Adande article

I'm trying to shut down the zhiv comment machine, but JA Adande has deigned to write about how the Clips have gained a smidgen of significance now that they've signed Baron Davis and have BD and Elton Brand in new longterm deals.  Thanks, JA, and yes, we're aware that the Clips barely dodged the bullet of the LATimes discontinuing its beat coverage in the same ignonimous way that the OCR did.  We also note that you don't work for the LAT anymore, so perhaps they decided that you were less relevant than the Clips, but you're in better shape regardless of the circumstances, since you've apparently noticed that newspapers don't matter much anymore, so what's your point?

Adande further condescends to grant, with his acute NBA knowledge, that while the Clips clearly aren't a deep, elite, contending team, they have a pretty good shot now to make the playoffs, they can mix it up in the West a little bit, and recover some of what they lost since their playoff run two years ago.

Adande says:  "That's not enough to put them ahead of the Lakers in the city or in the West. Not the Spurs or the Hornets or the Jazz or the Suns either. Truth is they'll be hard pressed to beat out the Suns, Rockets and on-the-rise Trail Blazers for a postseason spot. Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets couldn't win a playoff game last season. Davis and the Golden State Warriors couldn't even get in the party. The West is tough like that."

Despite the fact that we're still just figuring out what the roster might be, Adande forces me to break this down a little bit.  It's premature and foolhardy.  But we'll start at the bottom.

"Davis and GSW couldn't even get in the party."  Okay.  Maybe that's why Davis went to the team with EB and Kaman, instead of the one trying to sign Andris Biedrens.

The Nuggets and their two stars couldn't win a playoff game.  Iverson hasn't been the answer for the Nuggets, Anthony hasn't stepped up to star status and they don't have and haven't had the supporting cast.  No strong counter for Brand-Kaman, or Davis. Clear advantage Clippers.

Rockets.  Don't know much about the Rockets, but I do know that McGrady-Yao has been a bit star-crossed and ineffective.  Needs further study.

On the rise Trailblazers are scary.  But Kaman-Brand should beat Oden-Aldridge, especially since Oden is yet to play his first game.  Thornton and Gordon might match up with young Blazers, while BD should be a deciding factor.  Advantage Clippers.

Adande mentions Suns twice.  Are they in first tier or second?  Don't seem to be getting better.  Shaq-Amare vs. Kaman-Brand promises excitement, though it's hard to say how Shaq is going to fare during the regular season, and he won't dominate Kaman 2.0.  Davis-Nash equally exciting.  Kind of a tossup, but Clips are right there. 

Jazz are a potent team, obviously almost impossible to beat at home, especially for the Clips.  Just as Cassell gave the Clips the confidence to close out games and get some road wins, Davis should help out here and against teams like this.  Davis can give DWilliams some trouble, neutralizing a big Jazz advantage.  Boozer-Brand is always fun, and Kaman-Okur can have different outcomes.  Other players should makeup the difference, but again, since Williams and Boozer are the two best players on the Jazz and they're neutralized by EB/BD, it's another close call, no clear advantage for the Jazz.

By now you know I'm going to say the same thing about the Hornets.  Maybe Chris Paul is so good and better than Davis, but maybe he isn't.  At least it's worth playing the game.  Somehow Chandler and West seem lesser than Kaman and Brand, probably because Chandler isn't an offensive threat, although Paul gets him a lot of easy baskets--do we think BD might get Kaman some easy baskets?  Will Kaman finish even stronger this year, or will he have Mr. Flippy nights?  Even if he does, Brand isn't going to, so there's that.  Missed you, EB.  Hornets are very good.  Clips are going to be good too.

Spurs.  I would always respect the Spurs, but we did see them get beaten by the Lakers.  Ginobili is the x factor.  The Clips now have their own x factor in BD.  They should be able to figure out a way to defend Parker, but stopping both Parker and Ginobili is going to require some defense that isn't there yet, a full 7 hours after BD has joined the team.  One thing, however, is that with a Brand back and a maturing Kaman, Duncan isn't so scary anymore. 

And finally, the Lakers.  Adande's darlings.  Let's just go position by position, shall we?  You know you want to.

C  Kaman and Bynum.  Bynum still a big question mark, coming back from slightly weird injury.  Kaman already much better in first part of last year anyway, but Bynum gaining ground fast.  A lot of very reasonable wishful thinking about Bynum by Laker fans, but he also did well against teams that didn't have a player to match up against him.  At the same time, the world seems to have forgotten just how effective Kaman 2.0 was before he hit the funk and got hurt.  Obviously, I like Kaman.  I'm sure Adande doesn't want to give Kaman extra credit, while he's wildly optimistic about Bynum.

PF  Brand and Gasol.  You see, that Gasol trade really helped the Lakers, you know?  They're thinking that matching up with Bynum-Gasol is going to get them over the top.  They're not thinking about Kaman-Brand, who match up just fine with them.  The problem for the Clippers is that it neutralizes their biggest asset.  Let's move on.  Worth noting that Gasol will play a lot of center, but that only helps Kaman-Brand, and Brand will play a lot of center minutes too.  Clippers and Lakers cancel out big advantage they might have over other teams, but possible that Clips have slight edge.

SF  Thornton and Radmanovic.  I'm going with Thornton.  Can't imagine that Adande is a big Radman fan.  It get a little more complicated with the backups, where the Clips will have to improve and hang tough, but it's worth noting that the Clipper backup, Thomas, is almost exactly equivalent to the Laker starter, Radman.  We Clipper fans know that, and we invite Pau to sit out the season so that Radman can be your starting PF for a year.   Oops--did I forget Lamar Odom?  How did that happen?  Any Clipper fan will give you Odom any day, in a heartbeat, because somehow he never shows up when you need him, like, say, against Boston?  He might do better hiding out at SF, he might not--you never know with Lamar.  I'll still take Thornton, and if I recall Laker fans weren't too happy with Lamar a couple of weeks ago.  But he wasn't playing SF.  He wasn't playing PF when he played with Brand on the Clippers, either, and Clipper fans were still a little unhappy.  So we know.

SG  Mobley/Gordon and that Kobe guy.  If Clips Kaman/Brand advantage is neutralized, can't really say that the Clips have an answer for the Kobe advantage.  That's the way it goes.  Maybe Livingston will be able to play and help out.  Believe me, the Clips will go into the season with some idea of how to defend against the star SG/SFs like Kobe, and having Kaman and Brand in the paint will help and keep them outside shooting jumpers.  We know that can work, don't we?

PG  BD and Fisher/Farmar.   And you know what, the Lakers, I gotta say, are a little thin here on slowing down the BD advantage.  There's Kobe, but there's no star PG like Paul, Williams, or Nash.  That puts the game right in BD (and Kobe's) hands, which is somehow where I think he wants it.

I could go on, but it's been a long day.  We all get to play this game at home for a long time now, in the months before it's played on the court, but somehow I think we'll see more condescension like Adande's and a failure to take the Clippers seriously.  Which is fine.     

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