The Los Angeles Clippers have done a lot of work over the last year to try and reshape their roster and jumpstart a new era by trading away James Harden and Ivica Zubac, attempting to trade Kawhi Leonard, and making a number of savvy moves that have stacked the Clippers' roster with young talent and loaded them with draft picks to keep building toward the future. 

But it isn't enough to simply load a team with young talent and bank on their potential, as promising as that potential may be. There also needs to be development of that talent and a genuine effort at team building to find chemistry between all of the new pieces, an effort that will be critical for the Clippers to commit to over the next few seasons. 

As much as the Clippers have set themselves up for success at this point, it will take time before they'll likely be able to be true contenders in the NBA again.

There is another issue, as retired MLB player Kenny Lofton shared in an interview with Roundtable Sports' Farbod Esnaashari at an event for the Harold & Carole Pump Foundation; the Clippers also have the premier talent in the Western Conference like the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs to deal with as they rebuild.

"It is a whole different team... but you have to see how the team is going to work together and play, but you have to compete against some tough teams in the West," Lofton said. "So you can put your team together, but if you're not stepping up to that level that's gonna compete or go above that West, with San Antonio and OKC, if you can't compete with them, you're not gonna get overt that level. You're not gonna win."

Raw talent can only go so far and for the Clippers, as successful as they've been at accumulating prospective young players, that raw talent is still relatively unproven and the actual success of the team is still going to be dependent on how well the team can play together. 

That will be the most critical task for Clippers head coach Ty Lue to work on next season. With so much turnaround on the roster, Lue will have to figure out who works best where and what rotations and combinations can work the best to promote chemistry and success down the line. 

Rebuilding a team can be tricky because as much as the talent acquisition aspect of the process is crucial, so is developing that talent and making sure everything fits together, not to mention having to undergo that process while having to play against such powerhouses in the league in your own conference.

There's a lot for Clippers fans to be excited about in the next few seasons after a whirlwind that began at the trade deadline last season, but as Lofton touched on, there's still a lot of work left to do and Lofton is right to be cautious about what comes next for Los Angeles.