T-Time: Clippers will be real contenders soon

Word spread like wildfire that the Los Angeles Lakers were considering hiring Doc Rivers away from the Los Angeles Clippers to be their new head coach.

The rumors seem unsubstantiated and a bit far-fetched considering the Clippers currently hold the fifth seed in the Western Conference. But they were serious enough that Rivers felt the need to announce he had agreed to a contract extension ahead of the team’s matchup against the Indiana Pacers.

“It’s been kind of agreed upon,” Rivers said of the extension after the Pacers win. “We didn’t make a big deal out of it. I thought I had to, just today, because of all the noise that was out there … We’ll see. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I like where we stand as an organization. That’s for sure.”

And what’s not to like? When Rivers became head coach in 2013, the Clippers had superstars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and a budding one in DeAndre Jordan. Over time, a talent exodus occurred, and all three were traded elsewhere. But, the Clippers have continued winning. Entering this season, everyone expected the team to be in tank mode. ESPN ranked them the 19th-best team in the NBA in preseason, with writer Ohm Youngmisuk forecasting: “While the Lakers and LeBron are dominating Los Angeles, the Clippers are playing the long game.”

Boy, did that not age well. With a band of misfits, role players and rookies, the Clippers have exceeded even their own wildest expectations, while the Lakers have officially missed the postseason despite signing generational superstar LeBron James this off-season.

The Clippers were supposed to be playing the long game, with hopes of a high lottery pick and the possibility of luring a free agent to Los Angeles in the off-season. They even traded leading scorer Tobias Harris at the deadline to double down on that prerogative. But when that move was made, something strange happened. The Clippers started playing even better than before. Now, they’ve ripped off victories in 10 of their last 11 games, including wins over contenders like the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder. So much for sticking to “the plan.”

Much of the Clippers’ unlikely success story must be attributed to Rivers. He took a team with no true superstar and instilled in them a scrappy, underdog mentality. The players obviously responded.

“The people they brought here have the same mindset, never were given anything,” said veteran guard Garrett Temple, who came to the Clippers via trade at the deadline. “We have a grind mentality, and guys understand their role. And we don’t have any egos.”

A grind mentality. Egoless basketball. No true superstar. In so many ways, the Clippers are the very antithesis of their roommate, the Lakers.

They had superstars and were expected to be a lock for the playoffs yet will miss their sixth-straight postseason. Since the 2013-14 season, no team has held a worse winning percentage than the Lakers at .327. Embarrassingly, the Knicks, Magic and Suns all have more wins over that span.

So why should Rivers leave for the Lakers? There’s really no justification other than wanting to coach James and possibly reunite with Rajon Rondo, whom he groomed on the Celtics for eight seasons.

Aside from those factors, the Clippers have made better deals than the Lakers, with executive Jerry West calling the shots. Unlike the Lakers, they’ve consistently won games, with the fifth-highest winning percentage in the NBA since Rivers took over. The only area where the Lakers have proven to have an edge is in luring free agents. But, this off-season, the Clippers too may take that advantage. The defensive-minded, scrappy, nameless roster seems like the perfect canvas for the soft-spoken Kawhi Leonard. Oh, and he’s from Southern California.

Ask the average Los Angeles basketball fan, and they’ll tell you the Lakers still run the city. That may be true, in terms of brand appeal, but it’s categorically false when looking at the standings or the scoreboard (the Clippers are 2-1 against the Lakers, with one meeting remaining). With Rivers’ extension and the possibility of a brand new arena, the Clippers could go from plucky underdog to perennial contender. And it seems like Rivers wants to be at the forefront of that transformation.

For now though, the coach is taking things one step, or one win, at a time.

Trevor Denton is a junior writing about sports. His column, “T-Time,” runs every other Wednesday.