CP3 May not resign [Bill Simmons tweet so grain of salt needed]

That would be nice, I guess. Except, Horford isnt really a star, much less a superstar. A trio of Harden, Howard and Paul is a dynasty.

 

Dwight doesn't want to play in his hometown

 

By "all reports" do you mean TJ Simers? Because that guy is essentially a professional troll.

CP3 isn't leaving LA. There's just no motivation. He makes the most money there, has probably the best living situation, has endorsements and connections he won't get elsewhere, has control over the coach and player recruits, and, despite the first round loss, still has a talented team. He's also only been in LA for two years. It's not like LeBron who had been stuck in Cleveland his whole career and hadn't seen any progress in the roster or coaching.

 

And the odds of that happening are very low. Unless Cp3 tells Morey he's willing to sign here, Morey will not trade away our team sans Harden to have the capspace for both of them. It's just too much of a risk.

 

Do you actually think he wouldn't get over that if he had the chance to play with Chris Paul and Horford?

 

Josh Smith is his best friend and he still said he didn't want to go there last summer during Dwightmare

 

Yes because Dwight Howard has choked in every single playoffs he has been in.

What has Paul accomplished in the playoffs that Dwight is lacking?

 

And Smith isn't really that great of a player. When you have the chance to play with a top 3 player and a excellent big man who meshes well with both players, you actually think he will still say no?

 

By the way when it's all said Dwight Howard and Chris Paul will remain in L.A.

 

"By the way, when it's all said and done Dwight will never be a Laker. They don't have any assets."

 

Chris Paul straight up carried those Hornets

 

To what?

 

No progress in the roster or coaching? In LeBron's last two years in Cleveland, they had the best record in the NBA (66-16, 61-21) in each. They had a better winning percentage in those two years than the Heat have in their past two seasons. The idea that they were some wasteland is revisionist history. They had a decent team around LeBron. It just wasn't quite good enough to win a title, and they had no reasonable way to get much better. Kind of like the situation CP3 finds himself in now.

It's great he has control over the coach and player recruits. If there's no reasonable avenue to win a title, though, what does it really mean? They're capped out for the foreseeable future. Griffin isn't going to develop into a true low-post star. Jordan is what he is. The role players are largely old and over the hill, and the only way they'll be able to replace them is through the MLE and minimum signings. Do you think LeBron would swap his experience in Miami for being player/coach/GM somewhere else? I don't.

And as for endorsements, I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but the NBA guy I see on television the most plays his games in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. True endorsement value comes from playing meaningful games in May and June.

 

I was obviously being sarcastic to who I was responding to saying Dwight is a choker.

People let this past season that Dwight had overlook what he has done before. Not to mention in a down year for Dwight his year he still had 17 and 14 and he still played pretty good in the playoffs. It's not Dwight fault in the playoffs he was surrounded by guys who had no business starting on a playoff team.

 

I think CP3 just wants Byron Scott as the Clippers coach. Doubt he is leaving. Dwight is the more realistic FA this summer.

 

Pretty early to make that call on Griffin, since he's played three years in the NBA and isn't close to his peak. He improved a lot this year, it just didn't show up in the standard stats because he played far fewer minutes due to the depth of the Clippers. Having watched him a ton, I think he will be great one day. His playoff games have been against the best frontline defenders in the league so it's a tough public baptism.

DJ, I agree on and I assume the Clipper offseason plan is to try to unload his contract alongside the very intriguing Bledsoe in a trade. One advantage of depth is that the Clippers can afford to give up a guy like Bledsoe who will have a lot of interest around the league.

Admittedly, the chemistry between CP3 and Griffin isn't as great as many anticipated, but I think that is largely due to the system, or lack of system, employed by Vinny et al. Imagine if they had a coach like Sloan or Adelman who actually ran offensive sets. I think they'd be great and as good a duo in the league.

Almost invariably, players will choose money over success. The exceptions are vets on their last contract (the Boston 3) and, of course, "the Decision" which was unprecedented. I suppose it's theoretical possible that three superstars could team up again, but the whole point of the new CBA was to discourage it, and soon we'll see a breakup of the Miami 3 on account of it. Heck, OKC got rid of Harden just because of financial reasons.

LeBron's teams had good records but they were absolutely godawful when he sat out, so when teams had a chance to adjust over the course of a series, they could handle Cleveland. It was clear LeBron was gone after he put up 40/8/8 against Orlando including a game winner, his team still lost rather easiiy, and they didn't upgrade their roster the following year. CP3 does a lot for the Clippers but they could hang without him (they were over 0.500 in the games he missed and CP3 didn't even play big minutes due to the bench). Also, he's been there two years as opposed to seven. And he's in LA, not Cleveland. The situations are significantly different.

 

The endorsements argument is very over hyped when it comes to superstar players. Melo didn't blow up endorsement wise when he moved from Denver. Peyton Manning was the endorsement king while playing in Indianapolis. Like you said, endorsements will come from playing in and winning playoff games which is when everybody is watching.

 

would much rather have cp3 and Asik then dwight and Jlin/Beverly . Would hands down the be best back court for the next 5 years

 

I think the situation is far simpler than you make it out to be. It doesn't matter if they were .500 in the limited games CP3 missed, or what happened to LeBron in the few games he missed. Or if he's been there two years or seven, or if it's LA or Cleveland. It comes down to one issue: is there a reasonable path for that team to win a title? The answer, in both cases, appears to be no.

Now, if you're right about Griffin and the coaching situation, that's potentially an X-factor. But I hope you realize how speculative that is. Griffin is three years into the league and still doesn't have a go-to post game. He has a history of nagging injuries. His game isn't the type that historically ages well. Maybe you're right and I'm wrong, but it's a very real debate... and we don't know what side CP3 is on.

I also think the precedent issue (money vs. success) is overblown. Honestly, there haven't been very many guys in the position of Dwight and CP3 this summer because the old CBA didn't put them a spot to decide. Under the old CBA, it was financially beneficial for players to extend early... and if they wouldn't, their old teams would typically trade them a year early for peak value, and a condition of the new team's trade offer is that the player immediately signs the extension (Carmelo, McGrady, etc.). The end result was that most of the true elites never made it to free agency.

Now, under the new CBA, there's a lot more mystery. Teams in the positions of the Lakers/Clippers this year can't give ultimatums to Howard/Paul because extending isn't financially beneficial. They have to play it out. Bottom line is that in the past, the deck was stacked in favor of the team with money because re-signing was a condition of the trade. It's not anymore, and I think the result is that FA will have a new layer of randomness.