“Lakers-Clippers–What To Do:

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The offseason has arrived quickly, for both the Lakers and Clippers for different reasons.  The championship hopes of Jeannie Buss and Steve Ballmer, owners of the teams in LA,have been sidetracked by a real feel of  letdown.

Age has taken a toll on the Lakers.  They have 2-superstars and a rotating cast of characters around Anthony Davis and LeBron James.

Complicating their problems, they have no first round draft picks and no cap space. They have an unsigned free agent DeAngelo Russell, he of hot and cold play.  Yes Austin Reaves and Rui Hachamura took huge steps forward scoring this past season.

But the Lakers bench has shown no growth, no consistency.

It’s a revolving door of guys off the bench , none of whom have shown an ability to upgrade the team.

GM-Rob Pelinka has tried to build thru a wide variety of players.  He traded Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram away in deals.  Then they rented vets like Carmelo Anthony.  That was followed by the Russell Westbrook deal.  And then the deals at the trade deadline.  Nothing has worked.

The Lakers have found no formula  to find the right parts to put around King James and AD.

The Clippers plight has been about injuries.  Remember how their title aspirations fell to the floor wiht injuries to Chris Pal and Blake Griffin.

Now it’s happened again, to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.  Leonard has had 3-different injuries to his right knee, forcing him to miss a year in San Antonio and then another season with the Clippers, along with additional missed time for other aches and pains.

George has had bad luck with injuries,nothing season ending, but enough that it pock marks his ability to play a full schedule.

A mixed bag of young and old guys off the bench kept the Clippers in the playoff race, but cannot trust Kawhi and PG will ever be the same and in the lineup together going forward for extended periods of the schedule.

The Clippers are a mess with the salary cap and facing roster cuts, buyouts or releases this off season because they are so far over the cap.

It will be an interesting summer in LA.  The Lakers have to find more players and the Clippers have to find their health

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