Lob City Mailbag: June 9

The Donald Sterling situation continues to play out even into the NBA Finals. The Clippers were done playing weeks ago, but that just means it’s time to talk about the offseason and speculate on their future. For future mailbags, send questions by email to LobCityBlog@gmail.com or via Twitter to @lob_city_blog.

 

Is there any scenario where the Clippers should consider trading Blake Griffin or Chris Paul? – Joe B.

Chris Paul is the top point guard in the NBA. Blake Griffin finished third in MVP voting this season and is just 25 years old. The Clippers are serious championship contenders as is, and few players in the league would be an upgrade over either player.

Also, the Clippers have a very solid center in DeAndre Jordan, and no NBA center is dominant enough to justify trading Griffin or Paul. They could upgrade at shooting guard, but J.J. Redick is a solid player and shooting guard is the NBA’s weakest position. Realistically, small forward is the only position where the Clippers could make a major improvement.

That happens to be the position the two top NBA players play.

Lob City Mailbag: Saturday, May 31

Shelly Sterling has agreed to sell the Clippers, Donald Sterling is going to court and the San Antonio Spurs look like they would have been very vulnerable to a healthy Clippers team. With so much happening, it’s time for the second edition of the Lob City Mailbag. All questions are from real people and are copied and pasted as is. Send in questions for future mailbags by email to LobCityBlog@gmail.com or @lob_city_blog on Twitter.

 

How much longer does this drag out? Will Cuban just shut up? – Anthony B.

By it, I assume you mean anything related to Donald Sterling. If that’s the case, then the answer is: less time than expected. Shelly Sterling approving sale of the team before the June 4 hearing is a borderline miracle. With that out of the way, we’re essentially left with just Donald Sterling’s $1 billion lawsuit against the NBA. I do not know how long that suit will last, but the NBA is confident that it is baseless because the sale was voluntary:

“There was no ‘forced sale’ of his team by the NBA — which means his antitrust and conversion claims are completely invalid,” NBA Executive Vice President and General Counsel Rick Buchanan told ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell. “Since it was his wife Shelly Sterling, and not the NBA, that has entered into an agreement to sell the Clippers, Mr. Sterling is complaining about a set of facts that doesn’t even exist.”

As for Cuban, it seems that the only thing that will keep him quiet, for better or worse, is a Dallas Mavericks title run.

Lob City Mailbag: Monday, May 19

The Clippers’ season ended in disappointing and controversial fashion in the second round against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now it’s time to look back at the season that was and look forward to the potential of 2014-15. This is the inaugural edition of the Lob City Mail Bag, where I will answer all your questions about the Clippers.

 

It seems to me that Griffin and Paul are lacking another star player on their roster and cannot win the league by themselves. Who do you think the Clippers need to sign in order to compete with the Spurs or the Thunder? Do you think Griffin can win the MVP one season? – James R. 

Who would you add to the Clippers in order for them to take the next step in the Western Conference? – Christian J.

Griffin and Paul are themselves stars, arguably the best at their respective positions, and having two of the best 10 players in the NBA is enough to win a championship. However, only one team can win a championship in a given season and teams like the Heat and Thunder have their own superstar duos. If a couple of plays go differently, we could have been asking the same questions about Durant and Westbrook.

That being said, adding another superstar will be nearly impossible with the lack of assets on the roster beyond Griffin and Paul. I wrote about the possible addition of a player like Luol Deng, a former All-Star who would add defensive talent on the wing. A guy like that could help slow Durant and add a change of pace on the wing to offensive-oriented players like J.J. Redick and Jamal Crawford.