this is not fully accurate. The clippers lost Danilo Gallinari and Shai Gilgeous-alexander. Of course adding Kwahi and George more than compensate that. I think the clippers are a lot better than the lakers. Now regular season wise, im not sure who will finnish on top and whos leading the western conference. I feel like the lakers will take care of lebron at this point in his carrer. For the clippers, kwahi will probably play 65 games and george we dont know, but seems like he will miss the start of the season, so probably more on the 65 70 game range. I think the rockets, jazz and nuggets have better chance of being the top western confernce team in the regular season. Everybody healthy come playofff time i think the clippers are favorites, followed by the nuggets and rockets. Jazz and lakers are on the next tier. Lakers role players seem below average in general . I guess the buyout market later in the season will shape a lot of the playoffs team. Also i think for contenders, getting andre iguodala will be fantastic, as he is one of the best 2/3 defenders in the league, and the western conference is loaded with them. Somebody will give up a first round pick for him later in the season, as he is not getting buyout by the grizzlies ( they know he is an asset)
The Lakers still intrigue me, they got pieces like Kuzma, Danny Green, Boogie and some part of Rondo that can still make an impact. They still lack shooters tho.
kuzma is a nice piece, but even so, if you play him with AD and lebron, lebron is playing PG or AD is playing center, coz Kuzma is definitely not a 2. I think he may actually do better coming of the bench but playing starting mins, to get more shots and be there to close games. Danny green is ok. as a starter, but if you are playing him 35 + mins a game, is not good. Boogie could be a monster... or last season boogie, wich i tend to believe he be more like. His achilles injury really derailed his career sadly. Still a good passer and very big Inside, but he is so slow footed and bad reading in defense, that teams will go at him every time he is on the court, kinda like they did with Kanter the last 2 years. He has to bring a lot more offensevely than last season to be worth it. Rondo is already washed up and cant shoot. I like him as a veteran bakcup point guard, in a 15 to 20 min role at most, but if he is in your starting 5, who is defending on that starting lineup? only AD. Rondo is not the defender he used to be, he has slowed down a lot. I guess time will tell how they mesh up, but this team is better than last year, but not by a lot.
If the lakers play old school bully ball with AD and Boogie in the middle it could be tough for the clippers to match up. Clippers don't have the stretch 4 or 5 to make the Lakers adjust to take 1 of their big men out. I think that needs to be on the clippers Radar. George and Leonard will lock down the perimeter tight but it will be their help defense down that will be just as important. In my mind though, in today's NBA, teams just aren't methodical or disciplined enough to take advantage of big men down low or use enough big men play in the paint. We saw it in New Orleans with Boogie and AD. They didn't seem to mesh as well as some folks would have liked and with 2 bigs out on the floor, that might limit the driving lanes for Lebron. If it were a 7 games series, I'd say Clippers in a tight 6 games because Lakers won't utilize their big men properly.
Agree with the premise, but idea that LeBron isn’t fundamentally sound is hilarious. Name one fundamental skill that he lacks, or a habit that he can correct that would lead to a statistically better performance.
Clippers Rockets/Lakers are tied Its a toss up, because any of these 3 teams could beat each other on a given night. Im gonna say once again who ever is the healthyiest and wants to come together as a group play some D and wants to win, wins. Thing is rockets Westbrook is better than Lebron/George in my opinion but there benches are stacked compared to houston. Who knows. I would love to watch a clippers and Lakers game now, cant wait for the season this sucks.
Their best 5 closing lineups are intriguing Green Lebron Kuzma Davis Boogie vs. Bev Sweet Lou PG13 Kawhi Zubac (Trez if Boogie isn't in?) It really comes down to size, can an old school style of power b-ball beat the versatility of the clips? I say Clippers at this point because i don't see this lakers lineup meshing well together
I honestly think that the Clippers will be the best team in the league. Period. Which sucks. Their defense will be suffocating.
