The Clippers should not be this good without Kawhi. Update: Kawhi to return Jan 4th vs the Hawks

[tamaraw08]

i think people have this notion that parity means all the teams get better
lol
parity is THE LACK of good teams.

How Does Parity Compare Among Major U.S. Sports ...

Forbes
https://www.forbes.com › Innovation › Consumer Tech
Mar 13, 2012 — The first is to define parity as an environment in which any team can expect, at any point in time, beat any other given team.

I thought Parity is the Lack of bad teams.
In essence, there would be no parity per se because there would always be bad/tanking teams (not trying to win). But IMO, if there are only 2-3 teams tanking in each conference, then there would be 12 team really trying to compete...
For last monday game, the 10th place Pistons beating the 6th place Heat.
Or Sunday game 10th place Lakes beating the 2nd place Memphis... Previous years you rarely see upsets like these IMO, so there is some parity going around with the Kings and Spurs trying to win games in the West or Hawks and Magic really competing.

i argue that PARITY is the meat of the bell curve.

a majority doesn't all of a sudden get better. that is simply not the natural course of things. rather, in a fast ever changing entity like sports, the natural occurance is for the replacement at the top, because it is the path of least resistance - it is easier for one of two top teams because of injuries/age to drop than it is for 8 teams that now all of a sudden get better. so,,,one, two or three top teams drop and all those other teams behind them step up.

if you eliminate sas, gsw, kobe lakers from the 2000's what you get is the rest of the 4 >12 battling for the ring. that is considered sports parity. you eliminate serena williams - you have parity. you eliminate the bulls and you get a whole squad of teams fighting for the ring. there is no parity in dynasties because there's only one or two elite teams that separate themselves from the rest of the league. the 60's celts get old...boom, parity

You made a great point but I guess you should have used the words Lack of a Dominant great team that demolish most clubs and not “good teams”.
Now some might say there’s some kind of parity because no team has won back to back championships lately but I just don’t look at rings but how most teams compete on s nightly basis.

[PhilBlackson]

Meh...call me when Kawhi is able to make it through another Playoffs. It's really just sad & tragic.

[Lalouie]

I thought Parity is the Lack of bad teams.
In essence, there would be no parity per se because there would always be bad/tanking teams (not trying to win). But IMO, if there are only 2-3 teams tanking in each conference, then there would be 12 team really trying to compete...
For last monday game, the 10th place Pistons beating the 6th place Heat.
Or Sunday game 10th place Lakes beating the 2nd place Memphis... Previous years you rarely see upsets like these IMO, so there is some parity going around with the Kings and Spurs trying to win games in the West or Hawks and Magic really competing.

i argue that PARITY is the meat of the bell curve.

a majority doesn't all of a sudden get better. that is simply not the natural course of things. rather, in a fast ever changing entity like sports, the natural occurance is for the replacement at the top, because it is the path of least resistance - it is easier for one of two top teams because of injuries/age to drop than it is for 8 teams that now all of a sudden get better. so,,,one, two or three top teams drop and all those other teams behind them step up.

if you eliminate sas, gsw, kobe lakers from the 2000's what you get is the rest of the 4 >12 battling for the ring. that is considered sports parity. you eliminate serena williams - you have parity. you eliminate the bulls and you get a whole squad of teams fighting for the ring. there is no parity in dynasties because there's only one or two elite teams that separate themselves from the rest of the league. the 60's celts get old...boom, parity

You made a great point but I guess you should have used the words Lack of a Dominant great team that demolish most clubs and not “good teams”.
Now some might say there’s some kind of parity because no team has won back to back championships lately but I just don’t look at rings but how most teams compete on s nightly basis.

not really. because no one ever says "the 90s was parity except for the bulls" . or parity in the 60s except for the celts. or parity in the 80s except for the celts and lakers. or parity in the millenium except for kobe lakers, sas, and gsw

[Sofia]

I'm permabanned from making threads so can only respond or bump mine lol. Take over the mantle. Become the Dark Knight that RealGM deserves but isn't ready for yet.

what? why are you permabanned?

