Embiid is going to do nothing against this squad and we'll have all the weapons to fight against their team. Honestly no team outright scares me. Give us one more wing defender and I don't know if the Clippers can beat us more than once in the playoffs.
I agree with some of the comments that he needs to shed some pounds...less stress on his body. Mobility doesn't appear to be a problem even at his current weight. Has nimble footwork. Cousins is also an able and willing passer playing in that precision Warrior offense. Oh and I have to mention not a liability at the charity stripe...
No team outright scares me either. However I see quite a few contenders all at a similar level on paper. I think any of: Lakers Clippers Rockets Warriors Jazz Blazers Nuggets Can get out of the west this year. And they’ll probably meet Milwaukee or 76ers in the finals.
I would be very surprised if the Blazers or Rockets beat us. This version of the Warriors shouldn't be able to hang with us. The Clippers, Nuggets, and Jazz are all most definitely going to be problems, but I think we beat them all in a 7 game series.
I agree, I think Houstons window has closed. The jazz are going to be dangerous. Obviously the clippers
^Denver has Jokic and Millsap...that can put up a stand against Cousins/Davis though not sustainable in the long run. Blazers lost Kanter and Aminou. I consider the Jazz as the dark horse in all of this. Warriors are proven but the losses of Iguodala, Cook and Bell weakens their depth. Thompson is on the mend, Curry and Russell are defensive turnstiles and Green can implode. We have a potent power game if utilized properly...something I haven't seen in what seems like decades in The League.
Yeah, the Clippers don't scare me because I'm very skeptical of the 2 superstar wings that they just acquired. There's no elite play-maker on their team, and Kawhi/George are prototypical wings that aren't great facilitators. They've both averaged 3-4 apg over their career, which is a far cry from what we've seen from successful wing duo's in the past. Jordan/Pippen were both elite play-makers and averaged 6-8 assists each in their championship years. Same with Lebron and Wade. I could easily see them fall into a "your turn, my turn" isolation offense, and that s*** isn't going to work against us.
Blazers have Whiteside, Nurkic and Collins to combat Cousins, AD and McGee, which is better than what most teams have. They’ve also got their fire backcourt in Lillard and McCollum. It just depends how Hood, Bazemote and Hezonja hold down the SF spot. But if they gel, they’ll be a tough out. They definitely improved. The warriors shouldn’t be able to hang with us while Klay is out, but we aren’t particularly strong at SF (backup SF is weak) where we can really hurt them. When Klay comes back they can roll out Curry, D’Lo, Klay, Green, Looney - which is still a top top team. Everyone is saying Green fell off but I thought his form after the ASG and especially in the playoffs was the best I’ve seen him play. Curry and Klay running off screens with D’Lo dishing is going to cause some serious problems for teams. Rockets are an odd team. I don’t know whether they’ll blow it up, trade for Westbrook or be in the Conference finals as constructed. But I can see any of the above in a 7 game series against us.
I really don’t want people to underestimate the Clippers because they are the Clippers. No other way to look at it, the Kawhi/PG combo is the most dangerous wing combination since Pippen/Jordan. Kawhi was the best basketball player on the planet during the playoffs and Paul George had a All NBA season. I would also say both players are currently the top 2 way wing players right now. You can’t name name 2 other better wing players who can create their own shots offensively and are alsos lockdown defenders right now. If we are honest with ourselves and it was the Lakers who had Kawhi/PG and the Clippers who had Lebron/AD, everyone would agree with my statement on how dangerous Kawhi/PG are.
I don’t think prime wade/Lebron played defense the way prime Kawhi/PG play defense. During the Lebron/Wade heat area, Lebron/Wade were top 3 wings on the offensive end (Kobe was the other), but they weren’t even top 10 defensively. Kawhi and PG were top 5 offensive wing players this past season (Lebron, KD (pre-Achilles, Giannis were the other 3). Kawhi/PG are also the top 2 defensive wings this past season too. Dame has a great playoffs but there’s no way he was more dominate during the playoffs than Kawhi. The argument Laker fans would have made if it was the clippers who had the Lebron/AD combo is that Lebron is 35 years old in the twilight of his prime while Kawhi is 28 and PG is 30.
I'm not sure what you're trying to argue, but no one is taking Kawhi over prime Lebron and PG over prime Wade. With or without defense, Lebron and Wade are just better players. Point is, where was PG's lockdown defense on Dame? Durant, Giannis, Harden, Kawhi, PG, Kyrie, etc etc etc.... all those players are great but there's only been 2 players in the past decade that are often described as "transcendent." We got both of them on our team. Again, Kawhi/PG doesn't concern me at all. I have more faith in Lebron's production going forward than I have in Kawhi's degenerative calves.
I don't disagree. But his low price tag makes this a no-brainer. With this team, I believe he brings more value as the 3rd most talented player behind Lebron and AD. A perfect Lamar Odom type.
I don’t think AD is transcendent. He has struggled to make the playoffs by himself. He needs to prove himself a lot more before we start throwing those kind of words around. I think Kawhi is a few levels above him at the moment. But then so is Lebron.
what if AD had toronto's supporting cast in the east? i'm not sure kawhi has actually strapped a team on his back in the way the current narrative suggests. he was dominant in spots in this year's playoffs, for sure. but is that a recency effect dominating the overall evaluation? put it this way: if you had asked me to trade for one of these two players last year, i'd have definitely chosen davis. the playoffs just happened, and kawhi willed toronto to important wins while davis sat at home. but i'll be curious to see how the story unfolds over the next couple of years. AD reminds me an awful lot of KG's career trajectory, wherein he was unfairly maligned while being one of the league's very best players for nearly a decade. then KG won a title, and everyone forgot minnesota (the bulk of his career) occurred. i DO think that the clippers have it right in that the way the game is played and officiated, dominant wing players are more important than dominant bigs, and for the lakers to win big, they'll have to flip that script. do we have the coaching staff to make that happen? i don't know, but i do think it's possible.
