The Ringer founder and former ESPN analyst Bill Simmons believes Paul George erred in saying it wasn’t a ‘championship or bust’ season for the Clippers.
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The Los Angeles Clippers were tipped by a number of experts to go all the way to an NBA championship. With the amount of talent in their were-withal, they were expected to make the Conference Finals at a minimum, setting up a matchup with the Lakers.
But they got shown up on the defensive end of the game by the offense of the Nuggets in the Conference Semifinals.
Also Read: ‘Where was this vs Nuggets?’: Clippers players furious with Paul George after playoff exit speech
Paul George’s claim about this season not being ‘championship or bust’
In their exit interview after round 2 of the playoffs, Paul George said that since this was the Clippers’ first season as a group, they did not expect themselves to realistically be in position to win an NBA championship.
They did not have the chemistry, according to George, to go all the way this past season.
The jaw-dropping quote of the night from Paul George:
“I think internally, we always felt this was not a championship-or-bust year for us.”— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) September 16, 2020
Bill Simmons slams Paul George for Championship or Bust statement
According to Simmons, the Clippers have put so much on the line to acquire Paul George from OKC that they cannot afford to perform below expectations.
He went out on a rant to say that the Clippers traded a hundred picks for him and gave up on a lot of their future in order to secure the title this time round.
With this one being a ‘bust’ season, there is going to be immense pressure next time round, as the Clippers have invested heavily in the duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George
“It’s not championship or bust”? Of course it is! They traded a hundred draft picks for you and you can opt out. I thought Lakers were lucky not facing them but now I think Lakers would’ve beat this Clippers, they are mentally weak.” Simmons said.
This makes sense because Kawhi and Paul George parachuted themselves onto a Clippers team that had already won 48 games in the past season.
On top of that, they had a stable head coaching presence and tons of continuity with the exception of the duo. Their patterns were well set. Bill Simmons’ critique of George’s statement is quite justified.
