Collison is a capable backup but a terrible starter. No duh they aren't a top team without CP3. Without CP3 I don't think they're even a playoff team. Yes, coaching matters and Griffin has improved, but I still don't think a team with Griffin as its best player and Reddick/Crawford as its 2nd is going to be any good. You might win a couple of games at first, but I think over 6 weeks you guys will lose about half your games.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tkD4KcynTCo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Hard to say. The Clippers have plenty of wing depth and no big depth so losing Paul hurts much less than losing Griffin (which would be a disaster). They got lucky with the timing too as the schedule is easier now, thanks to one of the hardest early schedules. I think they'll win most of their games without Paul. The next big road trip should be revealing.
Btw, coaching is enormous because it lets non marquee players step in without losing much. Look at the Spurs. While Duncan, Parker, and Gino are big names, honestly none of them is a superstar at this point in their careers and none of them plays big minutes. And when they are out (which is often), the Spurs don't skip a beat. Now the Clippers aren't as well coached as the Spurs but they are starting to show that they can plug guys into the system and it clicks. When Reddick was out, the rotation shifted and Crawford filled the role. Wen Paul went down, Collison has done fine. Now Reddick is back and in his first game it was as if he was never gone. One reason I think Mark Jackson is such a bad coach-- the anti Popovich-- is that he doesn't get this and rides his top five guys so hard. When one goes down, they suck, and with the way he plays them they will be burned out or injured by the playoffs. He has no system outside of riding probably the most talented starting 5.
Collison fits best in a CP3 system, the Spurs were a bit of an anomaly, since they have a defensive system in place to kill the clippers that even CP3 struggles with, so throwing Collison into that was like throwing a rat in a blender.
