Clippers' Championship Hopes Hinge on the Best of James Harden Amid NBA Rumors

The Los Angeles Clippers have the unenviable task of chasing an NBA Championship in a jam-packed Western Conference, in which there are legitimately three or four teams (that are not them) who are contenders to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy at the end of the season.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst likes the way the team looks, as he reported on his Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast.

"I think the Clippers look spectacular. I thought they looked spectacular down the stretch last year. And I know that they made some changes to their roster. And I know that they're older and they're going to have injuries. And look, James Harden is actually not even in that great of shape. That's one of the things that the scouts have said, is that Harden has been in better shape at this point. But Kawhi looks fabulous."

Despite the overall enthusiasm for the team, the note about Harden should be cause for hesitation.

Harden returned to form last season, scoring 22.8, shooting 41 percent from the field and 35.2 from beyond the arc, and tallying 5.8 rebounds and 8.7 assists, and recording 1.7 steals.

The Clippers were still bounced in the first round of the playoffs.

Harden was a huge contributor to the team's success down the stretch and was instrumental in getting them to the postseason, but he needed a vintage James Harden season to do that. If he enters the season "not even in that great of shape," as Windhorst put it, there are concerns about the team's ability to start hot and be that Western Conference contender that some believe they can be.

Especially when one takes into consideration that the other superstar on the team, Kawhei Leonard, missed 45 games a season ago due to knee inflammation and there is no guarantee he will get back to his previous best.

The team did make some off-season moves that should improve it, adding Bradley Beal, John Collins, Chris Paul, and Yanic Konan Niederhauser out of Penn State with the 30th pick in the NBA Draft. They will help bridge the gap until Harden inevitably gets himself into the shape he needs to be in to replicate last year's performance.

Still, other than Leonard, there is no star bigger than Harden. He must be at his best, and that includes physically, for the Clippers to get over the hump and advance past the first round of the NBA postseason for the first time since 2021.

Especially as the facilitator of the offense and the lead scorer of last year's squad.

Otherwise, it is another lost season in the City of Angels for a team that has big aspirations to compete for the NBA title that has eluded the Clippers for the entirety of their existence.