Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
Quote Originally Posted by GambleBotsChafedPenis View Post

think theyre trying to blow it up...they are shopping deandre and sweet lou as well...interesting that they'd jettison griffin before they moved those two...I love lou...dude can just score at will which would definitely be useful to some "contender" out there...
Sweet Lou is one of the more underrated NBA players. I grimaced when the Lakers traded him last year mid-season, with some nonsense that he didn't really fit into their long-term plans. In the meantime, Lakers continue to be an awful, dysfunctional mess. Lou wasn't going to make the team good, but he was keeping them from being quite as pathetic.

I'm surprised by the Griffin trade. Like you, I noticed the Clippers were looking a lot better after their poor early season. They weren't going to win the West under any circumstances, but they were headed for the playoffs, and as you said, might have even upset someone. They've actually done better than expected without Chris Paul.

Now there's no more Griffin and no more Paul, and Steve Ballmer has to be looking at their roster and wondering why he paid $2 million for this perpetual failteam.

Racist old Donald Sterling got outed at the perfect time, just as the Clippers were most exciting and looking like a future champion. It also didn't hurt that the Lakers were in a shame spiral, and the Clippers were the better team in LA. Since then, the Clippers have basically been the Toronto Raptors -- good in the regular season, but never quite strong enough to really be a strong contender to win the Conference. The departure of Chris Paul was pretty much the concession of that, and now Griffin's exit is the nail in that coffin.
Lou Williams trade from Lakers was a straight tank move. They needed to be in top 3 to keep their pick, and he probably would have single handedly screwed that up.

Assuming the Clippers are tanking (I really don't know) the Lakers could actually probably get Lou traded back next year if they can construct a team where they are ready to win now, which seems unlikely.