Among those still having a hard time being happy on perhaps the greatest day in Clippers franchise history, a lot is being made of the "hole" that the trade of Eric Gordon has created at the shooting-guard spot. Obviously, the hole isn't really that big a hole, since it will be filled by Chauncey Billups, who played the spot early in his career and, more recently, on America's FIBA World Championship team in 2010. But what if, instead, we were forced to play Randy Foye at that spot. That would put us right back in the lottery, right?

Um ... no. That's the beauty of having 2 superstars on your roster -- the best PG/PF tandem since John Stockton and Karl Malone. That duo made 3 straight Western Conference finals and 2 straight NBA finals. And starting alongside them at the height of their powers, averaging 30+ minutes a game for six straight seasons, was none other than Bryon Russell, whose career PER of 12.6 is half a point lower than Randy Foye's (13.1).

Bottom line: Having 2 elite players can cover a multitude of sins. And having a starting lineup of Paul/Billups/Butler/Griffin/Jordan should be enough to take us very far this year, health williing.