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After two bad seasons, the Braves' fortunes started to change under coach Jack Ramsay and star forward/center Bob McAdoo. McAdoo led the NBA in scoring for three consecutive seasons and was named the league's MVP in the 1974–75 season. The Braves qualified for the playoffs three times in a row, losing twice to the eventual Eastern Conference champions . At a time where the NBA was nearing a nadir and the league did not have its current prestige, the Griffins saw the Braves as a threat to their own success, and purposely scheduled all the best dates at the arena to prevent the Braves from succeeding. Eventually, Brown met with Celtics owner Irv Levin in 1978 so they could trade franchise ownerships.
Southern California resident Levin then decided to move the Braves to San Diego, something the league would have never allowed him to do with the Celtics. Asked about the move, Levin nominated a shorter commute for himself as a key reason. In September, the Clippers also announced a radio broadcast deal with KSPN-AM, the local ESPN Radio-operated outlet.
Retained draft rights
Brown left to become the Indiana Pacers' head coach after the season and Bob Weiss was brought in to replace him. That 1993–94 season proved to be one of the worst in Los Angeles history, with the Clippers and Lakers going a combined 60–104. In February 1994, the Clippers traded Manning to the Atlanta Hawks for Dominique Wilkins. Wilkins played 25 games for the club, averaging 29.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 37.9 minutes per game. After one year on the job, Weiss was fired, Wilkins left in free agency, and veteran head coach Bill Fitch was brought in to guide a new roster of young and inexperienced players.
The uniforms featured a royal blue base and red trim and were emblazoned with the team name in front; the "C" in the word "Clippers" was enlarged in the same manner as the logo. The logo was now a generic moving white basketball with red lines superimposed over the full team name, which the team used until 2015, albeit with some tweaks to the design. In July 2008, they acquired Marcus Camby from the Denver Nuggets in return for a $10 million trade exception and the choice to exchange second round picks with the Clippers in 2010. The Clippers also acquired guard Jason Hart from the Utah Jazz, in exchange for guard Brevin Knight, and signed Ricky Davis to a one-year deal. They continued an active off-season by re-signing former Clippers player Brian Skinner in July, while trading for Steve Novak.
Warriors knock off Clippers, win sixth straight home game
To date, they are the league's oldest franchise to have never played in the NBA Finals. After reaching the 2020 NBA playoffs, the Clippers were rewarded with an "Earned" uniform for the 2020–21 season. The uniform essentially recreated the team's "Icon" uniform, but had a grey base with thick white stripes, and red and blue were relegated to the arm piping. The club's primary logo features a basketball in the shape of a compass, with the club's "LAC" monogram situated in the middle.
The 2006 off-season started as the team drafted Paul Davis in the second round of the 2006 NBA draft, as the 34th overall pick. Meanwhile, in free agency, they signed Tim Thomas away from divisional Phoenix, in a four-year, $24 million deal. That was to counter the defection of Vladimir Radmanović to the Lakers in a similar deal. Radmanovic's contract lasted another year, but both players would make the same amount of money annually, which would be $6 million. Cassell (widely credited as the biggest reason for the Clippers' recent success) re-signed on a two-year, $13 million deal, while the team also signed veteran Aaron Williams to an undisclosed deal. The 1978–79 season started off poorly, with the Clippers' first win only on the fourth game against the Chicago Bulls.
Game Flow
However, just prior to the start of training camp in September, Williams announced his retirement. Other mid-season acquisitions came in the form of Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins, who arrived from the New York Knicks in exchange for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley. This trade made Kaman the sole member still on the team from their playoff run two years prior.
The three sails motif from the 2017–18 and 2021–22 "City" uniforms was also added. In the 2019 off-season, Kawhi Leonard opted out of his final year on his contract with the Toronto Raptors to become one of the top free agents. Leonard chose to sign with the Clippers when the team agreed to trade for the Oklahoma City Thunder's Paul George. For George, the Clippers traded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, four unprotected first-round picks, a protected first-round pick, and two pick swaps. Only six of the Clippers’ first 19 games are on the road, but after hosting Orlando on Dec. 5, the Clippers will be the visitors in 12 of their next 16 games. The busy visiting schedule in December includes a back-to-back against San Antonio and Houston on Dec. 18 and 19, respectively.
