Check my Stats Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 West is wide open, what do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitro Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 Yes. They have the best PG in the league, one of the best PF's, and a TON of offensive weapons...Crawford, Butler, Bledsoe, Green, and eventually Hill and Billups, with Jordan blocking shots and finishing off everything near the rim. Vinny Del Negro will probably be the difference of whether they are serious contenders or just fringe contenders, but they definitely have the firepower and talent to get out of the West. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChosenOne Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 Won't be able to call this until everyone on this team gets healthy. For now I actually would say no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemon Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 (edited) Yea, they are. Right now they're with OKC and under Spurs. They'll go down though since their front court is pretty thin and because DJ tends to lose focus over the course of a season. Also, VDN keeps them at where Grizzlies are in that they can be dark horses but you wouldn't be surprised if they get knocked out in the second round. A slightly different version of what Nitro said, I guess. Edited November 14, 2012 by Lemon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Make It Naaaashty Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 They are legit contenders but it really comes down to how well Griffin and Jordan play both offensively and defensively. They also need home court advantage for sure if they want to go deep into the playoffs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunkinDerozan Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 I think the Heat, Lakers and Thunder are ahead of them. Other then that they have a pretty good chance. I'd say they have a better chance then Boston and San Antonio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owner Real Deal Posted November 14, 2012 Owner Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 By the numbers, they are, but I don't trust VDN in the playoffs, nor do I put that much faith into what they have up front. The team, as a whole, is playing MUCH better defense, though. Today, sure. In late April? Probably not. Let me just put it this way: I ask myself if I would be stunned to see them in the NBA Finals, and my answer is yes. I don't see how the Clippers can beat out the Thunder, Spurs, or even the Lakers (once LA gets going) in a seven-game series. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sħãlïq™ Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 No. As long as they rely on CP3 to close out games - they're doomed... This teams needs a real closer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sħãlïq™ Posted December 22, 2012 Report Share Posted December 22, 2012 (edited) Are the Clippers Legit Contenders?I'll take the liberty of posting a bit more than 2-3 paragraphs of this Insider story for those who don't have access to it: http://i47.tinypic.com/rkx0fr.png (...) L.A.'s "other" team sits atop the Hollinger Power Rankings, and after the Oklahoma City Thunder fell on Thursday, have seen their chances to win the championship leap all the way to 31.5 percent, by far the highest figure in the league. Even the Mayans couldn't have foreseen such an upheaval of the league's long-standing hierarchy. The Clippers carry a 12-game winning streak into their road game against the Suns, breaking a franchise record. (..) The amazing thing about the Clippers' rise is that it makes you realize just how moribund the franchise has been since, well, pretty much forever. Before the Chris Paul-Blake Griffin era kicked off last year, you truly had to go back to the Buffalo days to identify anything resembling a golden era for an organization that is playing in its 43rd NBA season. During the mid-70s under Dr. Jack Ramsay, the Braves finished over .500 three straight years and made the East semifinals in each campaign. In 1974-75 -- the year of the first 11-game streak -- Buffalo won a franchise-record 49 games. Last year's 40-26 finish represented the high-water mark for winning percentage for the Braves/Clippers, but thanks to the lockout-truncated campaign, they've still never enjoyed a 50-win season. One last thing about those Braves: They were led by the only MVP in team history, Bob McAdoo. The parallel to the present is that Paul has a real shot at this year's award, ranking third in WARP through Thursday's games. Right now, Kevin Durant and LeBron James have sizable leads over Paul, who has been closing fast the last couple of weeks. If the value gap is closed, the Clippers finish with the top seed and the voters suffer from their biannual case of LeBron fatigue, the Clippers' floor general may just walk away with the trophy. If we feel like this is all going to fall apart for the Clippers, it's due to skepticism that has been forged by more than four decades of futility. The Clippers have had talented individuals from time to time in their history, but have never had top-to-bottom talent like that which stuffs this year's roster. You can't really say the Clippers' success has come out of left field, not after they landed the 5-seed in the West in the spring, then knocked off the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. Before the season, our projections had L.A. with 52 wins and a repeat as the 5-seed. That's not a bad projection, and it carried with it a 3 percent chance of winning the Finals, odds that have jetted to the 31.5 percent chance you see this morning. It's a compelling story, but the leap from good to great begs the question: Just how far can the Clippers carry this thing? No team is ever quite as good as it looks during a long winning streak, and that's certainly the case with the Clippers. Over its last 10 games, L.A. has been hammering teams to the tune of 16 points per game. However, the opponents the Clippers have beaten during that span have a collective winning percentage of .400 for the season. Vinny Del Negro's crew has been