Every year, ESPN does their annual “NBA Future Power Rankings”. Bobby Marks and Kevin Pelton (both of whom I respect for their basketball analysis) rank each team based on five categories: players, management, money, market, and draft. Based on how the teams stack out comparatively, they get assigned a score which then determines their overall rankings.
Well, this year, the Clippers placed 21st. This was because even though they were 4th in money, and tied for 4th, 9th, and 11th for market, management, and draft, respectively, they tied for 24th in “players”, and that’s the category that’s worth the majority of the ranking.