Have the Rockets replaced the Clippers?

The Clippers are definitely on the downside - I don't see the current team getting past the second round.

 

All of their pieces verbally committed to resigning.

Seems like they will be around for a bit longer.

 

They have all the pieces to contend, but somehow some way never makes it past the second round. whether by injury or pure choke

 

Their ship has sailed. Go Rockets!

 

Rockets have always been elite in the regular season. Haven't you heard that we have the 3rd most winningest record in the last 10 years in the regular season...

 

If the Clippers are smart, they will "retool" this offseason. Blake and Doc are likely to be gone.

 

Doc Rivers is atrocious. Chris Paul is too old. Also the even more egregious trades that saw them trade away Kyrie Irving and Eric Bledsoe for nothing ultimately set them up for a decade of mediocrity.

 

quite frankly it seems neither the Rockets or the Warriors have been afraid of the Clips over the past couple years including last year circus of a season

 

If they ever get a full or even 90% season out of Griffin + 100% season out of Paul then maybe they can get back to elite status. You can't contend in the West if your top two players "take turns" getting hurt.

 

You might be using the word "mediocrity" wrong. Just maybe.

 

They were gone once they blew that lead against us.

 

Well I think it's the utmost appropriate and accurate term to describe the Clippers right now. Not good enough to do anything substantial, not bad enough to see anything through the draft. Almost no good young players so basically no room for organic growth. A serious lack of tradeable assets. Enormous salaries are tied up on their books, including an immensely overpaid GM/Coach. The definition of mediocrity.

 

I gave my opinion on the Clippers in the game thread in the GARM, but I'll make this point here. They were never elite and have always been flawed, mostly due to the lack of consistent defense and an old school offense. They are a solid, not great team. They are 3-5 in playoff series in the CP3 era and all three of their series wins went to seven games; they barely squeaked by in those. That's not dominance. If they were that good they would have been able to crush somebody by now, but they always seem to be a step behind the top teams.

If we could beat them without Bev and DMo, while they were fully healthy and we were starting Jason Terry at point, then they were never better than us to begin with. Hell yeah we're better than them at this point.

 

The Clippers had "potential" to be title contenders when Doc Rivers took the head coaching job after Vinny was fired. He did some good things, helped motivate Jordan to become more complete big man, and also has helped the younger Rivers to actually be a contributing player on a playoff bound team. Outside of that as much progress as Blake Griffin has made, his injuries coupled with Paul's injuries have held the teams record back.

The Clippers are a top heavy team, they have 3 top 10 players (if you were to rank them per position) but they lack a lot of depth and bench production. If JJ, Crawford, and Rivers are all playing well that team has the ability to win every game they play. Most times, they're stuck with depending solely on Griffin and Paul for points. Paul is a great PG if not one of the top 3 point guards playing in the league right now, but he's more of a true point guard who passes first and scores second. He's never really been a offensive minded PG since his early years in the league.

This current Rockets team has enough talent to keep up with any team in the league but we live and die by the 3 point shot. I don't think we'll get credit or respect from the media until we can get to the finals under Mike D'antoni. Every time I hear the opposing sides' commentating, they'll praise him for his offensive genius and then proceed to knock his resume down stating "his style doesn't work in the playoffs". They were pretty damn close to beating San Antonio until Horry hip checked Nash that one series. If they had won, I doubt we'd have D'antoni as our current coach.

 

Clippers were always overrated. Every year the media labeled them one of the "favorites". I look forward to their [potential] breakup this offseason.

 

Are you suggesting . . . the Rockets have made the Clippers obsolete??

 

Their general management is atrocious.

Rivers has had years to build a bench and hasn't done ****. I will never get over that Austin Rivers contract. What a joke.

Look at what Morey has done with our bench, compared to theirs and you can't really see the difference it makes.

 

I think Doc is a little overrated as a coach and is doing poor job as "general manager". Clippers desperately needed to make a move and they did nothing. Their roster is not bad at all IMO. They have 3 all-stars for goodness sake.

 

Doc never got the clippers a real backup PG, so his little boy had no competition.

Every time CP3 sat or was injured, the Clippers sucked. Doc gave his son a contract more than twice his worth, and that was after playing him minutes that his play didnt warrant.