2017: Arrival of Chris Paul and Lob City
The planned arena is expected to be located at Century Boulevard between Yukon and Prairie Avenues, directly south of the new SoFi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League. The arena is also expected to house a practice facility and team headquarters for the Clippers, as the team's current practice facility in Los Angeles' Playa Vista neighborhood is still owned by the Sterling Family Trust, and is leased back to the team. The Inglewood city council unanimously voted for the agreement in which a subsidiary of the Clippers will purchase 22 acres covering four large city blocks in what is largely a lower-class/lower-middle-class residential neighborhood to build the new facility. The rivalry between the Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers is unique because they are the only two NBA teams to share an arena, the Crypto.com Arena. It is also one of only two intra-city rivalries in the NBA, the other being the crosstown rivalry between the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets.
At the suggestion of David Stern, then the league's vice president, Sterling was able to maintain his position as owner, by instead handing over operations duties of the franchise to Alan Rothenberg, who became the team's president. By February 1983, Stern called the Clippers a "first-class" franchise, and the ouster of Sterling was no longer pursued. Those two games mark the first time the Clippers play on the road against the team they beat in the first round and fell to in the second round last season, respectively. As rough as December will be with travel, the Clippers will be home once again for Christmas, with a matchup planned against the Lakers. Redick, Hedo Turkoglu and Glen Davis are the only Clippers players who know exactly how the Warriors and Cavaliers are feeling.
As the trade deadline approached, the Clippers sent Baron Davis along with their 2011 first-round draft pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon. The pick eventually became the number one overall pick, which the Cavaliers used to select Kyrie Irving. The Clippers won the first overall pick in the 1998 Draft Lottery and selected center Michael Olowokandi from University of the Pacific. The team had a 0–17 start and finished with a 9–41 record in the lockout-shortened 1998–99 season. They were led by second-year forward Maurice Taylor, who averaged 16.8 points per game, and won the fourth overall pick in the following draft, which coincided with their move to the Staples Center. The Clippers would draft Lamar Odom, and then hired former All-Star Dennis Johnson as an assistant coach, as well as Hall of Fame former Laker great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to help tutor Olowokandi during his second-year.
Austin Rivers was traded to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Marcin Gortat, while long-time Clipper DeAndre Jordan, who had been with the team since 2008, opted out of his contract and became a free agent. Despite the departure of Griffin and Jordan for the 2018–19 season, the Clippers clinched a playoff berth and finished the regular season with a 48–34 record. The team faced the defending two-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors in the first round, losing in six games. The Clippers finished the 2016–17 season with a 51–31 record, the team's fifth straight 50-win season, despite injuries to both Griffin and Paul during the regular season.
Last season, they had an eight-game, 14-day trip as well as a seven-game, 12-day trip. The first two five-game road trips are both in December, when the Clippers have 11 road games. Those two matchups will be followed by a home game against the Kings on Halloween night and a matchup against the Suns to start November’s action. The Clippers won’t need to wait long before a heavily anticipated road tilt, as they travel to play Golden State on Nov. 4 during a month with plenty of marquee matchups. Matt Dollinger was the only expert to pick the Cavaliers, and he had them winning in six. Austin Rivers had 22 points off the bench and JJ Redick scored 18 points to lead Los Angeles in another physical, testy matchup between the rivals after the Clippers eliminated Golden State in the first round of last season's playoffs.
The fourth and final five-game road trip is a doozy in March, as all five matchups are against Western Conference playoff teams from last season. After hosting the Cavaliers on March 13, the Clippers then go on the road successively to San Antonio, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans and Golden State. In total, the Clippers will have 20 back-to-backs during the season for the second straight year. One of the more popular players on the Clippers, at least within the locker room, over the past three seasons was Barnes.
On January 16, the Clippers signed free agent small forward Hedo Türkoğlu, while also acquiring both Glen Davis and Danny Granger for the remainder of 2013–14 season. On March 6, the Clippers defeated their crosstown rivals by 48 points 142–94, the most lopsided victory ever for the Clippers' franchise, and the most one-sided loss in Lakers history. In the playoffs, they defeated the Warriors in seven games before falling again, this time to the Thunder, in six games in the second round. In their first playoff game, the Clippers rallied from a 27-point deficit against the Grizzlies to win 99–98 in one of the biggest rallies in playoff history. They led the series 3–1, then lost two straight, before coming back to win Game 7 in Memphis 82–72, becoming the sixth NBA road team to win Game 7 after leading series 3–1, and prevail to the second round. The Clippers relied on their bench during that game, and they came through, scoring all but two of their points in the fourth quarter.
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