Laker Apologists

I get it. Most Laker fans don't like the Clippers. But let's not get the story twisted on how much better they would be if this or that.

Let's break it down:

1. Lakers trade Gasol and Odom for CP3.
Laker fans: This is a new era for the Lakers!
Reality: Wait, CP3 is an Alpha, Kobe is an Alpha, what happened to last Laker Alpha not named Kobe? And... do we forget that they lose Gasol too?

2. Stern blocks the trade.
Laker fans: Man, the NBA is out to get the Lakers.
Reality: Well, it could go either way but at the time, the NBA owned Charlotte, they had the right to make that decision and wanted a younger player and a draft pick for the Hornets.

3. CP3 gets traded to the Clippers for Eric Gordon.
Laker fans: See, they don't block that trade.
Reality: Was it one sided? Probably... but at least it was a younger player and Charlotte got a 1st round draft pick.

4. Lakers trade for Nash AND Dwight Howard.
Laker fans: This is the dream team, not a Big 3 but a Big FOUR!
Reality: So had the CP3 trade gone through, you would only have CP3, Kobe and Dwight... no Gasol.

5. Lakers fire Brown and hire Mike D'Antoni instead of Phil Jackson.
Laker fans: Run and gun is back!
Reality: Really? With this older team and and two bigs you really are going to go up tempo offense?

6. Lakers season with their Big Four is a bust.
Laker fans: This is the NBA's fault, if they didn't block the CP3 trade, we would have had CP3 instead of the non playing Nash and we would have a better record than the Clippers.
Reality: Who knows how well the team would have played with 2 Alpha players and no Gasol.

7. Kobe tears Achilles, Lakers don't advance past the 2nd round:
Laker fans: It's okay, Kobe will be back next season, Dwight will re-sign.
Reality: Maybe that up tempo offense wasn't so good for aging stars and bigs who like to be in the post.

8. Dwight does not sign with the Lakers, CP3 immediately signs with the Clippers as soon as the deadline passes.
Laker fans: See, if we had CP3, both he and Dwight would have signed with the Lakers.
Reality: Yeah right. Seeing how Kobe treated Dwight when trying to recruit him, not sure if that was going to happen.

9. Lakers have a dismal 13/14 season where Kobe and Nash barely play, they don't sell out the games for the first time in decades and they don't make it to the post season.
Laker fans: It's the NBA's fault for not letting the CP3 trade happen.
Reality: Back to that again?

10. Lakers only get the 7th pick in the draft, end up with Julius Randle.
Laker fans: Julius Randle is the next big thing.
Reality: So 14/15 is going to be another lottery year?

11. Donald Sterling loses ownership of the Clippers, Steve Ballmer spends $2b to buy the them
Laker fans: So what, he overpaid, the Clippers suck.
Reality: Clippers have had the better regular season record for the last 2 years that CP3 has been here and have been the Pacific Division champs in both those seasons.

Laker fans: That's because the NBA didn't let CP3 become a Laker.
Reality: I doubt CP3 would have stayed one.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the Lakers, but the Kobe era is done. The Lakers will be good again, but not for at least 2 or 3 years.

P.S. For those Laker fans complaining on why the NBA let the Love trade happen... the NBA doesn't own either the TWolves or the Cavs... it's NOT the same thing.

NBA on TNT... why the Clipper hate?

The guys on TNT are very entertaining (especially now that they added Shaq)... but I often disagree with their analysis, especially Chuck's opinion of the Clippers (although I will admit I'm biased).

Last night's comments of the Grizz/Clips Game 2 is a good example. Chuck was going on about how they can't lean on CP3 every game and that for a series he won't be making those shots all the time... without realizing that wasn't the case during Game 1. He kept going on about having a 12 point lead and then blowing it as if they were the only team that has done that. And in his "breakdown" of what was wrong with the Clips' offense, he failed to notice that the Grizzlies weren't much better.

Did he notice that Conley was scoring or responsible for all of their points near the end? That as much as the Clips weren't changing their gameplan (going with CP3), neither with the Grizz (going with Conley). Or did he note that CP3 wouldn't be taking all those shots if he didn't need to, if a man opened up, he would hit him but since the Grizz were sticking to man-to-man, CP3 took the highest percentage play, scored on his defender. He kept talking about how the Clips were standing around... but think about the offense. CP3 with the ball at the top, send a player to screen, if the defenders don't pick up properly, run the pick and roll and dump for an easy bucket, pop a shot jumper or drive... and on the drive, if he's collapsed on, kick it to the players standing on the outside for an open jumper. They really can't cut because if they do, they bring their defenders to CP3, they are staying outside for a REASON.

LA is Lob City...

Well... not really, still lots of Laker fans at yesterday's Clippers "home" game.

I've been a fan of the Clips since the Danny Manning/Charles Smith/Ron Harper era and I'm glad to see them have this type of success. The 17-game winning streak, getting over 50 wins and now the Pacific Division title (not to mention sweeping the Lakers season series).

It's going to be really hard for the Lake Show if they don't make the playoffs (which is going to be tough considering who they are playing and if Utah's opponents lay down because of the Lake-hate).

It would have been nice to see both LA teams doing well and it still baffles my mind that the Lakers are doing so bad but I'm not that torn up by it. Although I respect that Kobe is one of the most talented players in the NBA, I'm just not that much of a fan. I hope Dwight stays and when Kobe eventually retires, the Lakers are able to find the next big thing (Lebron to LA maybe?) so I can really like the Lakers again... but the Clips will always be my team.

Thanks Mr. Stern for allowing CP3 to go red/blue instead of purple/gold (not sure how he would have got along with Kobe anyways)... and bless the hops gods who gave Blake Griffin those leaps. That fast break dunk where he was going to lay it up and then turned it into a dunk was redonk.

Do nerds follow sports?

It's already known I'm an MMA fan but the NBA is actually my favorite sport. A group of friends have been doing Fantasy basketball for years... before the Internet and all these online leagues. I remember we had to compile stats from the newspaper each day and I even wrote a program to add up all the stats each week (this was before one of us started using Excel on Win 3.x/95 a few years later). I won our first year with a lineup of Shaq/Mourning (no one wanted to draft rookies) and Mookie Blaylock.

Much has changed since then and while we still have to do our stats partly manually (we compile by week rather than in total)... Fantasy basketball has been a great way to follow not just your local teams, favorite teams or favorite players... but all players. I guess because of all the numbers and stats, it's the nerd way to follow a sport.

I've long been a Clipper fan... since the days of Danny Manning, Charles Smith, Ron Harper, Ken Norman etc... so to finally see them succeeding is great. So stoked that Stern interfered and CP3 ending up in the Red/Blue than the Purple/Gold. I feel bad for Dwight over in LaLa land... and it's a bit weird that they can't put together more wins... but if the Clips can get to the Finals and win a ring... that would be awesome.

That would of course trip up LBJ's plans on multiple rings in Miami... but maybe that will spur him to move to SoCal in 2014 (fingers and toes crossed). I would become a Laker fan again if it was Dwight, Nash and LBJ and NO Kobe.