Clippers take part in Q& A bonding session
They had to skip the traditional team dinner but embraced informal alternative.
Approaching nearly 160 pages, the NBA’s health and safety protocols were designed to address nearly every scenario possible. They even cover that annual preseason tradition, the team dinner, which was prohibited by the protocols until after Dec. 11.
Those restrictions, along with others set by the county that have limited restaurants to take- out only, meant that despite coach Tyronn Lue’s wishes during training camp last week, the Clippers could not gather at a Beverly Hills steakhouse and introduce themselves around a long table, as they did two seasons ago.
Lue might get that dinner one day, but in its place his coaches and players instead met during last week’s lead- up to their f irst preseason game on the court inside the practice facility, spread apart at an appropriate distance.
“We just kind of asked each other some simple questions, just favorite musical artists and stuff like that,” guard Luke Kennard said. “There were a few interesting answers, that’s for sure.… Never done anything like that before. But yeah, it was cool to sit down and talk face to face with a few guys and get to know them a little bit.”
Though the core of a roster that lost a 3- 1 lead in the second round of the postseason remains the same, there are six new players, Kennard included, and a coaching staff that is almost entirely new. COVID- 19 restrictions had limited the group’s interaction before the start of training camp only days earlier. Introductions, then, were necessary.
“It was fun, actually,” Lue said. “Didn’t know how it would go, but I know all the guys liked it, I liked it, the coaching staff, they loved it as well. It was nice little thing we had.”
When he coached in
Cleveland, Lue liked to cancel practice and load players onto buses for a bonding exercise. If the coronavirus forced him to change old methods, his intent of the exercise remained the same, hoping the group would learn “things you don’t know about each other that you would find interesting.”
“There were some things that guys had no idea about other guys and it was something that was very personal,” Lue said.
Beyond that, the Clippers opted to stay tight- lipped on the meeting and its setting.
“We just got together,” guard Reggie Jackson said. “The details, that’s above my pay grade so, if the big guy didn’t tell you necessarily what we did, then I can’t. But just know that we had a good time hanging out and getting to know each other.”
In any case, the Clippers know well what was said is less important than the follow- through.
Last season, the Clippers departed a preseason team meeting at a Vancouver, Canada, hotel believing they’d established clear- cut roles to pursue a shared goal of a championship. After their season f inished, however, players, including Lou Williams, said the team’s chemistry was lacking and that holdovers and new ad
ditions had not always meshed.
The team skipped steps throughout the season, star Kawhi Leonard has said. Forward Paul George has criticized the team’s lack of practice time.
Lue’s desire to indicate that things would be different was evident when he scheduled two practices for the f irst day of training camp this month. The team then held another two- a- day session later that week, Lue said.
Williams said Lue “has done a great job of setting the tone.”
“That’s really where chemistry is built, in practice,” George said. “Learning one another, learning coverages. … [ It] puts you in a lot of uncomfortable situations, you have to learn to play through it. The saying ... ‘ practice makes perfect,’ it’s not cliche. Practice makes games easier.”
Etc.
After missing the preseason loss to the Lakers on Sunday because of an excused absence under the NBA’s health and safety protocols, Jackson said, “I feel perfectly f ine and I’m ready to go.” … Nicolas Batum will continue to start at forward as long as Marcus Morris continues to sit because of knee soreness, Lue said.