Clippers: Three bold expectations for the 2017-18 season
By Jason Reed
3. The Clippers will take home the sixth seed and reach the Western Conference Finals
A lot of people have been writing off the Clippers after the team traded Chris Paul. Paul is easily a top five, if not top three, point guard in the NBA and his absence would hurt any team. Heck, some even regard the Lakers as the better LA team now. While we did debunk that theory, the fact of the matter still is the Clippers are a playoff team.
Now, they may not be as high of a seed as they were with Paul, but the competition in the West has only gotten tougher. The Thunder, Timberwolves, and Rockets all got better. With those three, the Warriors and Spurs will likely also finish ahead of the Clippers.
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That leaves them in the sixth seed, which is exactly where the team needs to be to succeed. In the opening round, the team will face the third seed, which will be a toss-up between the Thunder and the Timberwolves. Beverley and Griffin could lock down Westbrook and Paul George, while the Timberwolves inexperience would haunt them.
That would lead the team to square off against the second or seventh seed, either the Rockets or a team like the Pelicans. If it is the seventh seed, the Clippers should be able to win on talent alone.
If it is the Rockets, Los Angeles could productively manage the game and expose the ball dominance of both Paul and Harden, locking them down and creating tension between the two egos.
While the team is no match for the Golden State Warriors, this does put them into the Western Conference Finals. This does all bank on Griffin becoming an MVP caliber player, but Los Angeles is not that much worse without Paul. Beverley and Teodosic are a great tandem at the point and LA got better at both shooting guard and small forward.
Next: Don't rule LeBron out for the Clippers
I would not count the Los Angeles Clippers out of surprising a lot of people next season. The talent is certainly there and maybe, just maybe, it was a good thing that Chris Paul left.