The Lakers continue to get love from the TNT talking heads and others. I don't get it. The Clips have handled the Lakers, beaten Miami, beaten Dallas. Yes, they've had bad games against the Spurs and Jazz and got beat by Portland. Maybe the assumption is they are young and can't play on the road. Could be true. BUT Billips, Williams, Butler and Paul are not young. Just unfamiliar with each other. These guys are all vets.
The guy I called out early on is De Andre Jordan. This guy is improving leaps and bounds. Clips do not want Howard. Too many guys on the floor who'd want the rock. Would not work. Jordan is perfect because by the time he ages and matures enough to be that guy ala Bynum, Billups will be old and gone. Billups is too much of a prima donna superstar in the head to realize he's not a player anymore. Plus Howard would command huge $. Jordan is perfect and in him LA has two of the best young center prospects in the league. Bynum and Jordan are a lot of fun to watch.
I don't get though why no one has this team in their Top 5 in the west. Even if it took them awhile to get their acts together, get used to each other and get like a 7 or 8 seed? THIS is the type of team that could easily take anyone out of the playoffs. THey are like the OKC Thunder last year, but I'm thinking even more dangerous. OKC was all young guys like KD and Westbrook. Clips have traded their young pieces for vets to win now. Only sad thing I see is that Clips still will have to find pieces to fill in soon. Jordan, Paul, Griffin are all great and young, but Billips, Butler, Williams? I think they are all guys who look like 1-3 year players for the Clips.