Replacing Chris Paul with a "solid" player immediately means this team regresses to being out of the playoffs for the next two seasons at least. What would be the point?
What if they replace CP3 with a worse player (solid to good), but replace Barnes with a significantly better SF in the process, while filling out their bench? I mean, how can anyone watch this team with their horrendous wing depth and think what they have is enough? They are on record today saying they're going to fill out their roster this offseason with minimum salary players.
Hawes, Barnes, Crawford and Reddikk are all still on salary, so anyone expecting some big time improvement for them is buggin.
Vonleh is raw as shyt and I'm still not sure what to make of him.
Deandre and Blake + pick any variety of poison that doesn't contain a star player player/above average wing isn't going anywhere. Charlotte don't have what the Clippers need.
Paul has at least 5 good years left in him, his game is highly adaptable and he knows his strengths and weaknesses (probably even to a fault) well enough to scale down as required. Easy to forget that he's coming off by far his most efficient shooting season whilst putting up 19-10. The idea that he'll fall apart in the near future has no basis.
In the midst of all the drama we took the wrong lessons from this. A team doesn't get that close to a WCF if they're not good enough. They played like dikkless fools for a 5 quarters but they weren't beaten, they threw it away. The margins are too thin for such proclamations.
If they had closed out game 6 they probably still would have gone on to lose to the Warriors but the conversation we'd be having at that point would be drastically different and given how little can tip the balance that makes no sense.
Nobody is going to give up a star for CP3, he plays the deepest position in the league and the best bet for trading him is going for depth and young prospects. He does not have another 5 years left in him, the PG position is not going to allow a 33 year old CP3 to be a top 5 player at his position there's just too many young guys that are already really good playing that spot.
DeAndre/Blake/Kemba/MKG is a solid start, and if they were to get the Hornets pick they could fill out their team even more. You're not focusing on the reality of the situation, they're going to have 5 guys under contract that take up 90% of the cap. The Heat couldn't fill out their team because of the 3 max guys, and those 3 guys were better than the Clippers 3. So, next season will essentially be a repeat of this year because the same exact flaws they have now will be there (Perimeter defense is garbage). You say we're taking the wrong lessons, but the biggest lesson to be learned is that they still couldn't make it to the WCF with the Thunder being the walking wounded, if they are healthy next season the Clippers have NO CHANCE vs them and it's the Warriors / Thunders conference.
