Clippers Still Ranked Top-10 Despite Not Having Kawhi Leonard

The LA Clippers were ranked 10th in ESPN's latest NBA power rankings.

While the LA Clippers may be without Kawhi Leonard for the entirety of next season, ESPN still predicts that they will be one of the league's 10 best teams. In ESPN's latest NBA power rankings, the Clippers came in at 10th. The top-10 teams entering next season, according to ESPN, are the Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets, Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, and LA Clippers.

For some outside of the Clippers fanbase, this may seem like unwarranted optimism; however, for those who follow the team closely, the argument can be made that they should be ranked even higher. Despite missing Kawhi Leonard for games five and six of the Western Conference Semi-Finals, the Clippers were able to close out the Utah Jazz who are ranked 5th on ESPN's list.

During the 2021 playoffs, the Clippers outscored their opponents by 49 points in the 480 minutes that Kawhi Leonard was off the floor, and the team also posted a 117.1 ORTG and +5.8 NTRG in the playoffs when Leonard was off the floor. The trio of Paul George, Nicolas Batum, and Reggie Jackson posted a +15.5 NTRG in the playoffs, which ranked first in the NBA amongst all trios who played at least 300 minutes.

For all of these reasons and more, it is certainly a fair assessment by ESPN that the Clippers will be one of the league's 10 best teams next season.

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