Lou Williams was a very important player for the LA Clippers during his stint there. Williams joined the team in 2017 when he was traded to the Clippers as part of the trade that saw Chris Paul join the Houston Rockets. With the team, he formed the base of the franchise that attracted superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to the team.
In his first season with the Clippers, Williams was named the NBA’s Sixth Man Of The Year, the second time he had won the award after his first win coming in Toronto. Williams was extremely important as a scorer for them coming off the bench.
He won the award the next season as well, making him the only player along with fellow former Clippers star Jamal Crawford to win the award three times. In fact, Williams believes he is the greatest player to win the award and is even in a position to make the Hall Of Fame based on his achievement.
The following season, Williams became an integral star for the Clippers as they became championship contenders, as they signed Kawhi Leonard and acquired Paul George. But the team faltered in the NBA bubble against the Denver Nuggets. And Williams also garnered negative attention for his excursion in Magic City, where he defied protocol before re-entering the NBA bubble.
The 2020-21 NBA season would end up being his final year with the Clippers, as he was traded at the deadline to Atlanta in order to bring Rajon Rondo to LA. Williams regrets the way his time in LA ended, and actually spoke recently with ClutchPoints about how he wishes he got the chance to see out his stint there, especially to see how they were building the team.
“I wish we would’ve been a little bit more patient with the process of trying to build something special. But you know in this day and age of the NBA, it’s instant results or nothing. That was the only disappointing part, but I have no regrets. I enjoy everybody, no hard feelings towards anybody. It’s cool.”
“It kind of caught me off guard a little bit. We heard a couple of little rumblings, nothing really that was sticking. I felt like something was gonna happen, but we didn’t know with who. We didn’t know with what guys. I think that deadline was at three o’clock. I got traded at like 2:45 or something like that. I was preparing for the game and got the call from my agent, he said, ‘We think something is happening, stay by your phone.’ And got that call. That was a tough pill to swallow, but business is business. Things happen.”
Williams is now playing for Atlanta, and while he seems happier now, it wasn’t always the case. He revealed that he even cried when he was traded by the Clippers. Last season, he was part of the Hawks team that made an incredible run to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Williams is nearing the end of his career, and he hasn’t clarified whether he is going to retire anytime soon. But Williams can be proud of the career he has had so far. And Williams can walk away from the game without any regrets. And as he stated above, he doesn’t have any.
