Clippers vs. Lakers: Why the Lakers Are Now the "Other Los Angeles Team"

We can say that it was only preseason, but are we at least in agreement that the Los Angeles Clippers are at a high enough level to compete with the Los Angeles Lakers?

We should be, because the Clippers aren't just competing with the Lakers, they're just as good. As much as we don't want to admit it, the Lakers losing out on Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant suffering a torn ligament in his right wrist only continues to reaffirm the theory that the Clippers are the team to beat in L.A.

As for the Lakers, they get the distinction of being known as that other team in Los Angeles. We don't like to admit this because we have such a hard time believing that it's even possible. How does a team as historically bad as the Clippers go from a 30-52 afterthought in June to a Western Conference juggernaut in only a few months?

Someone must have Donald Sterling bound and gagged in a closet deep in the catacombs of the Staples Center, because there is no way he has suddenly become this wizard of making smart moves. This is the same Clippers team that drafted Michael Olowokandi over Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki and Paul Pierce. How did they manage to pull off a move such as obtaining Chris Paul?

Mostly because they played their cards right actually. After their deal with the Lakers fell through, the Hornets became desperate to move Chris Paul. They knew that Paul was leaving in the offseason and they had to find any way possible to get him onto a different team in order to receive compensation for losing him. Rather than allowing him to walk in free agency, the Hornets needed a savior to take their franchise player.

The Clippers and Hornets had been in discussions throughout the offseason, but had come to a standstill due to the team's unwillingness to give up Eric Gordon, a third-year shooting guard who had just averaged 22 points per. Once the Clippers finally came to their senses, they gave up Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman and a conditional first-round pick so that they could obtain CP3 as their starting point guard.

While it was tough losing out on Gordon, he wasn't going to carry the same influence that Paul's going to bring. Gordon may have the potential to average 25 points per and become an All-Star, but he won't become the superstar that Paul has become and he's certainly not going to mold his team into an immediate contender in the West.

He would have also become a free agent next season. Who knows what Gordon might have felt like with another year of Blake Griffin overshadowing his accomplishments.

Bringing in Paul was the perfect move as it not only brings in a player that could replace the scoring output of Gordon, but can facilitate an offense a lot more efficiently than anyone on the Clippers could have. Everyone in the NBA saw what he did with a roster as abysmal as that of the Hornets and the Clippers wanted to have that on their team, with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan taking over the role of Tyson Chandler.

As for Aminu and Kaman? Tough losses, but Aminu didn't prove anything in his rookie season and Kaman became expendable once injuries started to pile up and Jordan took over his job. Aside from Gordon, the only thing the Clippers will miss is that conditional first-round pick that will most likely result in a pick in the top five depending on how the Minnesota Timberwolves fare.

So the Clippers got their man in Chris Paul, but did they stop there? Not at all, because a few days prior they had just signed guard/forward Caron Butler to a deal worth $24 million over the next three seasons. By replacing the likes of Ryan Gomes at small forward with a versatile player like Butler, the Clippers add another strong piece that can play three different positions, can score inside and out, and can play solid defense at the perimeter.

The only piece that was missing was the vacant shooting guard spot left opened by Eric Gordon. This move might be unorthodox, but the Clippers have decided to start Chauncey Billups as their 2-guard. Usually, Billups has been utilized as a point guard, but shooting guard will be a completely different change of direction for Chauncey, and I don't see how it could work out.

At 35 years old and standing at only 6'3", Billups is going to have a lot of trouble with the more athletic guards, as well as the countless number of shooting guards that will have a size advantage on him. Still, Billups in the starting lineup means that the Clippers have another scoring threat to rely on, as well as a solid perimeter threat on both sides of the court.

My only complaint about the Clippers aside from starting Billups at the two? Their bench is incredibly weak outside of Mo Williams and Eric Bledsoe. It is all downhill from there as the Clippers have absolutely no solid bench players who could back up Griffin and Jordan, which could serve as a problem if either of those players are dealing with an injury.

Outside of those concerns, the Clippers are in prime position to grab a hold of the Pacific Division. If you thought their bench was lacking, you have no idea until you have seen the bench of the Los Angeles Lakers.

