BDL’s 2015-16 NBA Season Previews: Los Angeles Clippers (Ball Don't Lie)

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The Clippers were as close to a first-round exit in 2015 as they were to a Western Conference finals date with the Warriors, playing a pair of seven-game series against the Spurs and Rockets in the first two rounds of the playoffs. When all was said and done, their season ended no better than it had the previous three seasons. If you’re looking at the glass as half full, they were a Chris Paul hamstring pull away from reaching new heights as an organization in the first year under new owner Steve Ballmer. They’ve returned a core that includes a pair of perennial MVP candidates and a somewhat surprising Defensive Player of the Year contender, and they’ve reconstructed what was an abysmal bench with no cap space to spend. [ Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball ] And if you’re looking at the glass as half empty, Paul is now north of 30 years old, and we’re entering year five of the Paul-Blake Griffin-DeAndre Jordan triumvirate with nothing more than a trio of conference semifinals appearances to show for it. They’ve also added three strong personalities to an already volatile team chemistry experiment that nearly blew up in GM/coach Doc Rivers’ face over the summer. That cup could runneth over with championship champagne come June, if all goes according to plan. That is, if Rivers can work Lance Stephenson, Paul Pierce, Josh Smith and a handful of newcomers into a roster that won 56 games despite having the NBA’s second-worst bench last season, the Clippers are contenders again. Or they could just as easily self-destruct and spill it all over their new uniforms . The real pressure won’t heat up until the Clippers reach the second round for the fourth time in five years, and it’ll all probably boil down to another seven-game series.

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