it Paul's shaky leadership? Poor decisions in upper management? Injuries? Were they just not good enough? How much of a role did the whole Donald Sterling scandal play?
Really, it was a combination of everything.
Paul never really got along with Griffin nor Jordan. The front office consistently failed to supply the roster with an adequate No. 3 scorer, especially on the wing. Griffin and Paul were regularly hurt in the playoffs. Teams like the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets and, eventually, the Golden State Warriors, were all clearly superior.
As far as Sterling? Well, that pretty much speaks for itself.
Remember: the Clippers play in the Western Conference, where you need to truly be great to make it out alive. So when the organization tried to fill holes by signing aging veterans such as Chauncey Billups, Paul Pierce, Glen Davis, Matt Barnes and the like, it was never going to be enough to reach the top.
I'm not sure what the fascination with trying to patch holes with former stars who were clearly past their prime was, but the Clips became masters of that throughout the Lob City years.
Really, it was Paul, Griffin, Jordan, JJ Redick and whoever the flavor of the week was. Some may say that the main group was talented enough regardless of who else was on the roster, but again, we need to keep the arms race in mind.
The Spurs were loaded from top to bottom. The Thunder had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. The Rockets had James Harden, Dwight Howard and terrific complementary pieces. The Golden State Warriors had Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala.
It was clear that the Clippers were behind, and their complete lack of depth behind their stars ended up being a death blow for them most of the time.
Yes, injuries played a major role. Griffin ended up getting hurt in each of Los Angeles' last two playoff appearances before Lob City was broken up. Paul was hurt in 2017 and had a hamstring injury during LA's disastrous second-round loss to Houston (you know, the series where the Clippers blew a 3-1 lead) back in 2015.
But even if the Clips remained healthy throughout their run, it seems hard to imagine that they ever would have made it out of the Wild West. Not with their generally horrific floor spacing (and that was with Redick) and their inability to find someone to adequately fill the small forward spot. And let's be honest: these guys just didn't like one another.
Now, things have changed. The Clippers cashed in on Paul by signing-and-trading him to the Rockets in a deal that included Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell. They made a gigantic splash last summer by swinging a trade for Paul George and then signing Kawhi Leonard in free agency. They acquired Marcus Morris at the trade deadline.
Basically, the moves Los Angeles is making now are the exact opposite of the types of moves the organization made between 2012 and 2017 when the franchised looked entirely clueless, and it shows just how far the Clippers have come.
You'll surely hear stories over the years about how the Lob City Clippers should have won a championship. Some people have already said that.
But the fact of the matter is that that team was never truly good enough to contend for a title. Teams like the Spurs checked all of the boxes. The Clippers had mostly question marks.
Perhaps Leonard and George will make LA completely forget about Lob City, but until then, let's not pretend that those Clippers were anything more than just a good team in an outstanding conference.
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