getting fat on cupcakes and sitting back during fourth quarters to enjoy the party. But hey, that counts too, and you can't hold it against a team for beating teams it should beat. Looking at the season as a whole, the Clips have the league's second-best point differential, trailing Oklahoma City by a smidgeon: 8.85 to 8.84. Both teams are more than two points better than any other team in the league. The differential by itself marks the Clippers as title contenders. These are not your father's Buffalo Braves. Since the ABA-NBA merger, which of course occurred after the Braves/Clippers last won this many consecutive games, just 10 teams have posted a season-long point differential of 8.8 points or better. Seven of those teams went on to win the championship, and two others fell in the finals of their conference. The only exception was the 1993-94 Seattle SuperSonics, which outscored opponents by 9.1 points per game only to lose in the first round to the Denver Nuggets in one of the most shocking playoff upsets in league history. While the quality of opposition during L.A.'s win streak can be questioned, in the bigger picture it's hard to poke holes in its 19-6 record which, according to its scoring margin, should really be 20-5. The Clippers' 25 opponents have gone an aggregate .511 so far, giving L.A. the ninth-toughest strength of schedule figure. The Clippers have played 14 games at home, compared to 11 on the road, which isn't an extreme split. They've gone 8-3 in road games, with quality wins against the Lakers, Spurs, Jazz and Bulls. Road success like that is the mark of a big-time playoff contender. The Clippers are on pace to win 30 road games this season. Since the merger, only nine teams have won that many and six of those won a championship. The Clippers currently rank fourth in the league in efficiency on both ends of the floor, a remarkable improvement in balance from a team that ranked 18th on the defensive end in 2011-12. That kind of balance is another mark of a champion. Post-merger, 16 teams have finished in the top four on both ends. Six have won titles, one lost in the Finals, six have lost in the conference finals and two in the second round. Only those aforementioned Sonics lost in the first round. Really the only black mark against the Clippers, if you want to call it that, is that they are playing so far above expectations. Even that only matters if you put stock into preseason projections as a reasonable baseline for expected performance. (I do.) If a forecast is solid, a team can be expected to move toward it as the season progresses. That being the case, it's instructive to look at the Clippers' roster at an individual level by comparing SCHOENE's projected winning percentages to the season-to-date numbers. SCHOENE's Projected Winning Percentages http://i45.tinypic.com/2dmcvnt.png In Matt Barnes and Jamal Crawford, you have a couple of shooters who will probably regress, with the emphasis on "probably." Barnes has a career-best .586 true shooting percentage, but he's been in that ballpark in recent seasons. Crawford's .568 mark is a leap from last season, but it's roughly what he put up while winning sixth man of the year honors for Atlanta in 2009-10. Neither player is likely to maintain his shooting accuracy, but it's not impossible that they do. Other than that, the biggest overachievers are Eric Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan, two young players who have simply gotten better faster than we expected. Bledsoe has been a marvel off the Clippers' bench and there is little reason to expect his efficiency to drop barring a major role change. Down the roster, you have a lot of veterans with established track records who are producing more or less what you'd expect. Billups is a wild card because of his health situation. If he can stay on the court, he plugs up the one hole in the Clippers' lineup. Odom has fallen short of low expectations, but his play has really picked up in recent games. Grant Hill hasn't even taken the court yet this season. If Odom continues his uptick against stronger competition and Hill can contribute 15-20 minutes at something near his late-career level, Los Angeles will remain one of the deepest teams in the league. The Clippers won't keep beating teams by 16 points per game, but there is every indication that they are in the race for the long haul, and are well-positioned to challenge the Thunder, the San Antonio Spurs and anyone else for supremacy in the Western Conference. Only a revival of Clippers-like luck can seemingly stand in their way, and you don't even want to mention the two names of the players who, if they were hurt, would torpedo Los Angeles' championship aspirations. Why jinx a long-suffering fan base? Let's face it: It's a new day in L.A. Consider this: the Clippers have 20 wins on the season, and we're still four days away from Christmas. The Clippers have been in Los Angeles for 29 years, and they've won fewer than 20 games in eight of those seasons. The Clippers are good. Really good. Get used to it.Insider.ESPN.go.com Edited December 24, 2012 by Sħãlïq Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lkr Posted December 22, 2012 Report Share Posted December 22, 2012 I definitely think they can make the wcf, but I'm not sure if I'd pick them in a series against the Thunder, Grizzles, or Spurs. I give them no shot against the Heat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sħãlïq™ Posted December 22, 2012 Report Share Posted December 22, 2012 (edited) I definitely think they can make the wcf, but I'm not sure if I'd pick them in a series against the Thunder, Grizzles, or Spurs. I give them no shot against the HeatI'm not worried about the Heat, the Thunder/Grizzles/Spurs are a bigger concern... Edited December 22, 2012 by Sħãlïq Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobb Posted December 22, 2012 Report Share Posted December 22, 2012 I'm not worried about the Heat, the Thunder/Grizzles/Spurs are a bigger concern...Why? King James is pretty good last time I watched basketball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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