Man I just don't see how teams will score against the Clippers without having a great player at C or PF. Leonard, PG, Bev on the perimeter... Ouch.
All three have a history of injuries. I'm not advocating for us to injure them or for them to be injured, I'm just sayin'~ it's a very real possibility they don't all make it to the court at the same time come playoffs.
Damn hope this is not the standings. Have to go through warriors, lakers and clippers. Ideally would only want to face one of these teams
1. HOU - full season of rivers, house, and a defensive coach. no melo drama. rus plays 15 games more than Paul. I see us approaching 60 wins if we add 1 or 2 more rotation pieces. I think we will, but if we started with todays roster I'm sliding us down to 4th. 2. LAC - can't score against their starting 5, and a death O lineup of lou-shamet-kawhi-PG-harrell. I think we win more regular season games because of durability. 3. DEN - depth and youth made them a great regular season team last year. young guys improve and they added grant. 4. LAL.- durability concerns for LBJ/AD/DC, and chemistry issues with everyone on 1 year deals, keeps them from being top 3. 5. UTA - well balanced now and added depth. always seem to have the best record after all star break but never do that for a whole season. 6. GSW - they lost all depth, Steph and dray have durability concerns, Steph-russell backcourt is a defensive liability, but they can trade Russell for a better fit and once Klay comes back they are probably top 3 talent wise in the west. they will upset someone in the playoffs for sure. 7. POR - I don't think adding whiteside and bazemore keep them ahead of other teams' additions this summer. 8. NOP - that's right! jj Redick has never missed the playoffs and they are actually the deepest team left. ---------------- 9. SAS - end of a dynasty probably convinces pop to retire. 10. DAL - luka, KP, and depth will be competitive but the west is too tough. 11. SAC - promising young core but still putting the pieces together. 12. PHX - Rubio and Oubre will help make them competitive. plus another step forward for booker/ayton. 13. MEM - could finish higher but they're looking to sell off depth for picks. 14. MIN - poor KAT lol. stuck with wiggins. teague/roco always injured.not a single guy off the bench. 15. OKC - they're tanking. they'll get to the bottom if they want to. funny thing is CP3-gallo-adams probably make the 8th seed if they wanted to.
LAC HOU UTA DEN GSW POR LAL DAL That's I see it shaking out standings wise, I don't tihknk Leonard's going to load manage as much as he did in Toronto. Utah is going to be insanely good with Conley in the fold. GSW takes a step back, Dallas just squeaks in ahead of NO and SA.
We are going to be the 1st seed. Didn’t loose any of our rotational players and going to have a motivated Westbrook and Harden.
Clippers will be probably be monsters defensively but they still need a legitimate playmaker/great passer. Bev and Lou Williams aren't that. Kawhi is solid but he won't rack up assists. Same with PG. They also need a legit big to tangle with Davis, Cousins, Jokic, Capela, etc.
No. As a Rockets fan for many years now I'm well aware that donning our jersey instantly makes you susceptible to injury. Our franchise has the ability to turn men of steel into paper mache. Saying that, SOME players when they get injured take zero risk aka 'they are injured until completely healthy'. An example would be Kawhi Leonard. Other players play through injuries unless it's completely debilitating, an example would be James Harden. Other players have been shown to bounce back and recover extremely fast from an injury, much sooner than the given lengthy prognosis, an example would be Russell Westbrook.
Playing thru injury only worked for someone like Kobe till he was 32- 34, and he just couldn't stop it no longer.
With the addition of Westbrook I agree with this now. Westbrook makes the Rockets younger and improves them by 3 or 5 games more wins better than last year. If only the Rockets can get Iguodala he will make them top 3.
And if Kawhi wants to, he can take a PF/C off his game as well. Just ask Giannis. For that matter PG should be able to handle plenty of PFs as well.
It's close now that Lakers have added some better bench help, but I like the Clippers role players better than the Lakers. Comparing the two pairs of stars is pretty much a tossup.
