Russ (Shocker): How He Turned Clippers Into NBA Contenders! 

Go clips.

While he's on the bench. Whe he was part of the starting five the team was Trash just as him. LAC are good despite of him.

People don’t talk about that enough

Clippers were never title contenders for the past 30 years. You are delusional.

Yea i believe with: Zubac, Covington, Leonard, George, and Westbrook The Clippers were probably going to have one of the strongest starting fives in pro basketball. Their small sample size net rating screams "elite" on both sides of the court. A strong defensive team that could score. I think this is because the scoring pecking order was pretty clear. Kawhi Leonard was the #1 option in the half court set when everyone was on the floor and PG was the #1 option when Kawhi went to the bench to start the 2nd qtr. The defensive rating is easier to understand. The trio of Kawhi, PG, and Zu is a pretty strong defensive trio and they just need solid team defenders to do their jobs so that's why good but not great defenders look better next to them(Batum, Jackson, Covington, Mann, Westbrook, etc...) Even avg defenders will look decent next to this trio(Jackson, Morris Sr, Harden, Powell, Gordon, etc...) It's my view that The Clippers were going to be top 5 on both sides of the court with a more defensive roster with length on the wings(Covington, Batum, and Martin Jr) I think the James Harden trade was made for 3 specific reasons: #1) Lack of trust in the health of Kawhi and or PG. The organization wanted to hedge its bets against not having one or both of their best players in the playoffs. #2) Half court offensive efficiency......i believe there is someone in the front office think tank group that advocated for more pick and roll action in the half court come postseason time. Since there is traditionally less transition basketball in the postseason there may have been some concern about the ceiling for The Clippers. Personally i don't agree with this assessment. The Spurs and Warriors built dynastic operations by playing defense and with a high pace of play. #3) Advanced Ticket Sales.......i believe one part of the thinking was that having 4 homegrown LA stars would help pack their new arena and i could see a scenario where even without a title they attempt to bring back all 4(Leonard, PG, Russ, and James)....with a different center. I can foresee them going for something similar to The Celtics with a center that can space the floor and shoot. This would give the bench unit to Powell, Mann, and Hyland....along with probably PG. I'm not sure what they would do at backup center? I don't see them asking Plumlee or Theis back. This is all on the front office in my view. Coach Lue had the type of team he wanted to coach with Russ as his pg and his team focused on fighting to be a top 5 defense. The front office went for more offense.

lol they are a good team and will win the chip if kawhi isn’t injured still

@stephaenwalek7937 that’s very possible.

Love it

💯 agree 👍

I can agree with this 100 percent.

He brings a lot of veteran experience

Shouldn’t be talkin bout harden, it’s T mann he should be replacing

Never said they wouldn’t.

True

On a roll for sure

Way to go buddy, spreading hate

lol. How so?

Lmao