The Core of the LA Clippers is not the Core of a Champion

This here has the core of a champion

I have heard multiple reports lately that Doc Rivers wants to keep the core of the LA Clippers together for one more year to give his team one more shot at a title. He says his "core", but he really means Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. The only other players that are even decent on that team anymore are JJ Redick and Jamal Crawford, but they don't really make up the "core" that Rivers is talking about. I think he should keep them together too because I think it will be another catastrophic failure by the Clippers. They will not get out of the second round, hell they'd be hard pressed to even make the playoffs, if he keeps this group together.

Being the Clippers hater that I am, that's why I think he should keep it together. Let's break it down even further as to why a hater like me would love this, but a Clippers fan might not be so happy. First off, there is Chris Paul. Chris Paul is a great point guard, perhaps one of the greatest of all time. Now, I still think he is incredibly dirty and very whiny, but he is a damn good basketball player. But, he will also be turning 32 next season and he has been in the league for over a decade now. He has gotten very lucky with injuries, up until this last playoff run, and has logged a ton of minutes. He continues to play at a very high level, but father time is undefeated. The problem with a point guard, I heard and totally agree with Howard Beck who said this, that they don't slowly break down, they just all of the sudden break down. Look at a guy like Ty Lawson. Two years ago he was the hottest commodity on the free market. Everybody wanted him. Then, he went to Houston and completely fell off a cliff. He was dumped by the Rockets, signed with Indiana and barely played. He was one of the top players just two short years ago, now, he'll be lucky if he gets signed by any NBA team this offseason. I could see something very similar happen to Chris Paul. I don't think his fall off will be as big as Lawson's was, but I still see him falling out of the top players in the NBA. He will still be a good point guard, but he won't be as dominant as he has been. He is getting older and the older he gets, the more whiny and the more dirty he becomes. He's also a HUGE headache as a teammate. I don't think anyone on the Clippers legitimately likes playing basketball with Chris Paul. It's never his fault and no one plays to his personal expectations. His time is quickly coming to an end.

Then, we have Blake Griffin. You remember him right? He's the guy that repeatedly punched a staff member until he broke his hand. He also has a very bad quad problem that he is dealing with. He also seems to have lost some of his explosiveness. He doesn't seem to trust the Clippers training staff. He, much like the majority of the roster, doesn't seem to enjoy playing basketball with Chris Paul. He also cannot be on the court in crucial moments with DeAndre Jordan, they don't coexist well at all. He's also extremely overrated. Every analyst or writer I hear or read seems to think he is a top five player in the NBA and that he is some sort of superior play maker. I don't see it. He's an okay passer, but he is the definition of a "ball stopper" on offense. He gets it in the high or low post and he only looks for his shot, unless he can make a pass that will make the ESPN top ten highlight that night. He is a ball hog that no one talks about. His mid range jumper is also very mediocre and looks so gross. Griffin is not the great player that people make him out to be. He's good, but he is losing a step and he is a terrible teammate. I know I'd hate to play with him and I think a lot of other players feel the same. He is also a deranged man child for what he did to that staff member. Let us not forget how horrendous and heinous that whole situation was. He punched someone so much, in the face, that he broke his own hand. That is insane and wrong on so many levels. I truly do not like Blake Griffin the person or the player. I hope his personal hype train is over.

Then we have DeAndre Jordan. This is the same guy that welched on a deal with Dallas because he wanted to return to the Clippers. He had the chance to be the man in Dallas, I know they still have Dirk and Dirk is still great, but it was going to be Jordan's team. They were going to build around him. But, after this first round of the playoffs, I'd be breathing a sigh of relief if I were Dallas that we didn't sign him. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin both went down with playoff ending injuries, so the team was Jordan's. They didn't win another game in the series. The Clippers, with Jordan being the focal point, looked as bad as the Grizzlies. They didn't know where to go, what plays to run or, if they ran a play, they couldn't finish it off. DeAndre Jordan may be one of the most over hyped and over paid players in the league. I also don't buy the whole defensive stopper and rebounding machine thing. He is very mediocre on defense, barely getting one block a game, and yes, he has high rebounding numbers, but it's all long rebounds and nothing really on the offensive boards. I much rather have a guy like Hassan Whiteside or Bismarck Biyombo than DeAndre Jordan. Those guys play formidable defense and they are ferocious rebounders. I don't care about all the alley oops, it doesn't matter when you get bounced in the first or second round of the playoffs every year how great the oops look, you are still a sub par franchise. DeAndre Jordan got his chance to shut people like me up, the non believers, when Griffin and Paul went down, but he did the opposite. He gave up and looked disinterested in the last two games against the Trailblazers. Mason Plumlee and Moe Harkless and Ed Davis looked so much better than Deandre Jordan did.

Doc Rivers also wants to keep the bench players I mentioned, they are not that great. Sure, JJ Redick is a good shooter, but when he has to guard a good player, he gets eaten alive. I also feel like he'd rather get more tattoos and style his hair real nice than work on his game. He's also old in basketball terms. Jamal Crawford is only good for instant offense off the bench. He is a liability on defense and he is not a good ball handler. Austin Rivers is a joke of an NBA player. Cole Aldrich is inexplicably still under contract and still plays decent minutes and he is garbage. Paul Pierce needs to retire. I like Pierce a lot, but he has lost way more than just one step and he cannot score like he used to. His time has most assuredly passed. Jeff Green is so inconsistent and he has been that way his whole career. I don't think anything is going to change by now, he is the player he is going to be for the rest of his NBA career. Besides these guys, who cares who else is on the roster.

This team needs to be blown up, but the Clipper hater in me would love to see Doc Rivers try and make it work for one more year. They won't beat the Warriors, the Spurs or the Thunder, if Durant resigns. They will, at best, be the fourth seed once again in the West with this same team. For my sake, do it Rivers, bring this team back so I can watch and laugh as you fail to get out of the second round. But, for the NBA's sake and the sake of my non hater side, blow it up and start over. The Clippers have gone as far as they can with this team. They are not, and never will be, championship caliber with this roster.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His love of the game is stronger than the will to watch the Clippers fail, again. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.