The Athletic: NBA execs around the league expect the gap between Clippers and Lakers to be significant

[NoDopeOnSundays]

AD loses to one of the greatest teams ever in their championship years.

Jingles drops PG off......

But but but LeBron beat PG half a decade ago!

so many excuses for AD. I thought AD was a generational talent? MVP? Best player in the world? How can you only win 1 playoff game against the Warriors your entire career?

2015: Zero wins against the Warriors
2018: 1 win against the Warriors

The Los Angeles Clippers with no allstars/superstars won 2 games against the Warriors in 2019. Both of them in Oakland. And that's with Kevin Durant on the Warriors.

But okay keep pushing this narrative that AD is some unstoppable machine despite his lack of playoff success. No one is scared of AD in the playoffs, partially because he's never in the playoffs most of his career anyway

Your centers are Zubac and Harrell, you better be afraid of AD, your boy Clippersfansince98 already moving the goalpost to the idea of Kawhi guarding him


The rest of what you said is lightweight trolling since your same rules don't seem to apply to PG.

[Yogatti]

The truth is, AD can be an unstoppable machine, especially if he has something to play for. Losing to the Warriors doesn't mean anything. Everyone loses to the Warriors.

Can he win more than 1 game against the Warriors? Evidently not. Warriors aren't scared of AD. He was never a threat to them. Draymond Green isn't losing sleep over facing AD in the playoffs.

[Jcity08]

In OKC his efficiency was bad. That being said he wasn't in an ideal situation and the opponents were elite defensively (such as #1 defense Jazz two years ago). Gotta take his career. He's not an amazing playoff performer, but he's also not a complete dud or choke as people are saying.

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Honestly, I want to see how long the list of active(i.e
not retired) playoff performers that have a career playoff average of 50% from the field and 36% from the 3 will be. The only thing you have to be concerned with is his overall health(and not many teams are immune from the injury bug), as a number 2 option on a contending team, you don't get much better than PG.

[LightTheBeam]

You do realize Paul George played SG for the Pacers with Danny Granger in Indiana and will do the same with the Clippers right?

I don't think this guys payed attention to the league. The 3 spot is the most desirable position in the league. **** I think teams would take 3 of them if they could. Put a Paul George at the 2, Kawhi at the 3, and have another athletic big wing at the 4. Watch teams get blown by on offense. Look at the Warriors. They ran 1-2-3-3-4 with Dray and Iggy. One of the most successful teams ever.

Ill take PG/Kawhi over Lebron/AD Any day of the week, and thats even with Lebron still being the best player of that bunch.

Crazy to me how many people, like yourself, are so significantly underrating AD.

We will see. Great player, but seems to have gotten overrated. Excited to see how he transitions to playing with Lebron. Lets see if his body can hold up from all the tic tac injuries he gets every year.

[OkcSinceSGA]

AD loses to one of the greatest teams ever in their championship years.

Jingles drops PG off......

But but but LeBron beat PG half a decade ago!

so many excuses for AD. I thought AD was a generational talent? MVP? Best player in the world? How can you only win 1 playoff game against the Warriors your entire career?

2015: Zero wins against the Warriors
2018: 1 win against the Warriors

The Los Angeles Clippers with no allstars/superstars won 2 games against the Warriors in 2019. Both of them in Oakland. And that's with Kevin Durant on the Warriors.

But okay keep pushing this narrative that AD is some unstoppable machine despite his lack of playoff success. No one is scared of AD in the playoffs, partially because he's never in the playoffs most of his career anyway

Your centers are Zubac and Harrell, you better be afraid of AD, your boy Clippersfansince98 already moving the goalpost to the idea of Kawhi guarding him


The rest of what you said is lightweight trolling since your same rules don't seem to apply to PG.

AD goes to the locker room 3 times a week for minor ****. Banged knees, falling down etc. He's fragile and soft. Great player but he's gonna get manhandled with physicality and beg to come out of the game after getting banged around by Zubac, Harrell, Kawhi, Green and possibly Noah soon.

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[Yogatti]

Your centers are Zubac and Harrell, you better be afraid of AD, your boy Clippersfansince98 already moving the goalpost to the idea of Kawhi guarding him


The rest of what you said is lightweight trolling since your same rules don't seem to apply to PG.

