LOS ANGELES — It was an opportunity Lawrence Frank couldn’t pass on. A once-in-a-career chance the Clippers’ president of basketball operations had to take – and so he did.
After months of speculation, deep dives on how the superstar might fit in with Kawhi Leonard and Paul Goerge, plus salary considerations, Frank completed the long-talked-about trade with the Philadelphia 76ers that brought James Harden, along with P.J. Tucker, to the Clippers in exchange for four players and several future draft picks. With that one move, the Clippers revved up their championship hopes.
“With James, it was an opportunity to maximize Kawhi and Paul and to give us the highest chance to win,” Frank said Wednesday evening before the Clippers faced the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena. “It’s our responsibility not just to Kawhi and Paul and to the coaching staff and to the people in the organization, but to our fans to look at every single way where we can raise our ceiling.
“James is a ceiling-raiser.”
On the surface, acquiring the 34-year-old Harden made sense. A 10-time All-Star. A former league MVP. A high-caliber scorer and ball handler all in one jersey.
The convincing factor for Frank, though, was Harden’s postseason resume. Although the veteran point guard has never led any of his previous teams to an NBA championship, as Frank said, “One thing that always impressed us about James, is that the guy’s made the playoffs every single year.”
The Clippers had to do something; the status quo wasn’t working. Last season, with the same core players as this season, the team scrambled to avoid the play-in tournament and then with Leonard and George on the bench with injuries, lost to the Phoenix Suns in five games in a first-round series. Despite 12 consecutive winning seasons and 10 playoff berths in that time, the Clippers have made just one Western Conference finals appearance, with injuries often scuttling their best opportunities since Leonard and George came aboard.
“James Harden has an elite skill set and all he cares about is one thing: He wants to win a championship for the L.A. Clippers,” Frank said. “He wants to be part of something bigger than himself.”
The trade was agreed to Monday night, giving the Clippers a large window to integrate their two new additions. The 38-year-old Tucker made his Clippers debut on Wednesday, checking in at the 1:10 mark of the first quarter.
Harden, who did not play a game with the 76ers this season after demanding a trade in June, is expected to play his first game next week when the team travels to New York.
Frank said coaches ideally like to have players in camp for offseason workouts and training camp, but at the end of the day, he said, you make the best of circumstances. This season is barely into its second week.
“I think we still have a really, really long runway,” Frank said.
“It made a lot of sense to bring James and P.J. here as early as we can, just so our guys can get the reps, all the reps required to build continuity and rhythm and fit, and for Ty Lue and the coaching staff to be able to experiment with different combinations. So, we’re extremely excited to add James and P.J. and we feel we’ve gotten better.”
Lue believes the timing is fine.
“The good thing about the trade is we’re four games in, not 60 like last year” when (Russell) Westbrook joined the team, Lue said. “We’re going to have a lot of time. It’s going to be a process. We understand that. We’re excited about the journey ahead, but these four days are going to be really good for us. Came at a perfect time just to try to get James and P.J. up to speed.”
Harden is expected to start alongside center Ivica Zubac, Leonard, George and Westbrook, with Leonard moving to the power forward spot. Personalities aside, Frank sees the lineup as a winning combination of players.
“I think the one is there’s enough examples where just on video like so when you watch James with Kyrie and KD and even though those guys maybe they played 16 games together, but you saw a transformation,” Frank said.
“James from an individual standpoint, you think about it: he’s been a (three-time) scoring champ, the assists champ (twice), the MVP, Sixth Man of the Year. And then in Brooklyn, you saw at different moments of the game (when) he’d be strictly a playmaker, and then at times when he’d be with the second unit, he was more of a scorer.
“And in his first full year in Philly, you saw the pride he took helping make Joel Embiid be the MVP.”
Lue believes Harden and the other stars will make the adjustments necessary to turn the Clippers into a championship contender.
“Sacrifice is going to be the biggest thing,” Lue said. “Four guys from L.A., and four guys that have done a lot in their careers. So they understand, and they’ve talked about just winning a championship. That’s all we’re focused on. It’s going to take a lot of sacrifice, whether it’s shots, whether it’s minutes. They’re willing to do that.”
Frank echoed that, saying all four players are at the stage of their careers where winning a title is most important.
“They have all the individual accomplishments. They’ve made plenty of money. This is about one goal,” Frank said. “Just the uniqueness of the opportunity to have four guys from Los Angeles, who grew up within a couple years of each other to be able to come to a place that they want to be at and to do something that’s never been done before for the Clippers organization.
“The pride of place, the sense of pride. We see the investment every day and then have James and now also P.J., who’s a guy that we’ve targeted for a number of years, to be able to come together. I think it’s another important piece to continue to get better to come closer to trying to achieve our goal.”
PETRUSEV HEADED TO KINGS
In a move to preserve roster flexibility, the Clippers are reportedly trading forward Filip Petrusev and cash to the Sacramento Kings, ESPN was first to report.
Petrusev, a 23-year-old from Serbia who arrived in the Harden trade, was the 50th overall pick in the 2021 draft. He remained in Europe for two seasons before signing with the Philadelphia 76ers in July and joining the NBA.
The move means the Clippers have 13 players under contract now.
