It was Feb. 10, 24 hours after the NBA trade deadline passed, and the Clippers looked at their roster and had little urge to fill one of their available spots.
They just traded Denver guard Bones Hyland, an energetic young player seen as a backup point guard and one-man fast attacker.
There's Eric Gordon, 34, who called for his ability to alternately punish defense behind the three-point line and the basket.
There is backup center Mason Plumlee, who has increased his size, speed and passing.
All three of the new signings are seen as important additions to team pillars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, and in just two games, new and old players have had such a relaxed chemistry "as if they started the season with us," George said last week after the Clippers' win over Phoenix, who finished fourth in the Western Conference standings.
George added that "we got everything we needed" to hit the title again – and the same feeling has been felt within the team since the deadline approached.
In the 10 days between the deadline and Monday, that feeling changed, leading to a decision that few initially thought was possible: The Clippers planned to sign a minimum contract by the end of the season after the contract of former Lakers guard Russell Westbrook was bought out by Utah and he cleared the waiver, a decision confirmed on condition of anonymity because they could not speak publicly on the matter.
It is expected to be officially signed on Wednesday or Thursday. That would allow Westbrook to train Thursday and possibly make its debut with the Clippers on Friday, when the team resumes their post-All-Star game against Sacramento.
Since bringing in Leonard and George in a sensational fashion in 2019, the Clippers have built the team around their stars. Their comments — the belief in Westbrook was echoed by coach Tyronn Lue, another major stakeholder in the roster decision who has long advocated for the use of "traditional point guards" in his rotation — prompted the Clippers to change course and copied an answer from a Westbrook player in the Jordan brand marketing campaign: Why not?
Westbrook is estimated to have spoken three or four times with Clippers leadership, not counting the former NBA's Most Valuable Player and career triple-double leader having had multiple conversations with Clippers players. The guard was allegedly not guaranteed to start, but was given a legitimate chance to contribute, and Westbrook said he wanted to be part of the contender, even without specifying how his role would change over the course of the playoffs. An unnamed alliance insider with knowledge of the discussions.
Early on it was argued that if the Clippers were to fill their 15th and final roster spot, a young player would make the most sense because they could help in future seasons. Internal discussions, which incorporated a variety of opinions including, but not limited to, Lou, George and Leonard, produced a common theme: If the team could add another piece, they would prefer one with experience, intensity and speed — in fact, a more influential John Wall, a former All-Star point guard that the team signed last summer but didn't function as hoped.
Westbrook arrived in his hometown of Los Angeles in 2021 to publicize how he would play against Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but was traded to Utah when the trio never clicked out. On April 5, Westbrook's current and former teams will face each other.
One of Westbrook's strengths is a defining weakness of the Clippers: availability. The Clippers have been plagued by roster disruptions throughout the season due to injuries and break-related absences, with Westbrook one of the NBA's most persistent players, missing just three games this season at the age of 34.
Just as Reggie Jackson signed Wall as a past guard, Westbrook will come to the locker room, where he has built allies and George is the most important link in every case.
The move is also a bet on the Clippers' past success in transforming veterans who underperformed elsewhere into successful reclamation projects, with Jackson and Nicholas Batum dropped in Detroit and Charlotte, respectively, to become significant contributors to the team's 2021 sprint to the Western Conference Finals.
Over the past 10 days, debate within the team has focused on the extent to which this structure needs players from Westbrook's strengths and weaknesses. In a meeting with reporters on Feb. 10, Lawrence Frank, the team's president of basketball operations, reiterated his publicly held belief since last year that the team prefers players with certain skills over strict position definitions. He suggested that instead of a point guard, teams need someone who can defend multiple positions and break through the offensive defensive end line when shooting.
"The word point guard is a very, very vague term, so for me, all you do is build your team around your best players and get complementary skill sets," Frank said. "Because let's say we have a point guard who has other limitations. So, how does this affect your star? ”
But these stars, as well as others, believe Westbrook will have a positive impact on them. As the players began lobbying the public, the Clippers' leadership also listened to them, trusting the players' feelings about what might work. Starter George — who set the best statistical season of his career with Westbrook in Oklahoma City in 2018-19 — and Marcus Morris Sr. publicly supported Westbrook's health a day after the deadline, saying the team's seven rotation players shot 37 percent from the field or better on three-pointers and were more comfortable with Westbrook's strengths and weaknesses than the Lakers.
"We can run with him and our game is to pull the distance off the pitch," George said. "I knew it was my game, pulling up space on the outside to be a shooter and then running with him in the transition – I think that's something we can add to him. We have a group of players who fit this style of play, including myself, Kawhi, Norm [Powell], [Terance] Mann, and honestly we need some people. You know, it's bad that John [Wall] didn't make a difference, but John brought exactly what we needed: someone who could go up and down on the field... And gives us some easy baskets in the conversion. ”
Morris also said on February 10 that he believes Westbrook has too much responsibility for his one-and-a-half-season battle with the team against the Lakers, which began with fanfare in the summer of 2021 but often becomes aggressive or ineffective. Westbrook averaged 17.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 3.7 turnovers while shooting 47 percent from the field and 29 percent from the arc.
"I don't think you can kill an injured dog," Morris said. "You give him a chance to come back, it can be dangerous."
The Clippers will be Westbrook's fourth team in the last five seasons. One of Westbrook's best performances since leaving his hometown of Oklahoma City was in Houston in 2020, when the Rockets switched to a five-a-side offense, avoiding traditional centers to open up space on the field, and Westbrook carved up space with effective breakaways.
The record of entering the paint zone, which is attractive to Gordon, also applies to Westbrook, who is averaging 15.1 times per game this season to break through the Lakers' highest level. However, they only score 43% of the time.
"When I looked at him when I played with him, we definitely saw him jump into MVP-level form," Clippers forward Robert Covington, a teammate with the Rockets, said in October. "The way the floor opened and the way he attacked the seams and everything. But it's like – when he doesn't have the ball in his hand, it's like a different motivation, and he's not going to be as effective. That being said, it's not that he can't work. It's just – Russ is an organizational core. When he doesn't have the ball in his hand, it's a different motivation for him. ”
Covington also praised the Lakers at the time for finding a better use for Westbrook in the second lineup, and finding his best use with the Clippers was a top priority for their last 21 regular-season games.
Wizards general manager Tommy Shepard said that in 2021, as Westbrook's season in Washington drew to a close, he had hoped to return to Los Angeles — only to the Lakers.
"He just said, 'If I can go to the Lakers, that's what I'm happy to do.'" If not, I'll come back here,'" Shepard told NBC Sports Washington in 2021. "I said, 'How's the Clippers?' He said, 'Damn no. '”
Over the course of 10 days, Westbrook and the Clippers found they could say yes to each other.