Podcast: Why the Clippers Are Primed to Surprise People This Season

Nobody outside the building expects much from the Los Angeles Clippers this season.

The NBA took five first-round picks from the team, fined it $30 million and suspended owner Steve Ballmer for one year, and the long-delayed trade sending forward Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors went through, with forward Brandon Ingram as the main return.

Bleacher Report ranked the Clippers 30th in its preseason power rankings, and BetMGM set their win total at 30.5, which it called the franchise's lowest preseason number since 2008-09.

The locker room sees it differently, as center Brook Lopez said at media day on Sept. 28.

"I think we're going to surprise a lot of people," Lopez said, according to Farbod Esnaashari.

Ingram, who will miss the start of the season while recovering from heel surgery and a partially torn Achilles, said there are little to no expectations for this group, but he was not worried.

"We have enough in the building to compete. This is what we love to do," Ingram said.

Point guard Darius Garland carried the same idea into camp in Hawaii, where he said the team is going to shock a lot of people, which is the right attitude for a group that has been heavily disrespected in the rankings.

Head coach Ty Lue spent camp pushing toughness, and he admitted what this roster lacks.

"We're definitely a smaller team in height and size. We've got to be tough-minded. We've got to be tough every night, we've got to rebound the basketball every night and we've got to bring a physicality to rebound the ball," Lue said.

Forward Derrick Jones Jr. said at camp that everybody is calling the Clippers underdogs, but the players believe they can go out and show what they can do.

Lue also said the battle for starting spots is about the best fit, not the best players.

The Clippers then beat the Golden State Warriors 104-101 on Sunday in Honolulu.

Forward Rui Hachimura scored 21 points in 15 minutes, Garland had 15 points on 4-of-4 shooting with six assists, and rookie guard Keaton Wagler hit a 19-foot step-back jumper with 14 seconds left to put Los Angeles ahead for good.

"The vibes have been great. Our guys have done a great job of just working hard every single day and no complaining, no excuses," Lue said after the game. "Today was a step in the right direction, but we have to get a lot better."

The injuries worry me, since guard Max Strus has a partial tear of the plantar fascia in his right foot and will be reevaluated in four weeks, and guard Bradley Beal did not play on Sunday after knee inflammation slowed him early in camp.

Still, a bar of around 30 wins is low for a team with Garland, Hachimura, Lopez and a healthy Ingram later in the year, and I expect the Clippers to clear it.

They face the Raptors on Saturday in Vancouver, host the Denver Nuggets on Oct. 14 and open the regular season against the Sacramento Kings on Oct.

21.