2023-24 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Kings drop coming, they won't be that healthy again.

Let's assume GS stays healthy, they're not going to push it that hard in the regular season because they're a vet team who is trying to pace themselves for the playoffs. Like us, the goal is stay out of the play in.

5th for us sounds fine, we'll be 4th-6th.

Not betting on the Clippers to ever be anything other than play in fodder until they show they can withstand the task of getting through the 82. Load management got them nowhere.

Dallas has a better shot at 4 or 6 than the Kings or Clippers.

 

i still kind of don't get how the press ignored the clippers' injury issues for years, picking them #1 repeatedly, and this year, they've fully checked out. i'd say they're as likely to be healthy this year as any other. iow, if you had them first before, you should now.

i agree that the kings would definitely be a drop candidate. i think the nuggets might have less interest in the regular season than they've had previously, too. if i were forced to guess, calculating injury likelihood, etc., i'd probably go:

suns
nuggets
lakers
mavs
clips
gs

it's really hard to forecast. you can add memphis, sacramento, memphis, minnesota, okc, and maybe even houston to the bottom of that list and haggle about who's likely to win more.

i have memphis lower because morant's missing games guaranteed and i feel they've been overachieving for some time (i keep being wrong that they're going to drop, though).

the west is incredibly deep and not at all top heavy. the only team i'd be totally shocked if they missed the playoffs is denver. the only teams i'd be totally shocked if they made it would be portland and san antonio. i can't remember a time in my fan life that i felt like that. i'm hoping we finally have enough depth to weather the inevitable lebron and AD absences.

 

Clippers hype from the media always struck as more of a combination of them working the media and the media wanting to stick it to us. Now that we are back to being good, a lot of the talking heads are backtracking (except the true haters like Bontemps)

 

LA Kings are more popular in LA than the Clippers

 

Very average: they won a title!
They maybe overrated this year but the overall record is distorted because Klay was hurt for 2 years and they went thru a mini rebuild
This is like saying the Lakers have been average since Lebron came in because they sucked when they had Westbrick.

IMO using overall regular season record over a time scale isn't a good measure of team success or talent

 

agreed

 

I do think the Clips have done a good job spending money on basketball court refurbishment around LA - young kids are growing up on Clippers courts so that will help them over the long term.

They will always be the stepchild to the Lakers but they have an avenue to get more support (be more like the White Sox compared to the Cubs versus being the Jets to the Giants)

 

There are no REAL Clippers fan base! Those are just Lakers Haters .

I had a friend who grew up in Mission Viejo and he was a clippers fan and Angels fan . It made sense why he was an Angels fan but I asked him why do you like the Clippers they suck ! He said Lakers are too huge and flashy and arrogant! I was like well, yeah because they win all the time , he said W-L don’t matter to me . Clippers fans are casual fans .

 

They should move to SD ! But their owner actually thinks if he stayed in LA they actually have a chance to compete with the Lakers. Paul George said it one time “ even Staples center employees look down on the Clippers and see them as second class citizens .

yes i do know it’s called Crypto now , I am sticking to Staples .

 

Well until this year the Clippers were still a good regular season team despite the missed games. #2 seed in 2020 with Kawhi playing 57/72 and PG playing 48/72. In 2021 they finished 4th but tanked to get the Mavs/avoid us, they probably could've finished Top 2 or at least Top 3 with Kawhi playing 52/72 and PG playing 54/72. Then Kawhi misses 2022 with the torn ACL, but it wasn't crazy to think they'd rack up regular season wins going into last season. I think them being lower now is less about the injury stuff, and more that the rest of the West has passed them by. Even when both Kawhi and PG were playing last season they were significantly worse than 2020 and 2021. I think this is the year the wheels completely fall off and one or both of those guys is on another team to start the 2024-2025 season.

The West is completely ridiculous. My best guess at regular season standings is:

Nuggets
Lakers
Suns
Warriors
Wolves
Mavs

 

Am down with the “Crypt” now

 

i don’t care if the Nuggets win the West again ! All i want for us to do is to win the season opener as if it’s game 7 of NBA Finals, I wanna ruin their ring Ceremony. I wanna pi$$ on their parade

 

Murray and Porter were injured in playoffs.
Otherwise Denver would win 2 championships in a row .

 

Of course .They are 2 time Stanley Cup champions

 

We don’t want their garbage Franchise back here in SD!!!!

 

Lol why not ? They’ll look good next to the Padres ! Just bustin yo chops friend !

 

Well, downtown is now an enlarged homeless encampment so they would fit right it!

 

Poor homeless,don’t put them thru anymore suffering.

 

speak for yourself haha. i HATE the clippers but would welcome them back with open arms because it would mean getting to see the lakers and all the other nba teams much more than i do now