Why would I be afraid of AD? Will he even make the playoffs this year? Western Conference this year is pretty stacked so I don't know if AD can handle that

[Catchall]

The truth is, AD can be an unstoppable machine, especially if he has something to play for. Losing to the Warriors doesn't mean anything. Everyone loses to the Warriors.

Can he win more than 1 game against the Warriors? Evidently not. Warriors aren't scared of AD. He was never a threat to them. Draymond Green isn't losing sleep over facing AD in the playoffs.

I shouldn't be the one to break it to you, but the Warriors aren't the Warriors anymore. They're a capped out team that just lost KD, Iggy, Livingston and Cousins, and Klay is out at least until the All Star break with an ACL. They're going to be playing their rookies this year.

The only guy on the Warriors who can guard AD is Cauley-Stein. AD will just shoot over Draymond anywhere on the floor.

[Yogatti]

2013: Misses the playoffs
2014: Misses the playoffs
2015: Swept in the first round
2016: Misses the playoffs
2017: Misses the playoffs
2018: Eliminated 1-4 in 2nd Round
2019: QUITS on his team. Demanded a trade halfway through the season. Acted like a Diva

NoDopeonSundays: "you should be afraid of AD"

[OkcSinceSGA]

Will the Lakers park a wheel chair by the basket so AD can get to the locker room quickly for his 3-4 boo boo's per week? That guy gets dinged up so much. I hope he can handle the physicality opening night.

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[NoDopeOnSundays]

Your centers are Zubac and Harrell, you better be afraid of AD, your boy Clippersfansince98 already moving the goalpost to the idea of Kawhi guarding him


The rest of what you said is lightweight trolling since your same rules don't seem to apply to PG.

Why would I be afraid of AD? Will he even make the playoffs this year? Western Conference this year is pretty stacked so I don't know if AD can handle that

He averaged 34/13/4/3/2 against the Clippers last year, the bum ass Pelicans were 2-1 against you just because you couldn't stop AD.


Now he's playing with LeBron instead of Jrue Holiday, and I'm supposed to believe he'll be worse? Unless you got Embiid or Gobert, he's going to kill your bigs.

[OkcSinceSGA]

Your centers are Zubac and Harrell, you better be afraid of AD, your boy Clippersfansince98 already moving the goalpost to the idea of Kawhi guarding him


The rest of what you said is lightweight trolling since your same rules don't seem to apply to PG.

Why would I be afraid of AD? Will he even make the playoffs this year? Western Conference this year is pretty stacked so I don't know if AD can handle that

He averaged 34/13/4/3 against the Clippers last year, the bum ass Pelicans were 2-1 against you just because you couldn't stop AD.


Now he's playing with LeBron instead of Jrue Holiday, and I'm supposed to believe he'll be worse?

Yep, the same exact Clippers team. Btw he shot 36% on 77 possessions against Harrell and sub 50% vs Zubac who had a career game matched up with AD a lot of the time.

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[3toheadmelo]

Wouldn’t be surprised if Golden state or Houston is right up there with the Clippers. The acquisitions of Westbrook and D’Angelo Russell might be underrated.

I think the Lakers are gonna be an 8th seed also.

This is where i think LAL is flying under the radar. Last year, they had no shooting. It was dumb team design, both from the perspective of building around Lebron as well as keeping up with the times. Besides Rondo, all of their wing guys are respectable to great shooters. Depending on how Bradley plays (he's still young, only 28) they're going to have solid to above average perimeter defense between him/Green/Caruso as well as above average to elite inside defense.

I legit think LAL is being undersold here because they were overhyped last year. This has the makings of a scary, if injury prone, team.

Yeah you may be right. We’ll see what happens I guess

[The High Cyde]

lol at all the pettiness in this thread

I have the Clippers ahead because of depth, but it'll be anyone's game in the playoffs. I imagine these teams are already scoping out ways to topple the other should the matchup happen come playoff time.

[ProspectPark]

Lakers need to convince Darren Collison to come out of retirement.

Other than Lebron and Rondo, they have no other play makers on the team and way too many 1-dimensional players on offence.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Why would I be afraid of AD? Will he even make the playoffs this year? Western Conference this year is pretty stacked so I don't know if AD can handle that

He averaged 34/13/4/3 against the Clippers last year, the bum ass Pelicans were 2-1 against you just because you couldn't stop AD.


