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

[NZB2323]

James Harden doesn’t miss the playoffs. He’s guard Karl Malone. He might not ever win a championship and come up short in big playoff games, but he’s an Ironman who plays well in the regular season.

[OkcSinceSGA]

I hope they keep it up and it's not just an early season aberration. The last thing we need is for Clippers to miss the playoffs and give the Thunder a lottery pick. Especially since Philly looks like garbage and also owes their pick to OKC as well

They will likely not be better than the Rockets anyway due to Kawhi's nonsense. So OKC will likely get a 15-20 range pick from the Clippers anyway.

[OkcSinceSGA]

James Harden doesn’t miss the playoffs. He’s guard Karl Malone. He might not ever win a championship and come up short in big playoff games, but he’s an Ironman who plays well in the regular season.

He's been bad though is what's weird. Yes, he's a playmaker... but his shooting efficiency is career low by a mile. He's shooting 36/31 splits lol. He's also being doubled and trapped constantly, but still... if someone said that Harden would shoot 36/31, Kawhi would be out and now Powell out a few games.. you would think their record would be similar to the Sixers 3-12 right? Not 10-7 vs a tough schedule.

[Roscoe Sheed]

Their defense is very very impressive

Yup, I see no one is giving any credit to JVG here. I think he’s playing a decent role in them being this good, especially playing hard defensively. He’s gotten a lot of our average teams before and got them to play scrappy and hustle on defense.

I mentioned JVG in my post- he has definitely been helpful- the players respect and listen to him

[NBA4Lyfe]

“The system”

The clippers were picked to finish last in the league by these “high iq” podcasters lol

Harden is way too smart of a player to ever not dominate a game of basketball lol. Harden can manipulate defenses with his brain. Harden is what y’all think Luka is

The clippers might be winless if harden was not on this team. Which means in theory he should receive some “mvp votes” right lol. Yea that’s wishful thinking to ask these end of season voters to reward harden for carrying and leading this clippers team to wins every night as severe underdogs


This guy touched on a LITTLE bit of harden data that I already knew.

Watch on YouTube

;t=101s&pp=ygUqSGFyZGVuIGpzIHRoZSBtb3N0IGtldGhhbCBvZmZlbnNpdmUgcGxheWVy

[og15]

“The system”

The clippers were picked to finish last in the league by these “high iq” podcasters lol

Harden is way too smart of a player to ever not dominate a game of basketball lol. Harden can manipulate defenses with his brain. Harden is what y’all think Luka is

The clippers might be winless if harden was not on this team. Which means in theory he should receive some “mvp votes” right lol. Yea that’s wishful thinking to ask these end of season voters to reward harden for carrying and leading this clippers team to wins every night as severe underdogs


This guy touched on a LITTLE bit of harden data that I already knew.

Watch on YouTube

;t=101s&pp=ygUqSGFyZGVuIGpzIHRoZSBtb3N0IGtldGhhbCBvZmZlbnNpdmUgcGxheWVy

Who exactly are you referring to here? Lol

Is there some sort of guild of high IQ podcasters?

[NBA4Lyfe]

“The system”

The clippers were picked to finish last in the league by these “high iq” podcasters lol

Harden is way too smart of a player to ever not dominate a game of basketball lol. Harden can manipulate defenses with his brain. Harden is what y’all think Luka is

The clippers might be winless if harden was not on this team. Which means in theory he should receive some “mvp votes” right lol. Yea that’s wishful thinking to ask these end of season voters to reward harden for carrying and leading this clippers team to wins every night as severe underdogs


This guy touched on a LITTLE bit of harden data that I already knew.

Watch on YouTube

;t=101s&pp=ygUqSGFyZGVuIGpzIHRoZSBtb3N0IGtldGhhbCBvZmZlbnNpdmUgcGxheWVy

Who exactly are you referring to here? Lol

Is there some sort of guild of high IQ podcasters?

Meh it’s nothing, just saying they aren’t as knowledgeable as they’d like their fanbase or their viewing audience think they are.

It’s pretty easy to sniff them out too, for instance when they call James harden one of the worst players ever or an “nba creation” because of refs

Claiming Brogdon or jrue holiday being better guards than harden

And just their basic surface level thinking that casuals can’t understand. Like bill Simmons saying “harden is passing to chase assists while Luka is passing because it’s the right play.”

[Haldi]

PG = addition by subtraction

Anyone who actually watched the clips last year knows this is true, especially in the playoffs. PG getting the ball in their offence sets was almost always the worst outcome that could happen. DJJ and Batum are much better replacements to fit the needed role than PG.

[Haldi]

“The system”

The clippers were picked to finish last in the league by these “high iq” podcasters lol

Harden is way too smart of a player to ever not dominate a game of basketball lol. Harden can manipulate defenses with his brain. Harden is what y’all think Luka is

The clippers might be winless if harden was not on this team. Which means in theory he should receive some “mvp votes” right lol. Yea that’s wishful thinking to ask these end of season voters to reward harden for carrying and leading this clippers team to wins every night as severe underdogs


This guy touched on a LITTLE bit of harden data that I already knew.

Watch on YouTube

;t=101s&pp=ygUqSGFyZGVuIGpzIHRoZSBtb3N0IGtldGhhbCBvZmZlbnNpdmUgcGxheWVy

Who exactly are you referring to here? Lol

Is there some sort of guild of high IQ podcasters?

I mean, I don’t know about “last in the league” but vegas had them finishing at 13th in the west, so I don’t doubt some brainless podcasters picked em last. Easy money for me since I bet on them making the playoffs, which Harden has never missed…

[canada_dry]

I guess ty lue wasn't lying when he said he can't wait to prove people wrong lol

Sent from my SM-G960W using RealGM Forums mobile app

[HotelVitale]

“The system”

The clippers were picked to finish last in the league by these “high iq” podcasters lol

Harden is way too smart of a player to ever not dominate a game of basketball lol. Harden can manipulate defenses with his brain. Harden is what y’all think Luka is

Who exactly are you referring to here? Lol

Is there some sort of guild of high IQ podcasters?

