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

[Warriorfan]

Short season and long break helped veteran/old team. AD didnt miss his usual 12-15 games Lebron got a break to carry his team.

[Homer38]

Forget about contender, Clips look better than Lakers. They have an answer for any possible lineup.

They really don’t. The Clippers are not good inside, which was the point of what NBA Executives were saying in the Pincus article. Harrell is too small and not a good defender, and Zubac you can exploit in pick and roll or even ISO an athletic player on him all day.

And for the past month, the Clippers perimeter defense has been atrocious. Even in the win against the Lakers, they got a ton of open looks against the Clippers, just didn’t hit them. But it’s been a big problem, and giving up open looks to NBA players and hoping they miss won’t get you far in the playoffs.

Finally as I stated before, the Clippers desperately needs a real point guard. Just because they paid Patrick Beverley 12 million a year, does it mean he’s worth that. He has no real point guard skills, no feel for offense and is overrated defensively. They have one above league average passer on their team, PG, and a bunch of bad passers. When the playoffs slow down tempo, if they don’t find a creator who can set guys up then their entire offense is going to devolve into ISO hero ball. Which is very easy to guard for the top teams. It’s why get style of play has essentially gone away.

Clippers had problems in September that were obvious to anyone paying attention, those problems are especially glaring today. They have roster work to do, big time.

Clippers are coasting in many games this regular season. Zubac and Harrell are a really good combination of bigs. Bulls dynasty didn't have a "real" point guard, neither did Lakers with Kobe.

We see that in the playoffs too...Regular season matters!

[Bolivar]

Maybe the Clippers can finally get out of the 2nd rd now

[LBC SoCal]

Honestly tho, I like the Lakers as underdogs, that way we don’t have a target on our backs, and also make everyone look dumb when we do well.

Dear General Board please commence the hate and continue to rely on your “expert/genius/Albert Einstein” opinions.

[SirCharles3434]

NBA execs were right on the money with this one.

[WHITE_HOT_HEAT]

This thread says it all!!!
It's insane the amount of revisionist history that was on display here over the last month. Pathetic backtracking. Lakers fans really deserve to call out and make people eat crow.

We had a good majority arguing that PG is better than AD. Citing data and going against LeBron head to head. Then ofcourse reading everything from a injury plagued 2019 season.. The Clippers and Lakers were far apart not just in the eyes of NBA execs but also analysts and the majority on this board.

[WHITE_HOT_HEAT]

Short season and long break helped veteran/old team. AD didnt miss his usual 12-15 games Lebron got a break to carry his team.

What about the break to help carry 'load management' and his uncle? They couldn't play for more than a few minutes straight. Get outta here with that crap.

One team balled out, proving that their naysayers were wrong (yet again) and the other team sucked Donkey balls proving highlighting that hot-takes and one year anomalies are just that..

[Spanish_Laker]

Yikes.

[Homer38]

Paul George was going toe to toe against prime Lebron/Big 3 Heat in the ECFs. He's made the playoffs most of his career

AD's only been in the playoffs twice his entire career. One ended up getting swept. The other he only managed to win 1 playoff game before getting eliminated.

I too think AD is overrated, but at least AD's play has held up in the playoffs. PG has too often completely underperformed. A few good games against the Big 3 Heat doesnt rewrite his poor playoff history.

Paul George last 5 playoff stats:

14: 22.6 ppg 7.6 rpg 3.8 apg
16: 27.3 ppg 7.6 rpg 4.3 apg
17: 28.0 ppg 8.8 rpg 7.3 apg
18: 24.7 ppg 6.0 rpg 2.7 apg
19: 28.6 ppg 8.6 rpg 3.6 apg

Oh but please keep telling me how Paul George doesn't show up.

Probably had a hard awakening after this year!

[Homer38]

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

Feel the same way?

[Homer38]

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"

Who is laughing now?

[Homer38]

Problem for the Lakers is that LeBron is 35 and they play in the West at one of its strongest point ever. Every RS game matters and every playoff round is a grind, it’s not the East anymore where in most years he can coast all the way to the Finals.

east or west it don't matter for LBJ.

[Jedi32]

Short season and long break helped veteran/old team. AD didnt miss his usual 12-15 games Lebron got a break to carry his team.

What about the break to help carry 'load management' and his uncle? They couldn't play for more than a few minutes straight. Get outta here with that crap.

One team balled out, proving that their naysayers were wrong (yet again) and the other team sucked Donkey balls proving highlighting that hot-takes and one year anomalies are just that..

Yeah that was a dumb take, that poster act's like the other teams didn't get the same time off. Just lazy excuses at this point.

