Why not the Clippers in 2015?

The 2014-15 NBA regular season officially tips-off Tuesday night with a trio of games, including a TNT doubleheader. Most of the rest of the league gets going on Wednesday, with two teams having to wait until Thursday to get things underway. Unfortunately, the L.A. Clippers are one of those (the other is the Cavs) that has to wait until Thursday to begin play. THE AGONY.

But Thursday will be here soon enough, and we are all of the excited. But we still have to kill time between now-and-then, and what better way to do so than with a nice preview?
Last year, the Clips finished third in the Western Conference with a franchise-best 57-25 record. They beat Golden State in the first round before OKC knocked them out in the conference semifinals. While they didn't change most of the on-court personnel during the offseason, the Clippers still likely made the best addition of the summer when Steve Ballmer bought the club from Donald Sterling for all of the money. That's an upgrade in just about every feasible way, and the Clippers will surely benefit.

But it does seem as though they were able to upgrade the roster talent, as well. Spencer Hawes, a three-point shooting seven-footer, gives the Clipper offense a dimension they've not had since Chris Paul came over in 2011. Blake Griffin has never had a frontcourt mate that can stretch the floor like Hawes, who shot nearly 40% from three last year, can. We've already seen what kind of effect this can have for the Clippers, and it gives Paul and Griffin much more room to operate than they do with DeAndre Jordan on the floor. We've covered this.

The most noteworthy departure from last season's Clipper squad was backup point guard Darren Collison, who filled-in excellently when Paul was lost with a shoulder injury a year ago. Fortunately, they were able to replace him with Jordan Farmar, who seems like an actual upgrade. Farmar gives the Clippers more size at that position (6'3" as opposed to Collison's 6'0"), and he has turned into an excellent three-point shooter. Farmar shot a blistering 44% from deep with the Lakers last year, and L.A. can likely deploy him as a 2-guard alongside Paul in certain lineups.

More than anything, there's a feeling of "It's Time" around the Clippers going into this year. It's Year

Chris Paul
Photo Credit - Verse Photography/Flickr

Four of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin together. Paul, more than just about any player in the league, has the pressure of expectation on his shoulders. This is his 10th season in the league, and he still hasn't advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs. He's been by far and away the NBA's premier point guard in that time, and of course he can't be blamed for the collective failures of his teams around him. But great players in the NBA are (fair or not) often judged in terms of number of championships, and CP3 is going on 30 and hasn't even sniffed a Finals appearance.

Griffin seems to improve by the game at this point, as discussed here. Bovada has Griffin as the third-most likely player to take home the MVP award this season, which says all you need to know about his development, really.

The Clippers brought Doc Rivers to L.A. to change that. This will be his second year at the helm, and the transformation of the team under his tutelage compared to what it was under Vinny Del Negro was readily apparent from Day One. Griffin and Jordan each had legitimate claims to the league's Most Improved Player Award a year ago, and I can't imagine that kind of rapid development would've come if Del Negro were still driving this bus. Doc has a way of getting the most out of his players, obviously. I mean, he got something out of KENDRICK PERKINS, for Heaven's sake.

Looking at the rest of the NBA today, things actually seem to be aligning for this to be the Clippers' year. The Spurs HAVE to show signs of collective aging at some point, don't they? Having played a full season's worth of games (plus just about the maximum number of playoff games) has to take a toll on those old legs at some point, regardless of how well Gregg Popovich is able to manage his players' minutes.

The Thunder already lost Kevin Durant for the foreseeable future with a foot injury, and the rest of the roster seems to be crumbling, as well. With Anthony Morrow, Jeremy Lamb, Perry Jones and Reggie Jackson all having suffered injuries within the last week, there's a chance OKC could only have nine healthy players for their opener against Portland on Wednesday. They'll still surely have Durant healthy by the time the playoffs roll around, but how will their playoff seeding be affected by his absence?

Dallas had a flashy offseason, but it remains to be seen how all those new parts gel together. Houston lost Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin this summer, leaving their bench looking weakened. Golden State has all the makings of a true contender, but are they really going to go all the way to the Finals under a first-year head coach? Memphis, Phoenix, Portland and New Orleans are all wild cards, though none of them seem ready to jump all the way to the top.

That leaves the Clippers just staring at this wide-open window directly in front of them. If they can remain relatively healthy (NOT losing Paul for a month and J.J. Redick forever would be, ya know, ideal), there's no reason to believe they can't be the last team standing. One of last season's main flaws (frontcourt depth), while still a potential problem, appears to have been alleviated a bit with the aforementioned addition of Hawes and the retention of Glen Davis and Hedo Turkoglu.

But LAC has the right personnel to not have to wait for other teams in the West to fall back to them. Regardless of how good the Spurs or Thunder may be, the Clippers are right up there with anyone in terms of talent and potential. There were plenty of signs last year that they were on the verge of putting everything together, and if a few breaks had gone their way in the OKC series, who knows how far last year's iteration could've gone?

Can't wait for Thursday.