RingColluder wrote:og15 wrote:RingColluder wrote:They should have called his bluff. He was not going to go to the Lakers if that's what they were worried about.
Worst case Kawhi would have done a. 1 + 1 in Toronto. The Clippers trading 6 picks for PG or whatever is awful. This is our last year to win a championship. Beverly is done, Kennard is done, Morris is done in 2 years, Ibaka and Batum are close to it.
And no cap space.
T-Mann cannot replace Bev talent wise next year, we need to win it this year and a finals appearance losing 4-1 to the Nets is the minimum. Any WCF loss is bad.
You just made the "everyone sucks" post that esqtvd was looking for and projecting onto others
This team isn't very good lol, that's just my opinion from watching every single game this entire season.
Obviously a fully healthy team (which seems impossible now w Bev's constant injuries) gives us at least a 25% to compete with most any team, but again the trash play of PG in the playoffs rearing it's ugly head EVERY SINGLE POSTSEASON the last 3 or so years is the main deterrent from me having confidence in us moving forward.
This is still the best I've seen PG's 3 point shot look as a Clipper, but every time he plays in a primetime game disaster strikes in his mindset and wanting to, "be the man".
You really feel confident in this team in a round 1 series vs the Trailblazers, Nuggest, or Mavericks?
This team is worse than last year's team and it isn't even very close.
We'll be relying on Ibaka to play like he did last night, Morris as well, Lou to be hot consistently, and then one of Batum/Bev/Reggie/Kennard to pick up the slack spotting up. A strong PG would solve a lot of our problems.
Not happening but watching the Pacers/Lakers game, some sort of Brogdon and Sabonis (not happening probably) for PG and ... idk maybe Ibaka or Morris plus filler would be ideal for the team.
Kawhi obviously is the main factor in us doing anything, and the best player in the NBA as far as I'm concerned.
Why would I not feel confident in the team against the Blazers or Mavericks? The Mavericks are a bad defense (worse than last season), have regressed on offense (their bench shooters/scorers killed the Clippers), and KP is out every other day. The Blazers don't have any forwards or bigs to really punish the Clippers (without getting lit up, eg: Kanter) and are an absolutely trash defense, but that can certainly change depending on how Nurkic returns.
The Nuggets beat the Clippers last year and are the 5th seed after a slow start, with a 5.22 SRS (Clippers 5.67) and just two games behind the Clippers. Jokic is playing like an MVP averaging 27/11/9. Their defense which people were worried about with the loss of Grant and Craig has picked up and is about as good as it was last year (average defense). The Clippers so far are a similar defense (average) and a better offense due to 3PT shooting, but don't have a dynamic playmaker among their stars like the Nuggets have with Jokic, and even Murray if we look past just apg is a better playmaker than both Kawhi and George, or at worst, just as good. In a series, based on current play the Clippers would have to rely on their 3PT shooting holding up over the series, or being better defensively.
So yea, I haven no irrational confidence that the Clippers would just beat the Nuggets, but that doesn't change with last seasons team. In fact, Harrell the main difference from last season to now doesn't match up well vs the Nuggets. Zubac actually ends up being the best big vs the Nuggets based on last season, and that is a lot to do with his size. In game 5 he was one of only two players who the team was + when they were on the court, the other was Williams, and Zubac played 11 more minutes than Williams and was the only + player in the second half. In game 6 he was the only player who the team was + for his total minutes on the court, but that primarily came from the first half.
No big trade is happening. Paul George signed an extension in December, a player can't be traded until 6 months after signing an extension. PG is not eligible to be traded until June, so until the off-season. If he was, we would have seen the Clippers look into trading him for Harden in order to get a top level playmaker among their stars, but there's a reason the Clippers weren't even mentioned in relation to Harden, it wasn't possible.
