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Lou Williams Reveals Message to Clippers After Blake Griffin Trade
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The LA Clippers trading Blake Griffin is still one of the most unexpected moves in recent history. Just months after signing him to a five-year extension, the Clippers dealt Blake to Detroit in a move that nobody saw coming. At the time, many believed the trade signified the beginning of a rebuild that would see the Clippers bottom out and tank. Players like Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley never allowed the team to become non-competitive, and it was Lou's message to the team that helped them regain perspective after Blake was dealt.
"Once we traded Blake, everybody was down, we weren't sure how it was gonna go," Lou Williams said on the Draymond Green Show. "I sat everybody down and said, 'Look, man. They traded Blake. We love Blake. So we don't have to feel responsible for that. Only thing we can do is play as hard as we can, and give ourselves an opportunity to win, and live with the results.'"
Lou said the team was able to adopt that mentality, carry it into the next season, and shock a lot of people. That 2018-19 season was truly special, and it helped the Clippers attract Kawhi Leonard in free agency that summer. Without Lou Williams, it's hard to imagine the Clippers becoming that desirable of a destination fo the league's top free agent at that time.
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