Getty Lou Williams, Clippers
When the Clippers opted for a change of direction in the 2017 offseason, dealing away superstar point guard Chris Paul to Houston, they back in return a mega-package of seven players plus a draft pick. Three of them never played for L.A. One, Sam Dekker, was gone after a year. But the three who remained—Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams—formed a core that would set the Clippers’ identity in the coming years.
Even as the Clippers added two new superstars, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, in 2019, that trio still was the beating heart of the team. But Harrell left in free agency last offseason and now, with Williams traded to Atlanta last week for Rajon Rondo, Beverley is the only one who remains.
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Williams, speaking for the first time since the trade on Wednesday, acknowledged the emotions of that.
“It hurts, just to be candid,” Williams said in a virtual media session with reporters, according to the L.A. Times. “It hurts. I had some very emotional conversations with those guys after the trade, in the entirety, as well as Pat, you know. Pat called me the other day a little emotional that my locker was empty.”
Lou Williams: ‘Pat and I Were the Longest-Tenured Guys’
Williams and Beverley were together for just three-and-a-half seasons with the Clippers, but they turned a team that was expected to rebuild after the Paul trade into a 42-40 group in 2017-18, which they built into a 48-win team the following year. That success made the Clippers an attractive destination for Leonard and George.
Along the way, Williams pointed out, the veteran Clippers helped bring along several talented youngsters:
Pat and I were the longest-tenured guys on that group, we were there four years. We were on that [2019] team that expected us not to make the playoffs and we put that group on our backs and battled a very talented Golden State team and when you do something like that, you kind of feel emboldened like you were part of the culture that was being created.
I thought a lot of things in place there that will carry on with the young guys that they’ve brought in, from Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] to Terance [Mann] to [Ivica] Zubac — those are guys that we put a lot of heart and just a lot of courage and confidence in those guys, how they should carry themselves as pros. We took a lot of pride in that, so for that to come to an end, and for it to be time to move on, that was emotional for us.
Lou Williams ‘Ready to Get Back to Work’
Williams had, earlier, said on Instagram that he considered retiring when he was traded to the Hawks but thought better of it. It did take him six days to finally comment publicly on the trade, though, which was a particularly long delay.
At 34 years old and averaging 12.4 points, his fewest in eight seasons, Williams did seem to lose a step with the Clippers this season. But he hopes his tenure with the Hawks dispels that notion, especially ahead of his impending free agency.
“It wasn’t personal against the Hawks,” Williams said, “I just needed some time to figure out what was best for myself at this stage of my career. But now that I’m here and like I said, I’ve been embraced, the guys seem as if they want me here, so I’m ready to get back to work. I’m going to make this push and move forward.”