By trading away Lamar Odom for a few draft picks and a $9 million trade exception, the team gets absolutely nothing back to compensate for the loss of their Sixth Man of the Year recipient. It was an abysmal move by the Lakers ownership who will now have to depend on the likes of Matt Barnes/Metta World Peace and Steve Blake as their top contributors off the bench.

Among others that could possibly contribute would be the athletic Josh McRoberts, a strong rebounder in Troy Murphy, and seldom used three-point specialist Jason Kapono. All three players leave little to the imagination and they won't even come close to replacing the void that is left behind by a versatile player like Odom, who is capable of playing all five positions if needed.

As for the starting lineup, it's shaky. Derek Fisher will continue to be ineffective, Andrew Bynum will still be overrated, and whoever starts at small forward between Barnes and World Peace won't contribute much outside of strong perimeter defense and the occasional perimeter make.

This brings us to the teams' two most important players in Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. This particular duo has been one of the most successful in recent memory as they made it to three consecutive NBA Finals with two championships to show for it. In the four seasons they have played together, a championship appearance has occurred.

That is, until last year when they ran into a buzzsaw known as the Dallas Mavericks. With Gasol playing Memphis Grizzlies basketball again and Bryant having to pick up the pieces, the Lakers couldn't match the versatility and balance that the Mavericks possessed and it ended up in an L.A. sweep for the first time since 1999.

Gasol averaged 11 points and seven boards per in the Lakers' two postseason series against the New Orleans Hornets and Dallas Mavericks. He was a non-factor in the Lakers series against the Mavericks failing to score more than 15 points in any game, as Phil Jackson was visibly frustrated with the way Gasol was conducting himself on the court.

Granted the Mavericks were playing unbelievable basketball throughout the playoffs, but suffering a sweep when you're the back-to-back champions is inexcusable. Gasol wasn't as aggressive as he was in previous years with the Lakers and it showed in his performance as he only shot 42 percent in the playoffs and took no more than 13 field-goal attempts in any game.

It's tough to judge Gasol for this upcoming season. Will we see the Gasol of 2008, '09 and '10? Or will we see the Gasol of last postseason? We'll just have to wait and see.

Kobe Bryant is an interesting case. He's the hardest working, most ambitious and most intense competitor in the league who has an uncanny desire to win that we haven't seen from a player since Michael Jordan. He's willing to do whatever it takes for his team to get a victory, even scoring as many as 81 points in a game where his team was down by as many as 20 points.

However, the Kobe Bryant of 2006 isn't the same Kobe Bryant that we see today. He's not averaging 35 points per game, scoring 81 points in a single game, and leading abysmal teams to the playoffs. He's surrounded by an average roster and isn't going to be able to handle the scoring load at the age of 33 and with a torn ligament in his wrist, the severity of which is still unknown.

Bryant's played 40,000 minutes in his career and he was planning on beginning to take it easy this year. Instead, the Lakers took that away from him once they gave away Odom, and the NBA assisted them in taking away Chris Paul and then indirectly causing Odom to call for a trade out of Los Angeles.

With athletic teams like Oklahoma City and the L.A. Clippers, physical teams like Memphis, and balanced teams like Dallas reigning at the top of the West, you have to wonder if the Lakers have enough in them to go through the gauntlet that is the Western Conference postseason. This isn't the East where you get a cupcake in the first round and then face some decent teams in the next two rounds; losing in the first round as a two or three seed is a real thing that happens nearly every year.

The West is too deep and too unforgiving to allow a team to just skate through to the Conference Finals. That's where you have to take Bryant and all those minutes he's played into context and wonder if he has what it takes to lead a team past all of these athletic teams, including the Clippers, to another significant championship run.

With the Clippers showcasing balance throughout their starting lineup and an elite point guard to lead the way, the Lakers no longer have what it takes and I'm not even going by what happened in the preseason. You don't see a player come out of his shell in two meaningless games that carry no merit into the regular season, so please don't get overzealous when looking at the Clippers win two preseason games.

It's going to take a few regular season meetings, and possibly a postseason matchup, to ultimately decide who is the better team in L.A., but from the looks of it on paper, the Clippers are the better team all around.