“New Look” Clippers Are Confusing Me…

“New Look” Clippers Are Confusing Me…

The Clippers just signed Chris Paul. They are going all in. This is one of the oldest rosters I feel like we’ve ever seen. Kawhai is 34. Harden is 36. Be is 32. We know CP3 is 40. Brooke is 37. Batum is 37. And that’s why it’s hard for me to really believe in this squad. If we’re being real, the NBA playoffs is just a battle of who can stay healthy the longest a lot of the time. The Clippers are one hamstring tweak for Harden away from really really struggling to stay afloat. And we know the same can be said about Kawhai’s knees. But also, last year really rubs me the wrong way for the Clippers. Heading into the playoffs, they were playing like one of the best teams in all of basketball, and Kawawaii was finally healthy, peaking at the right time, and they face a Denver Nugget team led by Nicole Joic, the best player in the NBA. But there was a lot of drama going on. Not only that, the depth on that team wasn’t very good. They just fired Mike Malone. And then the way they lost in game one, they had that game. There was so many opportunities for them to fully take control and go up one zero. But we know what happened. Denver had that crazy comeback and victory in overtime. And that really set up a long series that was a battle and then all of a sudden they just don’t show up in game seven, get absolutely destroyed. I don’t know. that really felt like a golden opportunity for the Clippers and they just let it slip away and we saw Denver give OKC their best shot even with injuries to Michael Porter Jr. and no depth on that bench. Yet, no one really brings that up and I think it’s because in the beginning of the season, no one expected the Clippers to have a shot. But for me, I really believed in them once the expectations changed towards the end of the season and seeing Kawhi Leonard actually being healthy and producing. I just look at it and say everything went their way. Harden was near perfect. Kawhai was somehow healthy. Big Zoo had a career year and they still fell short. whether it’s right or wrong, whether it’s fair or not, that’s really making me not believe in them moving forward. And personally, I don’t think that assessment is fair because the roster is way better. One of the biggest issues in that Denver series was Aaron Gordon and Denver just cooking them on the glass. Gordon ended up averaging 18 points per game efficiently. Denver was averaging 43.3 rebounds per game compared to the Clippers, 39.4, four, which was the third worst in the NBA in the first round, only ahead of the Lakers and the Miami Heat. Also, one of the issues as of late for the Clippers is Kawhi Leonard pretty much has to play the power forward position 24/7 because there was no other consistent option. And that’s why I think one of the most underrated additions for a team this off season was the Clippers trading for John Collins. He’s truly a double double threat any given night. On top of that, his three-point shooting seems to be back and trending in the right direction. In the 2022 23 season, you saw a big drop off from 36% to 29% for Atlanta. They ended up trading him or moving on. And in Utah, he got it back to 37% on 3.4 attempts. And then this past season, 39.9% on 3.7 attempts per game. Maintaining that efficiency, which I think he will, will be huge for the Clippers because they’re certainly going to get the best out of him offensively in terms of being a cutter in terms of being a roller because James Harden is a terrific lob passer along with Chris Paul. And then not only that, but he’s going to be feeding off the gravity of Kawi Leonard. And then just think about it, Big Zoo and John Collins, they’re such a physical group. I think last year verse Denver going up against Aaron Gordon and Nola Jokic who love contact. I I think they got the better of the Clippers in that category. And I’ve been saying this for a while, but John Collins feels like the next Aaron Gordon, the next PJ Washington, a guy who was floating on a bad team, kind of losing motivation because he’s in a losing environment. But his skill set, his archetype, his play style is so valuable to a contender. And a lot of the time that can be the missing piece. As you saw, Denver get Aaron Gordon from Orlando. All of a sudden, they’re champions. And then PJ Washington traded to Dallas. All of a sudden, they’re in the NBA finals. It really feels like he can unlock a bunch of different lineups for the Clippers and give them an archetype that they have been badly missing. And I feel like a lot of teams badly miss this type of player because quite frankly most of the time John Collins types have no ability to shoot the ball. Another area they addressed is adding Brook Lopez. One of the biggest issues for the Clippers last year was what on earth do we do in the minutes without Big Zoo? In 2,624 minutes last year, he had a plus 9.4 net rating. Meanwhile, in the minutes without him, 1,337 -4.5 net rating. That was a bigger swing impact-wise than James Harden and Kawi Leonard. Not only will that help the Clippers sustain the minutes without him, but also it’s going to give him a good rest. Last season, he played a lot of minutes. 32.8 minutes per game and then 36.6 minutes per game in the NBA playoffs. He was an absolute warrior in terms of playing every single night and just playing huge big loads of minutes and you got to respect that. You got to love that. But at the same time, I think they should ease it back a bit during the regular season so he has more left in the tank come playoff time. This year they should have that option unlike last year because they just couldn’t function without him on the court. The Bradley Beal signing, I don’t know how I feel about it. I just feel like he’s kind of a losing player. I’m not going to lie. But again, his archetype does make sense. They needed to replace Norman Pal, who was a big part of their early season success. My fear with Beal is I believe Tyoo is going to treat him like the old Beal, the 30 point per game scoring Beal. And I think they’re going to be in situations where Beal doesn’t have it and someone like Chris Dunn does have it. that night say he’s making three-pointers. I can see Tailoo just riding Bradley Beal despite that fact. To this day, something that pisses me off about that Denver series is when Nick Batum was absolutely going berserk at the end of the game. He hit like two three-pointers in a row or something like that and then all of a sudden he’s he’s on the bench not ending the game or getting put in too late. I’m telling you, I watch Tyoo sometimes and I just say to myself, he’s the modern-day version of Doc Rivers. I’m serious. So, overall, I really enjoy this roster, but there’s just something about it that that just doesn’t make me fully believe. And I think it’s that concept of I just haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t believe it until it actually gets done. But also, a part of that is because I really believed in them last season and they just let me down. So, it’s almost like I don’t want to look silly again, you know, talking about they’re going to be the Western Conference champions, but you see the build of this roster. It’s very reminiscent to the Denver Nuggets who gave OKC the most trouble. So, once again, just like everyone will say, if they are healthy, a big if, if they are healthy for the playoffs, they have a chance against anyone. And I think you can put them in the top tier of the Western Conference with OKC and Denver. I have those two in their own tier. And then just below them, scratching to get to that level, tied is Houston, the Clippers, Minnesota, healthy Golden State, and that’s about it. Let me know your thoughts below.

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