Lakers sign Marcus Smart, Deandre Ayton while Clippers get Chris Paul, Brad Beal. Who is King of LA?

Lakers sign Marcus Smart, Deandre Ayton while Clippers get Chris Paul, Brad Beal. Who is King of LA?

So, here’s the burning question. Great question there. Who’s had the better summer? So, you got the Lakers with their stars, LeBron, Luca. They add DeAndre and then they add Marcus Smart. Smart’s a veteran guard, plays defense, can score some, been in the league a decade. Used to be with the Sacramento Kings. Moved around recently, he’s had some injury problems, but he can still play. So, that’s what the Lakers got. Look at what the Clippers got. Backcourt three-point shooter Brad Beal. Backcourt distributor, scorer, Chris Paul, big guy, backup center, now Brook Lopez, almost a clone of Zubac, their starting center. And they got the jumping jack, athletic forward, John Collins, used to be in Atlanta, came from Utah, you know. So you add you add that they are suddenly a really old team. They might be the oldest team in the NBA. So, their window to get to the Western Conference Finals as an LA Clipper, it’s got to be the next 15 minutes. It’s got to be this coming coming season. But damn, they’ve had themselves a really good year as compared to what I don’t think the Lakers have. Go ahead, John, your response. Yeah, it’s it’s both teams are still all these question marks. These guys could fit, maybe not fit. But here here’s a thing I was thinking about because Chris Paul is is old. 40. Kawawaii is getting old. 34. Okay. You got James Harden 36 and this Bradley Beal is in like 32. 32. I mean, so you know, you know how like u sometimes I often wonder if this is like a conspiracy theory in baseball that maybe it applies to basketball is that you know you Darvish was unavailable for the Padres’s for half a season. Same thing with Glass Now and Blakes now. Makes you wonder if they kind of put their veterans sort of on ice with an excuse and then they’ll be fresh for the playoffs. So, I wonder if the Clippers are thinking that and they could they got all these old dudes, but would it be surprising if one of them couldn’t play for the first two or three months of the season? I don’t think so because they they really want to be good. They really want to have homecourt advantage. Home court advantage in postseason. That’s monstrously important. So, I just think they did not have strength in numbers. And now they got depth. They really got depth. Totally. Yeah. And the way, you know, the left hand would yell at me like you were just yelling about old men, old men. right hand is going to answer back, John. Tons of experience and success. Those guys are all proven commodities that the Clippers got. And you add that to Zubac, Kawhai, and James Harden. Man, that’s a I think that’s a pretty good collective basketball team. Whereas the Lakers, they got Luca, they got LeBron, they got the new center with his baggage. U they got Smart, who they hope is is going to be able to hold up. And then then they got what they’ve had in the past. Austin Reeves, fine. Ruy Hatchimura, question mark. And anybody else down that bench to the 15th guy, Bronny James, question mark. You know, you look at these teams, rosters, and I’m thinking you need a collection of old guys and young guys, right? I mean, you can’t do it all one way or the other. But who are the young guys for the Clippers? None. Well, they got a couple young guards, but none. But the difference is the Clippers have all their draft picks and the Clippers are going to have a truckload of free agent money whereas the Lakers have no draft picks till 2031. Yeah, the Lakers are extended. Yeah, they’re stretched out. Yeah. Okay, fans forum, chat box is open. If you love basketball, who do you think is a better team right now? Lakers versus Clippers.

Lee Hacksaw Hamilton discusses the Lakers and Clippers in the NBA offseason.

Livestreamed Thursday, July 24, 2025.

Check out the full Hacksaw’s Headlines episode at:
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Audio: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who-are-friars-dreadful-dodgers-mlb-trades-nfl-cfb/id1637363008?i=1000718929010

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