LOS ANGELES — In the recent past, Lawrence Frank’s end-of-season addresses have been rather emotional.
The LA Clippers’ president of basketball operations expressed a combination of pride and lament in 2021 when the Clippers’ season ended with a Western Conference finals berth despite Kawhi Leonard being unable to finish the playoffs healthy. In 2022, after the Leonard-less Clippers finished 42-40 and were eliminated after losing two games in the Play-In Tournament, Frank conveyed pain, but optimism remained because of the team’s health issues. Last season, Frank was quite stern and pointed, declaring the Clippers needed to get back to “honoring and respecting the regular season.”
Compared to those years, Frank’s demeanor this time was relaxed, even peaceful. He joked that he went to get coffee Sunday to talk to discouraged fans and accepted that they had a lot of criticism for him. While he expressed frustration and disappointment with the “lost opportunity” of the Clippers’ season, which ended with another Leonard injury and a 4-2 first-round playoff defeat to the Dallas Mavericks, Frank was satisfied with one thing.
“We sat here last year at this time, we talked about honoring and respecting the regular season,” Frank said. “We did that.”
Still, Frank knows there is much work ahead for his front office this offseason, one in which the Clippers face challenges in retaining their core of Leonard, George and James Harden. Frank spoke for 36 minutes, hitting on a number of items on the Clippers’ long offseason to-do list.
Are the Clippers still championship contenders?
I wrote over the weekend that the team’s realistic window to win a championship has closed. That commentary is both a reflection of the NBA’s oldest roster appearing to max out this past season, as well as an honest look at the state of the Western Conference.
LA’s top personnel executive does not share that opinion.
“We are still big believers that the window is still open,” Frank said. “But also acknowledge the fact that we can understand the skepticism with it, and there are no guarantees either way.”
The latest on George and Harden’s futures
Frank said multiple time that the Clippers would like to retain George (player option) and Harden (unrestricted free agent) this summer.
Harden’s situation is simple. He’s not extension eligible, so he is guaranteed to hit free agency. However, there is mutual interest in getting a deal done. Frank called Harden “one of the elite orchestrators in this league.”
George’s is more complex. He can sign an extension between now and July 1, but he can also opt out and become an unrestricted free agent this summer. It sounds like the Clippers expect George to weigh all of his options:
- Pick up his player option and stay.
- Pick up player option and request a trade elsewhere.
- Extend for the maximum amount possible.
- Extend for less than the maximum amount possible, which Leonard accepted and the Clippers are seeking to replicate with George.
- Opt out and re-sign using Bird Rights.
- Opt out and leave as an unrestricted free agent.
Frank said he is “hopeful that we can still bring him back.” He said George tabled conversations about his contract once the All-Star break concluded, choosing to wait until after the season ended. Those negotiations are set to resume now.
How to improve team while keeping core together
While acknowledging the team’s goal of keeping Harden and George, Frank also said, “We’re not naive to think that, ‘Hey, we just run it back and we’ll be all good.’ That’s not how we look at team building.”
His most revealing insight was his repeated tidbit that the Clippers tried and failed to make a deal before the trade deadline to improve the roster. The target? What Frank calls a wing — and what I would call a power forward.
“We were short a couple of guys, of good complementary, reliable players that fit,” Frank said, acknowledging that the…
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