His big dreams have been realized with the completion of the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, and even though two Southern California stars in Paul George and Russell Westbrook aren’t around to make the fan experience in his palace more enjoyable because both departed, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer still is dreaming big about his team’s prospects.
The loss of George, a nine-time All-Star, will be the most difficult to deal with. He left them as a free agent to join the Philadelphia 76ers on a four-year, $212-million deal, George’s five years with the Clippers coming to an end this month.
George had been offered the same extension his running mate, Kawhi Leonard, took — three years and $152 million.
Ballmer, like his front office executives, felt the Clippers made an offer that would have allowed them to field a championship-caliber team around George and Leonard.
The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement has what’s called the second apron, a luxury tax threshold for spending on salary, and the further teams go past it and the more frequently they do so, they pay an increasingly higher penalty and it makes it harder to make trades.
So, with that in mind, Ballmer said the Clippers had to be prudent with their spending in order to field the best team. Still, losing George was not easy, Ballmer said Friday after the unveiling of Intuit Dome’s Halo Board video board.
“I love Paul. Let’s start with Paul as a human being,” Ballmer said. “Paul is a great human being and I’ve really enjoyed my opportunity to get to know Paul [and] Paul’s family. So, on a personal level, I hated it. I hated it [from a] basketball perspective. Paul is a fantastic player, future Hall of Famer, I would say.
“But we knew we needed to continue to get better. And with the new CBA, what tools, what flexibility, we made Paul what I consider a great offer. … But it was a great offer in terms of us thinking about how to win championships. It wasn’t what Paul wanted. And so he wanted to go and I respect him for that. I mean, basketball players don’t have that many years in their lives to really make money, etc. I wish he was here and I wish him well and we got a lot of great players we added that we wouldn’t have been able to add otherwise. So, I’m happy about that too.”
Clippers forward Paul George controls the ball during a game against Orlando in October.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
The Clippers signed Derrick Jones Jr., Kevin Porter Jr. and brought back Nicolas Batum. But they didn’t get anything in return for George — no players and no draft picks — and this was after they gave up five first-round picks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to get George from Oklahoma City to pair him with Leonard.
At least they were able to do a sign-and-trade with Utah to get Kris Dunn.
That leaves Leonard and James Harden as the two local products left to lead the Clippers into their new building.
“I loved having the four L.A. guys last year,” Ballmer said. “I love having the two L.A. guys for this coming year. But to have that sense of connection in a historical, growing-up way. … Two great players, two Hall-of-Fame players. I think it’s really special.”
The fact is, the Clippers didn’t win a championship with George and Leonard. The Western Conference got better and will be super competitive.
Still, Ballmer has faith in his team.
“Look, the West is tough. It’s going to be competitive,” Ballmer said. “We still have two Hall of Famers, MVP and Finals MVP on our team [in Harden and Leonard]. Let’s face it, most people would be salivating to have two guys like that on their team and we have a lot of good, great players actually that fill in, play defense, play tough. The guys we picked up, I mean just take Derrick Jones Jr. And everybody saw what he was doing to us in the playoffs [with Dallas]. He’s our guy now. Or Terance [Mann], Kris Dunn, who we picked up. Tough defenders. Having Batum back, not only a great teammate but a heck of a defender. I think we’re going to be a very good team.”