The GB mods did a vote and came to a unanimous decision and PM'd David. I wasn't told about it or made aware until I went to make a thread almost two weeks ago about a breaking news story, and noticed my button was gone. I PM'd a few mods and they told me that they decided to take it away because of my behavior and past strikes or warnings.

Dirk has trolled a hell of a lot more than I have with personal jabs at people in my time on this forum.... so the irony wasn't lost on me when he wrote a long ass response before locking my thread (and telling me not to write a long post explaining), requesting review to take my posting threads away. I really think post COVID era this forum is much more uptight with sarcasm, playful jabs and light trolling.

I think I take WAY, WAY more abuse from posters than I dish out. I actually think I'm pretty restrained a lot of times with retaliation. I'm what you'd call a stable genius.

Really? That’s disappointing, I never thought you had any issues, there’s much bigger trolls around.

Especially agree with the bold too

[ejftw]

Not only are Clippers without Kawhi, but dealt with other injuries as well with Norm, Mann and Jones also missing time but they've played a difficult schedule.

TeamRankings has them with the second toughest SoS so far. PRGuru at 8 and ESPN also at 8.

Get a little easier as Tankathon has them at the 16th remaining SoS, matching PRGuru.

If Kawhi is able to come back, play half the games at 66-75%, having already weathered the tough start, Clips avoiding the play-in seems like a real possibility

[Ballings7]

Not only are Clippers without Kawhi, but dealt with other injuries as well with Norm, Mann and Jones also missing time but they've played a difficult schedule.

TeamRankings has them with the second toughest SoS so far. PRGuru at 8 and ESPN also at 8.

Get a little easier as Tankathon has them at the 16th remaining SoS, matching PRGuru.

If Kawhi is able to come back, play half the games at 66-75%, having already weathered the tough start, Clips avoiding the play-in seems like a real possibility

Yep.

Said it before pre-season.. Clip Show will probably not be a play-in team, but a playoff team. Minnesota and Denver's degradation and likelyhood to continue.. helps that, for sure.

LAC are really one of the fun stories of the season for anyone that follows the league (aka not just 1 team and watch just ESPN/TNT games). The early season excuse I've seen some people say, is pretty much gone at this point.. heading into the second half of season by the 2nd half of January, then that 'early-season' card is off the table.

[OkcSinceSGA]

Read on Twitter

Unless he has a setback, Kawhi will return 3 games from now vs the Atlanta Hawks it looks like. If the Clippers split 1-1 of the next two they will be 18-14 by his return. He looks like he's in great shape.

Read on Twitter

Kawhi new commercial from today.

Read on Twitter

The west is about to get a lot more interesting. I expected the Clippers to be a bit worse than they are, and they are fluctuating between the 5-9 seed like much of these western teams. But outside of OKC and Memphis is there even a team that is clearly more dangerous than this Clippers team adding Kawhi for the playoffs? Like outside of OKC... I don't know if any western team including Dallas, Memphis or Houston would feel particularly confident if Kawhi is healthy.

[Clemenza]

Lets Go!!

[SkyBill40]

If he suffers another long term injury, he should just retire.

Sent from my SM-F936U using RealGM mobile app

[OkcSinceSGA]

Read on Twitter

[Dan33185]

Back on IR by the end of January

[Johnny Bball]

Just have him come of the bench and play 20 MPG restriction for the first month. Powell is holding down 2nd option just fine for now.

But of course they won't.

[Ssj16]

That commercial they made for Kawhi's return is so ridiculous.

[OkcSinceSGA]

Just have him come of the bench and play 20 MPG restriction for the first month. Powell is holding down 2nd option just fine for now.

But of course they won't.

They are coming into the easiest stretch they will get all year probably, so I think it's true he will be ramped up over time.

[Roscoe Sheed]

Just have him come of the bench and play 20 MPG restriction for the first month. Powell is holding down 2nd option just fine for now.

But of course they won't.

Actually- they did do that a few years ago when he first returned from his torn acl- they gradually increased his minutes