Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[KillerLeft]

This is as good a place as any to put something I was thinking about the other day...how do we compare to Denver.

Kyrie  - Murray
PJW   - Gordon
Green - KCP 

Luka/Lively - Jokic/MPJ

Denver's bench is fairly small with Jackson, Braun and Watson getting the most minutes and Nnaji/Jordan/Strawther being their main front court guys.  Compare that to Exum, THJ, DJJ, Maxi and Gafford.

I think we fairly easily win the bench contest.  I suspect most would hand them the advantage regarding Gordon/KCP over Green/PJW (though the similarities here are interesting).  Green probably won't win a DPOY award, but he's also not 31 (and KCP might not match Green's TS% or 3% for a series).  We can probably argue for days about Kyrie/Murray and the combo's involving Luka/Lively and Jokic/MPJ (since our stars play different positions, I combined them with the opposite at that position).

I think it is important to note that the comparison isn't really about Luka vs Jokic or Green vs KCP.  It is really about what the other team can do to neutralize the other.  Is Dallas better equipped to stop Jokic with Lively and Gafford and Maxi or is Denver better equipped to neutralize Luka with Gordon (and who?).  The cross matches matter too.  Green and KCP won't be guarding each other.  Green (or Exum or DJJ) will largely get Murray and KCP will largely get Kyrie.  Who will the other team target for switches (probably Kyrie and Murray) and do their teams have the schemes to protect the disadvantage gained in such a switch.

When you start to look at it as team against team rather than "PJW sucks and he isn't nearly as good as Gordon" type commentary, I start to feel we aren't obviously doomed against Denver.  If everyone was 100% healthy, continuity and experience might win out.  But, I think it is close enough that a bump or bruise here or there might determine a series between these two.

Looking at the rest of the top teams in the West, I'm much less worried about Minnesota and OKC.  We can vary our lineups more than either and mitigate their strengths.  I'd probably want to avoid LAC if given the choice.  I'm just not sure how we stop everything they can throw at us if they are fully healthy.  But they certainly have holes we could take advantage of.

I agree. An idealized version of the Clippers is still the scariest hurdle to jump, kind of like it has been for years. The good thing is that there is no telling what shape the clippers will be in when the time comes.