Last summer, Chris Paul, like many South Californians, was curious about the new groin sand that the Los Angeles clippers were just weeks after the opening.
However, unlike most locals, Paul had been one of the best NBA players while playing for the 2011-17 clippers. And although he was about to play for the San Antonio Spurs, he still knew the best tourist guide of the new Arena: Steve Ballmer, the owner of the clippers, which showed the shipowner.
“I thought, ‘Curse, I wonder how the costume looks like?'” He said Paul.
A year later, Paul returned to the locker room before his introduction on Monday as the last firm of the low season of the clippers and took note of the differences between his two times playing for the franchise. New sand, new logo and this: During its first period, a team of young athletics schedules challenging the entrenched contenders of the League title. Next season, Paul and the 40 -year -old clippers will continue to seek their first NBA championship, but this time behind the aspirations that depend on the oldest list of the NBA.
“There is a lot of gratitude or so on to have the opportunity to play at this age,” said Paul.
The NBA has never been a young league. The average age of last season was 26.3 years, and tireless young legs promoted both Oklahoma City and Indiana to the June NBA finals. Oklahoma City reached the final with an average age of 25.6 years, the second most fair team to reach the championship round in the last 70 years. And when the Thunder won the championship, they were the youngest to do so since 1977.
After the last season of the clippers ended in the first round, the best basketball executive of the team, Lawrence Frank, described to add the young people and athletics as a priority.
However, clippers have become one of the most fascinating teams in the NBA by avoiding these young people, betting that this experience will give them a chance to hit.
The team expects to play a rotation of nine men, Frank said this month, but could go credible 11 deep. The average age of those 11 is over 33 years old, that Yahoo Sports determined that it would be an older year than the oldest list in NBA history.
“How old? It’s just a number, right?” Frank joked with journalists earlier this month.
At age 40, Paul could be an atypical case as the second oldest active player in the NBA, only behind LeBron James, but fits directly in a low season that has seen the team sign the 37 -year -old center, Brook López, retains the 37 -year -old striker Nicolas Batum, signed again to the James Harden guard of 36 years and signing the former 32 -year -old Guard Bradley Beal. Of the 11 team players that are expected to win a regular game time, only three, Ivica Zubac, Derrick Jones Jr. and the acquisition of the low season John Collins, all of which will be 28 years old when the season begins, they are under 30 years.
“The goal is to make this team as good as we can possibly obtain it, regardless of their age, and everyone is entitled to the judgments they want to do in the group,” Frank said last week, after Paul’s firm. “We are very excited about the group. I think that part of the things that, with age, usually, people care about [is] Greater possibility of injuries. That is why we are inclined in depth. “
The clippers clearly see their experience as a strength. However, there is a reason why only the Dallas Mavericks 2010-11 (31.6 years) and the Chicago Bulls of 1997-98 (32.1 years) have won NBA titles with an average age of more than 31. or Kawhi Leonard, who has played 157.
However, when asked about the team’s age, Frank immediately recited that Paul and López, the oldest clippers players, had started 162 of 164 possible games last season.
“So it’s not that these boys were productive three years ago, or four years ago, they were productive players last year,” Frank said.
The clippers are not the only contender who believes he needed more seasoning. Houston was one of the greatest success stories of last season, producing the second best record of the West Conference despite owning the ninth list of the League, with an average age, for minutes played, 25.2. However, after losing in the first round of the playoffs, Houston decided that he needed Kevin Durant, who will turn 37 before the season begins, to realize his potential.
Going to age in a league that biased Young was not the master plan of the clippers. In the short term, and for Frank’s admission, Landing López as a free agent was not a guarantee, Beal was initially expected to be available, becoming a free agent only after Phoenix bought his contract for a sum of $ 96 million, and signing Paul required the holder for practically his entire career of two decades to accept a role as a reserve. The clippers made those movements, ultimately, because they allowed the team to improve, regardless of their age, while being “disciplined to our plan,” Frank said.
That long -term plan, as the rival executives see, has seen the team that is not willing to extend expensive contracts after 2026, a priority that will virtually erase the current payroll of the clippers in two seasons. It is only the kind of blanket, in an attractive market like Los Angeles, which could be cut to a discontent star that seeks an exchange or a renowned free agent.
Most teams would clear their books and the transition for the future when filling the team with younger and low -cost players. However, clippers have not started a youth movement for a variety of reasons. One is resources: an exchange of 2019 with Oklahoma City Havestrung the number of first round selections available that clippers could use to theoretically rebuild their list through the draft. As a solution, the clippers have tried to give second opportunities to young and talented players who had burned their welcome with previous teams for reasons on the court or legal, however, none has come out.
Philosophy has also been a significant factor for why clippers have owned the oldest list of the League in each of the last three seasons. Ballmer, the owner and former executive director of Microsoft, does not believe that building a list to intentionally lose an upper draft selection is good for business, or retain fans in a city already saturated with its rival.
“Every year we will put the best possible team we can, while we keep our plan disciplined, to give ourselves and give our team and give our fans the best possible experience of a team that tries to compete at the highest level,” Frank said.
That was a rather attractive launch for Paul, who not only wanted to pursue a first championship in his season 21, but to do it while living in the same city as his wife and children for the first time since the last time he left the clippers, in 2017.
“I tell you the truth, my wife and my children are probably tired of me,” Paul said.
Paul spoke with a wide smile all afternoon on Monday when he talked about his return to the franchise. But before he could leave a reception celebrating his meeting, one of the 650 estimated fans who had packed a court within Intuit Dome spoke, caughting his attention.
Sitting some ranks from an elevated stage where Paul sat down, the fanatic told Paul what had been said about the low season movements of the team: that the team’s list now included so many players greater than 30 or more that were called “UNCS” or uncles.
“I’m definitely a ‘UNC’,” Paul said. “I think we have a large mixture of young boys, older guys and so on. And it depends on us to solve it.”