[Mr Puddles]

This thread says it all!!!
It's insane the amount of revisionist history that was on display here over the last month. Pathetic backtracking. Lakers fans really deserve to call out and make people eat crow.

We had a good majority arguing that PG is better than AD. Citing data and going against LeBron head to head. Then ofcourse reading everything from a injury plagued 2019 season.. The Clippers and Lakers were far apart not just in the eyes of NBA execs but also analysts and the majority on this board.

Yes and No.

The Lakers were basically seen as contenders who ended up winning a championship - not as the absolute favorite to win the championship. With the exception of a few trolls, most people had them in the top 4-5 range. In the West that makes you a contender.

Laker fans do deserve to call out people and make them eat crow, but lets at the same time not pretend that being labelled as merely a contender (by the VAST majority) rather than the favourite was some sort of diss. Plenty of teams in the past weren't absolute favourites and still ended up winning a championship. There is a bit of displaced "everyone is against us" self-victimization coming from some Laker fans. Miami weren't seen as favourites to win the East either and I don't remember seeing a bunch of posts by Heat fans popping up about how everyone hated them because they were projected to be in the 7-5 range heading into the season.

I do agree with your point about the amount of revisionist history on display. Calling the Lakers a "Superteam" now and downplaying the play of Lebron James. The Lakers had legit question marks coming into the season regarding their supporting cast (anyone not named Lebron or AD), ability to space the floor etc. To now pretend this wasn't the case and claim that Lebron designed a championship by assembling a superstar supporting cast is disingenuous.

[spikeslovechild]

Clippers were the better team but they weren't about that bubble life. Not really much else to say. Lets stop pretending this was some sort of normal playoffs.

Also AD managed for the first time in maybe his entire career stay healthy throughout the playoffs as did a 35 year old Lebron. The stars aligned for the Lakers even facing the heat who are a historically weak playoff team. It will be interesting to see what happens this offseason with teams.

[Warriorfan]

Short season and long break helped veteran/old team. AD didnt miss his usual 12-15 games Lebron got a break to carry his team.

What about the break to help carry 'load management' and his uncle? They couldn't play for more than a few minutes straight. Get outta here with that crap.

One team balled out, proving that their naysayers were wrong (yet again) and the other team sucked Donkey balls proving highlighting that hot-takes and one year anomalies are just that..

Yeah that was a dumb take, that poster act's like the other teams didn't get the same time off. Just lazy excuses at this point.

Age of Lakers
Lebron 35, Green 33, Mg Gee 33, D12 34, Rondo34, Morris 31, JR Smith 35, Dudley 35
2nd oldest team in NBA. They were oldest till rockets added 38 yo Chandler.

Short season long break mattered especially with Lebron usage at point. Next year if its a full season I see a Laker fade

[fianchetto]

Humble pie.

[gpoon]

Honestly tho, I like the Lakers as underdogs, that way we don’t have a target on our backs, and also make everyone look dumb when we do well.

Dear General Board please commence the hate and continue to rely on your “expert/genius/Albert Einstein” opinions.

With lebron on your team you will always have a target

[Homer38]

Clippers were the better team but they weren't about that bubble life. Not really much else to say. Lets stop pretending this was some sort of normal playoffs.

Also AD managed for the first time in maybe his entire career stay healthy throughout the playoffs as did a 35 year old Lebron. The stars aligned for the Lakers even facing the heat who are a historically weak playoff team. It will be interesting to see what happens this offseason with teams.

The Lakers had been the best team in the west to the start to finish,bubble or not.Stop with the excuses.

[WHITE_HOT_HEAT]

What about the break to help carry 'load management' and his uncle? They couldn't play for more than a few minutes straight. Get outta here with that crap.

One team balled out, proving that their naysayers were wrong (yet again) and the other team sucked Donkey balls proving highlighting that hot-takes and one year anomalies are just that..

Yeah that was a dumb take, that poster act's like the other teams didn't get the same time off. Just lazy excuses at this point.

Age of Lakers
Lebron 35, Green 33, Mg Gee 33, D12 34, Rondo34, Morris 31, JR Smith 35, Dudley 35
2nd oldest team in NBA. They were oldest till rockets added 38 yo Chandler.

Short season long break mattered especially with Lebron usage at point. Next year if its a full season I see a Laker fade

Lol at JR Smith and Dudley. They don't play. Morris at 31 is just fine. With the C position being distributed between AD, McGee and D12 they're only going to play limited minutes. The rest of the players who play a significant number of minutes are AD, KCP, Avery Bradley, Green, Kuzma and Caruso.. Save for LeBron and Green, there's no one whom the rest would've benefited that much especially when you look at other rosters. So yeah. Bull argument.