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“SPORTS & CHAOS”
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Quite a 48-hours in sports as we search for answers to our questions about the NBA team not named the Lakers in Los Angeles..

CLIPPERS….How do you look at what they did?  The acquisition of veteran guard James Harden, his talents (24PPG), his track record of failures in Houston-Philadelphia-Brooklyn.

Do you gain alot by adding his on-ball skills to a team that has two other stars that also need the ball, in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George?

Did you really give up anything in the trade, four players who were guys off the bench, or 1-first round pick way off in the future and the 2-second round picks who will likely be cut from rosters?

Toxic talent or just a situation that was out of control?

Tough call really.  There is no doubt Harden can still ‘ball’, but it is an issue because the offense seems to stop when he has the ball in his hand.  And last I checked the NBA says you can have just 1-ball on the court at a time.

Will he be a scorer first, a distributor second?  Will he dominate possessions making Kawhi and PG after thoughts in the game plan?

Did the Clippers trade away all their backup bigs who contributed in a wide variety of ways, what you got on different nights from Marcus Morris’ tough grit, to Nick Batum’s 3 point shots, to the upside of KJ Martin’s future as a big, to the explosiveness we saw on occasion from Robert Covington?

I don’t care about the number 1-pick way down road.  Those number one’s have become bargaining chips in trades more times than not.

And I don’t care Harden is a walk free agent, in the final year of a 35M-contract, for owner Steve Ballmer is worth 88M in wealth, so he can buy the league if he wants.

But the real issue is  team chemistry, knowing how Harden created issues, poisoned things with the Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets.

I don’t believe dalmation dogs can change their spots, and I don’t think Harden coming home to Los Angeles will make much of a difference.  And that has to be a big issue for Coach Tyronne Lue.  Can or will Harden run what needs to be run on the court with the other two stars?

Of course if injuries strike down Leonard-George again, for a fourth year in a row, then you’d be glad to have Harden’s big time scoring abilities.

This will be a chemistry experiment for sure.  How he plays, how he fits, if his track record is left behind.  Is he a good teammate for 15-minutes then reverts to his old self?  Will it become a struggle between he-Kawhi-PG once we get into the full season?

Explosion on the court, or implosion on the team?  Might be a chaotic season for the Clippers if it is not a championship season.

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