Now he's playing with LeBron instead of Jrue Holiday, and I'm supposed to believe he'll be worse?

Yep, the same exact Clippers team. Btw he shot 36% on 77 possessions against Harrell and sub 50% vs Zubac who had a career game matched up with AD a lot of the time.

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I thought you said Kawhi was going to guard him, or that he'd get hurt?


2-1 vs the Clippers last season with a much worse roster around him, your team got better, but expecting Zubac and Harrell to guard him in a series is wild. I even see you said Joakim Noah????? lol

[3toheadmelo]

Wouldn’t be surprised if Golden state or Houston is right up there with the Clippers. The acquisitions of Westbrook and D’Angelo Russell might be underrated.

I think the Lakers are gonna be an 8th seed also.

Houston will be as good as Harden makes them. Everything runs through him offensively.

I think the Warriors just lost too many guys on the perimeter to be much better than .500. If their starters are Curry/D'Lo,/Burks/Draymond/WCS, then their bench would have to be McKinney, Spellman and rookies, no?

I dunno, I feel wrong to bet against Steve Kerr. I think he’s somehow gonna find a way to make it work, even with their bad depth. I’m pretty high on him as a coach.

I think Harden x Westbrook has the potential to be the best back court in the league, even with their flaws. Really intrigued to see how it plays out.

[Greyhound]

How do NBA execs get these jobs?

The fit on the Lakers is better than the Clippers but the Clippers have more talent from 1 to 8. The Lakers defense will be better, the Clippers offense will be better. I would say Clippers are slight favorites because they are younger.

How is the fit better on the Lakers when their 3 best players play the same position?

Green is a SG, LeBron is a SF, Davis is a PF

Kuzma is also a PF that will likely be a 6 man off the bench, and close at PF (with Davis shifting over to Center).

Honestly, a lot of the takes on the Lakers are beginning to border on idiotic.

[OkcSinceSGA]

He averaged 34/13/4/3 against the Clippers last year, the bum ass Pelicans were 2-1 against you just because you couldn't stop AD.


Now he's playing with LeBron instead of Jrue Holiday, and I'm supposed to believe he'll be worse?

Yep, the same exact Clippers team. Btw he shot 36% on 77 possessions against Harrell and sub 50% vs Zubac who had a career game matched up with AD a lot of the time.

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I thought you said Kawhi was going to guard him, or that he'd get hurt?


2-1 vs the Clippers last season with a much worse roster around him, your team got better, but expecting Zubac and Harrell to guard him in a series is wild. I even see you said Joakim Noah????? lol

Kawhi won't guard him often but when he does I'm not expecting a big problem. I was more saying physical strength wise he will break AD.

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[iamworthy]

How is the fit better on the Lakers when their 3 best players play the same position?

Green is a SG, LeBron is a SF, Davis is a PF

Kuzma is also a PF that will likely be a 6 man off the bench, and close at PF (with Davis shifting over to Center).

Honestly, a lot of the takes on the Lakers are beginning to border on idiotic.

Beginning?

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Yep, the same exact Clippers team. Btw he shot 36% on 77 possessions against Harrell and sub 50% vs Zubac who had a career game matched up with AD a lot of the time.

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I thought you said Kawhi was going to guard him, or that he'd get hurt?


2-1 vs the Clippers last season with a much worse roster around him, your team got better, but expecting Zubac and Harrell to guard him in a series is wild. I even see you said Joakim Noah????? lol

Kawhi won't guard him often but when he does I'm not expecting a big problem. I was more saying physical strength wise he will break AD.

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Sorry, but if Kawhi is guarding AD for any stretch of time he's going to get killed, this isn't Giannis, AD can faceup, cut to the rim, post up and shoot the turn around, shoot the three or play off the PnR, he's a much more well rounded offensive player than Giannis is right now.

I feel like KAT, AD, Embiid, Jokic will all give the Clippers a world of trouble, the Wolves won't make the playoffs but Jokic and AD are something that should be worrying. Even Gobert could be an issue since you don't have anyone to really play him off the floor, if you play Harrell or Zubac he'll always be near the rim on defense.