It's NBA4Lyfe here, not gonna get anything besides 'world hates James Harden yet he is lord and savior.'

I'd imagine almost every podcaster or analyst had them winning somewhere between 40-55% of games this year, so like 33-45 wins. They're on pace for like 47 now and everyone in this thread seems like that's a pleasant surprise. So doesn't sound like podcasters were far off or anything, teams doing better than expected and they've slightly exceeded the record most expected.

[NZB2323]

James Harden doesn’t miss the playoffs. He’s guard Karl Malone. He might not ever win a championship and come up short in big playoff games, but he’s an Ironman who plays well in the regular season.

He's been bad though is what's weird. Yes, he's a playmaker... but his shooting efficiency is career low by a mile. He's shooting 36/31 splits lol. He's also being doubled and trapped constantly, but still... if someone said that Harden would shoot 36/31, Kawhi would be out and now Powell out a few games.. you would think their record would be similar to the Sixers 3-12 right? Not 10-7 vs a tough schedule.

Harden has the same TS% that Karl Malone had in 2003 when the Jazz won 47 games, and it’s a better TS% than what Malone had in 2002 when the Jazz won 44 games.

I would also argue that Ty Lue, like Jerry Sloan, is a great coach.

[Clemenza]

Let's see how this 4 game road trip goes first before we get ahead of ourselves. Love what I'm seeing though

[OkcSinceSGA]

Let's see how this 4 game road trip goes first before we get ahead of ourselves

I think they will split 2-2. But even if they go 1-3 they are a .500 team after 21 games with a very tough schedule. On pace with the 51 win team last year.

[Quattro]

“The system”

The clippers were picked to finish last in the league by these “high iq” podcasters lol

Harden is way too smart of a player to ever not dominate a game of basketball lol. Harden can manipulate defenses with his brain. Harden is what y’all think Luka is

The clippers might be winless if harden was not on this team. Which means in theory he should receive some “mvp votes” right lol. Yea that’s wishful thinking to ask these end of season voters to reward harden for carrying and leading this clippers team to wins every night as severe underdogs


This guy touched on a LITTLE bit of harden data that I already knew.

Watch on YouTube

;t=101s&pp=ygUqSGFyZGVuIGpzIHRoZSBtb3N0IGtldGhhbCBvZmZlbnNpdmUgcGxheWVy

Who exactly are you referring to here? Lol

Is there some sort of guild of high IQ podcasters?

Nobody picked the clippers to finish behind the Jazz or Spurs. Typical nonsense to inflate his hero.

[One_and_Done]

It's not a big shock, Harden has always been a good regular season player. If you put good role players around him, and he stays in shape, they can do well.

[Harry Palmer]

Harden’s inefficient so far, but few players in history have understood how to use their gravity like Harden does.

[ken6199]

It's crazy considering how inefficient Harden has been too.

This is very accurate. He’s been putrid with offensive efficiency and turnovers. But teams are still dumb enough to double and trap him constantly, so it’s letting him makeup for these issues with his playmaking.

This is by design. If one NBA coach does this it might be stupid, but all elite coaches are doing it and it makes you wonder why?

They see taking Harden's game away kills the clippers since it's a one man offense. The guy is 35 yo, if this strategy of sending armies to wear him down worked 5 years ago it sure will work today right?

Guess what, it kinda worked, but what's different now is they have a well coached JVG defense with scrappy defenders all buying in to that system to show for it. This is the most fun clippers I've seen, lob city included.

[ejftw]

It's crazy considering how inefficient Harden has been too.

This is very accurate. He’s been putrid with offensive efficiency and turnovers. But teams are still dumb enough to double and trap him constantly, so it’s letting him makeup for these issues with his playmaking.

This is by design. If one NBA coach does this it might be stupid, but all elite coaches are doing it and it makes you wonder why?

They see taking Harden's game away kills the clippers since it's a one man offense. The guy is 35 yo, if this strategy of sending armies to wear him down worked 5 years ago it sure will work today right?

Guess what, it kinda worked, but what's different now is they have a well coached JVG defense with scrappy defenders all buying in to that system to show for it. This is the most fun clippers I've seen, lob city included.

It's def up there with the Pat Bev led Clippers the year after Lob City ended when they had that huge comeback versus the Dubs in the playoffs, i think were down by 24?

And with the Same Cassell/Elton Brand team that was seconds away from the WCF in 2006.

But won't ever top the Yung Gunz, despite those teams winning about 25 games a year

[Roscoe Sheed]

This is very accurate. He’s been putrid with offensive efficiency and turnovers. But teams are still dumb enough to double and trap him constantly, so it’s letting him makeup for these issues with his playmaking.

This is by design. If one NBA coach does this it might be stupid, but all elite coaches are doing it and it makes you wonder why?

They see taking Harden's game away kills the clippers since it's a one man offense. The guy is 35 yo, if this strategy of sending armies to wear him down worked 5 years ago it sure will work today right?

Guess what, it kinda worked, but what's different now is they have a well coached JVG defense with scrappy defenders all buying in to that system to show for it. This is the most fun clippers I've seen, lob city included.

It's def up there with the Pat Bev led Clippers the year after Lob City ended when they had that huge comeback versus the Dubs in the playoffs, i think were down by 24?

And with the Same Cassell/Elton Brand team that was seconds away from the WCF in 2006.

But won't ever top the Yung Gunz, despite those teams winning about 25 games a year

I think they were actually down by over 30 points vs the warriors in that playoff game