Clippers welcome new faces and new arena to start NBA preseason

Posted by Admin October 1, 2024 NBA

The Los Angeles Clippers are headed in a new direction this year in more ways than one.

The team overhauled its roster following the departure of star players, such as Paul George and Russell Westbrook, during the offseason while getting younger with some new additions.

Kawhi Leonard and James Harden signed deals in 2024 to stay with Los Angeles, a familiar region for both, who played high school basketball in Southern California.

“I’m home,” Harden said. “I don’t plan on being anywhere else. I want to leave a legacy, especially here. I get the opportunity to be home. I love everything that we’re doing.”

The Clippers have also prepared to debut a new look and new home of its own when beginning the 2023-24 season against the Phoenix Suns at the Intuit Dome.

Where will the Clippers play this season?

The Clippers will play their home opener at the Intuit Dome on Oct. 23 against the Phoenix Suns.

The Intuit Dome is a new indoor arena located in Inglewood, California and serves as SoFi Stadium’s new neighbor.

The Clippers now have a place of their own after spending the last 24 years playing at the venue now known as Crypto.com Arena as a tenant alongside the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings.

“We didn’t have an arena of our own even when they had a lot of room there,” Kawhi Leonard said. “We were the third or fourth important team in that building.”

One of the most significant changes for the team is fewer home games starting at 12:30 p.m. on the weekend.

“It was actually nice,” Norman Powell said about seeing fewer afternoon home games scheduled on the weekend. “I don’t mind the 12:30 games, I know the record and stuff from last year speaks differently as a team but it’s nice. The perks and bonus of having your own arena again and not having to share with another sport or another team.”

The matinee time slot often landed on the Clippers’ schedule as a way for the previous venue to accommodate the Lakers and Kings.

The Clippers spent $2 billion on the arena and is expected to hold a capacity of 18,000. The arena was already named as the site of the 2026 NBA All-Star festivities.

New home: LA Clippers are spending $2 billion on their new arena. Will it be the best in the NBA?

Clippers change its identity

The Clippers changed its logo for the first time since 2015. The new logo features a blue “C” that surrounds a compass and a naval ship.

According to the NBA’s website, the ship is inspired by the team’s move to San Diego in 1978, when the organization changed its nickname from the Braves to the Clippers, in honor of the passing ships through San Diego Bay.

The new logo will be seen on jerseys and the center of the court for home games among other places for branding purposes.

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Clippers welcome new faces

The Clippers made several changes to its roster during the offseason, moving on from other veteran players such as Mason Plumlee and Daniel Theis and adding players such as Mo Bamba and Derrick Jones.

Jones told reporters at media day that he wants to add value to the roster using his defensive ability, asking coach Tyronn Lue to allow him to guard the best players on the floor.

The Clippers became familiar with Jones when he was on the opposing side with the Dallas Mavericks during their six-game first-round series last season.

“Almost everyone I’ve encountered in the organization has told me ‘I don’t know how I’m supposed to be cool with you after what you just did to us in the playoffs,’” Jones said. “For me, I’m just happy to be here. I’m happy that they want me here. As long as I’m wanted, I’m happy that I’m here. I just want to play free and be the best me that I can be and try to get this team to hold hardware at the end of the season.”

While the team has welcomed the new players, the team’s leaders understand that there may be some growing pains they hope to address during training camp.

“I think the biggest challenge is just breaking old habits from other teams,” Powell said. “I think that’s the biggest thing, you have new guys who played a certain style or played with different coaches and the calls might be a little different here. … So just getting them all up to speed.”

The team also got a notable addition to its coaching staff with the hiring of Jeff Van Gundy as an assistant coach.

“His communication so far with us has been elite,” Harden said of Gundy. “We will be going over defensive principles, that’s his mindset and what he brings to our team, over the last month and just trying to implement things so some guys know what we are trying to accomplish in training camp.

“Even his communication with me, he would write little notes in my locker basically telling me what I needed to do, which I haven’t had in a couple of years. That’s what is exciting for me because he has goals individually for me that I want to get to in order to help our team be successful.”