Today’s Hottest Take: Once a Dysfunctional Franchise, Always a Dysfunctional Franchise

For as long as they’ve been around, the Clippers have always been a bottom of a barrel team. In 1978, the Buffalo Braves moved to San Diego and became the Clippers, and then in 1984, they moved to Los Angeles. In the 34 years of being the Clippers, they've had four playoff appearances (three of them first-round exits) and nine All-Star appearances. Then Chris Paul went to the Clippers, teaming up with young stars Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan to form one of the most entertaining teams of all time. Paul led the Lob City Clippers to the playoffs every year with multiple second-round appearances. He made All-NBA every year and helped Griffin and Jordan make it as well. He holds plenty of records for the Clippers and has serious cause for being the franchise GOAT.

What You Need to Know: CP3 Was Never The Problem

While the Clippers are playing poorly with a 6-18 record, and while Paul was playing poorly, blaming the losing record on him is completely unfair. The moment he signed with the Clippers, it was clear this was his farewell tour season. He wasn’t brought on to be a key player, but rather a point guard who could play a couple minutes here and there and provide great leadership.

On Nov. 22, he announced this was his last season and would retire a Clipper. He planned to have a storybook ending, retiring on the team that he helped make great. Instead the Clippers went and waived him on a random Wednesday, stabbing him in the back.

While he clearly wasn’t a major contributor to the team this season, he's not the cause of the losses. Those can be attributed to poor injury luck in players like Bradley Beal, Derrick Jones Jr. and Kawhi Leonard. It's also the fault of players like Brook Lopez, Bogdan Bogdanović and John Collins who were supposed to be winning players but are currently playing below their expected level. Paul was the least of the Clippers' problems, and cutting him was a senseless and irrational move.

Before You Go: Public Enemy No. 1? The Clippers’ Front Office

While players getting injured and underperforming are hurting the Clippers this season, the real cause is the incompetence in the front office. Their latest mistake is cutting Paul, but their blunders go much deeper. In the offseason, they picked up Beal and Lopez. These seemed like good moves in the moment, but the Clippers forgot two things: These two were old, and they have not played well recently.

These two facts translated over to this season, where both players have been putting up bad stats and becoming unplayable. They also traded away Norman Powell, who out of nowhere last season became an All-Star level talent. This season, he is going insane on the Heat averaging 25/4/2, while the player they traded him for, Collins, is averaging 12/1/5 on poor efficiency.

The front office has also been unable to draft well for years. They have drafted Yanic Konan Niederhauser, Kobe Sanders, Cameron Christie, Kobe Brown, Jordan Miller and Moussa Diabate in recent years. They traded away the one competent player, Diabate, and left these subpar draft picks. While some of these players, like Cam Christie and Kobe Sanders, have been decent for them, most of their picks end up riding the bench. They have missed out on good players like Quinten Post, Toumani Camara, Jalen Wilson and Vince Williams Jr. While none of these players are stars, they would greatly benefit the Clippers' roster. Instead, the front office has been actively sabotaging the Clippers’ chance to capitalize on James Harden’s and Kawhi Leonard’s greatness.