The Los Angeles Clippers, led by Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook, began the season with a newfound focus and urgency that had everyone thinking, “Hey, maybe this is the year.” However, with one trade for James Harden, the team looks to have abandoned that haste, reverting to last year’s philosophy of “We’ve got time,” while drastically rearranging everyone’s positions.

The Clippers began training camp by emphasizing defense and playing an up-tempo style of basketball. Running was so prevalent during practices that players mocked it during news conferences. “We’re running a lot,” and “have you ever seen a team run this much in camp?” were some of the older guys on the team’s amusing quotes.

The Clippers looked like a club in transition over the first seven games of the season, which included parts of four preseason and three regular-season games. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George had a fantastic rhythm together, finding their places throughout games, while Russell Westbrook played some of the greatest and most controlled basketball of his career.

According to reports out of Los Angeles, the team was satisfied with its roster and wanted to see what it had. The Clippers did so for four games, compiling the top net rating in the NBA, before pulling off the astonishing trade for James Harden at 11 p.m. PST, when almost all of the players involved were already fast asleep.

Enter James Harden, an elite individual scorer and playmaker, particularly in the halfcourt. Enter PJ Tucker, a tough-talking 38-year-old veteran who makes every opposition player work. At least, that’s who the Clippers expected to acquire out of this deal.

What’s the issue? The players appear to be unaware

James Harden has substantially slowed the Clippers’ up-tempo style of play, which was emphasized heavily during training camp. In the process, Harden has appeared to be a shell of himself, and the team has battled to adjust to his presence.

Meanwhile, PJ Tucker has struggled to justify playing significant minutes because he isn’t defending at a high enough level and doesn’t provide much offensively. However, with Mason Plumlee out, the squad must rely on him for certain minutes, which is an issue.

Simply put, the lineup data when the four “stars” are on the floor with starting center Ivica Zubac is the most unexpected. Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and Ivica Zubac have been outscored by 23 points in 46 minutes of play through four games. The starting lineup, which includes four potential Hall of Famers, hasn’t gelled as quickly as they’d like, and no one knows why.

“That’s a good question,” James Harden said after the team’s fifth straight loss to Memphis.

“We’re attempting to figure it out.” We could fix it if we knew the solution to that.”

“I couldn’t even tell you,” Paul George said when ClutchPoints inquired. “I don’t even know what to say. However, this is a continuous process. I’m trying to figure it out. The thing is, we’re all offensively gifted, so that question will be answered at some point, but we haven’t all found it together yet.”

“Just figuring each other out,” Kawhi Leonard explained. “There’s no magic involved.” Just having fun and figuring each other out. As I already stated, we are playing with one another.”

Tyronn Lue, who typically bears the criticism for individuals or teams failing to perform to expectations, came out after the Clippers’ fifth loss in a row on Sunday and effectively acted as if he was calling his players out.

“I think we’re playing too slow,” stated Lue. “I’m just playing too slowly.” We get rebounds, you get stops, and you have to press it. We have to push it on makes, get up quickly, and attack early…We can’t just go about being offensive. As if you have to get to the following steps. You’ve got things we’ve been working on for the last two months, er, three years. We just need to do a better job at it, you know.

“And if you don’t do that, if you don’t do it hard, you’re going to get beat every night, and we’re seeing that.” So, until we want to play hard on both ends of the floor, if we don’t do things hard — cuts, screens, running the screen, sprinting the floor — it’ll be tough nights every night. So it’s up to our people to shift their mindset in that aspect.”

As the following question was asked, Lue, who appeared to be finished with his response, softly cut the reporter off and firmly stated, “Because we’re teaching it, showing it, telling it.” So now we have to deliver.”