Los Angeles Clippers: 3 Players that disappointed this season
To say that the Los Angeles Clippers were one resilient squad, would be an outrageous understatement. Having lost their leading scorer to a mid-season trade in return for chump change, Doc Rivers and his team were running out of options with the playoffs approaching quick.
With the lack of the quality talent - let alone All-Stars - the Clippers decided to steer their ship on heart and hustle every game, till they landed the last postseason berth there was. They finished the regular season with a 48-34 (0.585) win-loss record next to their name and drew their first round opponents in the mighty Warriors. In what was a matchup between the 1st and the 8th seed, the Clippers made sure Golden State had to push hard for every win.
They dragged the defending champs all the way down to a Game 6 before bowing out, but in the process, earned the respect of basketball fans worldwide. So much so the mayor of LA had to acknowledge that his city was indeed a Clippers' Town at the moment and not the Lakers'.
With all their achievements for the 2018-19 year wrapped up and done with, let's take a look at the players who didn't actually reap benefits out of this monster breakout year by the franchise.
#1 Marcin Gortat
When the 34-year-old arrived in LA, he had no idea of what was coming. After playing 47 games for the franchise (and starting in 43 of them), Gortat could only average 5.0 points and 5.6 rebounds per game - both of which were his lowest since 2010-11. He saw a diminishing role with a little over 16 minutes of playtime per game.
According to NBA stats, the 6-foot-11 Polish center posted a career-worst 111.4 defensive rating during the 2018-19 season. Gortat was waived by the Los Angeles Clippers on February 7, 2019.
Cousins' injury hinted at GSW being interested in acquiring him but the fact that opposing teams would've easily exposed his defensive frailties during a deep playoff run prevented it from happening in reality.