INGLEWOOD — Trent Redden attempted to put on a brave face as he spoke to the media for the first time since being named the Clippers’ interim president of basketball operations. But he couldn’t hide his uneasiness during Monday’s Media Day as the newly appointed front man for an organization going through a rocky transition.
Redden’s voice was unsteady as he apologized to Clippers fans for the team’s silence since the NBA handed down severe penalties to the team for circumventing salary cap rules on Sept. 2, after a year-long investigation. He even mistakenly called interim CEO John Gibson “John Graham.”
“Our fans deserve to hear from us before this, and for that, we’re sorry,” said Redden, aware that team owner Steve Ballmer’s statement on Sept. 13 had been the only comment from the organization since the penalties. “We’ve been listening though, not just being quiet, but listening to the thoughts, the concerns and feelings and the emotions of our fan base. They mean everything to us.
“Their pain through this time is real and we feel it and we hear them, as well as our staff members who are proud to be part of this organization.”
Redden acknowledged the significant penalties the NBA imposed, including a $30 million fine, the loss of five first-round draft picks and suspensions for Ballmer (one year), President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker (one year) and President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank (six months). Redden said the team intends to comply but more importantly work to “build confidence as we go through the NBA mandates and penalties this season.”
“This franchise often has done its best work with its back against the wall,” Redden said. “Training camp starts tomorrow and we’ve got a deep group of players that have shown competitive spirit time and again, and a coaching staff led by Ty (Lue), who we think is the best in the NBA.
“We hope to represent our fans the same way we always had in dark times by coming out fighting.”
While the Clippers are looking forward, the past continues to dog them. Injuries, the kind that have derailed previous campaigns, have clouded the start of this season.
Most notably, newly acquired forward Brandon Ingram, who came to the Clippers in the delayed trade that sent Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, was discovered in May to have a partial tear of his right Achilles tendon during surgery on his heel.
Ingram will miss the start of the season and will be re-evaluated later this month.
“I’m coming along,” Ingram said.
The 6-foot-8 two-time All-Star, who is expected to fill the void left by Leonard, said he experienced pain throughout last season, but didn’t know what caused it.
“Near the end of the season, we figured it out what it was and thought surgery was the best thing do to so I can recover well and be ready for the season,” Ingram said.
The Clippers, who have had 15 consecutive winning seasons, finishing 42-40 last season, already knew they would be without forward Jordan Miller, who suffered a torn rotator cuff in a pickup game during the summer, and second-year center Yanic Konan Niederhauser, who won’t be ready to play until January after having surgery to repair a fractured foot.
Lastly, veteran guard Bradley Beal, who has fully recovered from left hip surgery, developed inflammation in his right knee during workouts and will not be ready for training camp, which opens Tuesday in Hawaii (the Clippers will play their first preseason game there on Sunday against the Golden State Warriors).
Through it all, Lue said he never entertained thoughts of looking for another coaching job. This season, he said, is just another challenge he has faced in his six previous seasons as the Clippers’ head coach.
“I wouldn’t want to be in any other place,” Lue said. “I think I’ve expressed that many times, even when things got hard and things got tough, that I wanted to be here, be a part of this organization.
“… I definitely want to go through this challenge. We’ve been through challenges before, so this isn’t any different and we’re going to approach it the same way.”
The Clippers open the season on Oct. 21 against the Sacramento Kings at the Intuit Dome.
“I know there’s little to no expectations for us this year,” Ingram said. “We have enough in the building to compete. We go out and compete every single night and learn and move on to the next game, and get better and better.”