donemilio21 wrote:esqtvd wrote:These playoffs are showing that even a healthy Clipper Geezer Squad would not have got to 16 wins, or even made it through 16 games. The playoffs are too long and too grueling. It's like the hockey playoffs now. Last man standing.
The NBA's regular season is no longer a joke. We played it as hard as long as we could, but so did the rest of the league. And now, the game doesn't slow down in the playoffs anymore. With 16 wins to get, it's like the regular season...on steroids.
And once again, Lob City/213 entered the playoffs limping and scrambling lineups.
It's a young man's game now. Joker is 29 and Brunson is 27 and tubby Luka is 25. Tatum-Brown-Porzingis are 26-27-28. The Knicks, Cavs, Wolves and Okies are still in the hunt.
Ballmer's championship plan failed. But like his Microsoft and Sterling, Inc. before that, he still made money. You have to see stuff through his eyes. Even when he loses, he wins.
Ballmer bought the Clippers for $2.2 billion off Sterling, and just built the $2 billion Ballmerdome on top of that. He's STILL ahead.
Clippers Worth $4.5 billion, now rank 6th among all NBA franchises.
The joke's on who? Not Ballmer. It wasn't even on Sterling. It's a pooch that can't be screwed. Nobody ever lost a dime owning the Clippers.
But the plan failed. Even at our best this year, with this roster--we never would have made it through. The joke's on us.
That depends. How much is Clippers worth to Ballmer ? He is 68 year old, owns 4% of Microsoft, gets about $1B a year from dividends alone. Does it really matter to him if Clippers were worth $6B, or $10B or $25B ? I think he really wants to win a championship and more. He must know that this core will not win one.
That's what I've been saying for a while now. What does Ballmer want? That's all that matters.
These playoffs have shown that a) the grind of an NBA season + playoffs is too much for this core and b) they're just not athletic enough to hang with these younger, taller teams anyway and c) the CBA makes a "retooling" impossible. The Clips won't even have an MLE without dumping some of the core.
a) If it wasn't Kawhi, it would have been somebody else going down. The playoffs are only half over and the [much younger] Knicks' wheels came off. Mike Malone said the Nugs were exhausted from last year's championship run that ran through June, then busting ass for a good playoff seed in the RS.
This year will see its 6th different champion in the last 6 years. Luck is more important than ever, and the new CBA will make dynasties even more unlikely.
b) and c) are related--The stretch 4 we need so desperately just isn't out there. A dozen teams need one and we can only pay the minimum. Not only are KL and PG huge cap-eaters, Tucker is untradeable and I wonder how tradeable Powell's 2 remaining years @ $20M are too. That means we're so far over the cap that dumping Beard or signing him at a greatly reduced rate probably won't make much difference either way.
If Ballmer decides to tear it all down, with little chance of getting a needle-mover in the draft because of traded picks and pick swaps, he's looking at 2-4 years of misery without even the rewards of tanking. This is a .500ish team or worse with only a gimpy Kawhi and a bunch of kids. But it might flirt with 45-50 wins even if it's not a realistic contender. Ballmer is screwed either way, so why not win some games and have some fun for the next 3 years while he's waiting out the draft dearth and the current sal cap mess?
It might actually be more fun than the "Title or Else" dynamic that's pervaded the 213 era. That can be real poison for an org, that no success can be enjoyed until winning the last game of the Finals. That's a misery too. Basketball's a game, and games are supposed to be fun.