Chris Paul Trade: The Clippers Overtake the Lakers as LA's Best Team

Basketball in Los Angeles is about to change forever. For the first time since Los Angeles became a two-team town in 1984, the Lakers are not going to be the top team.

Actually, it's not even going to be close. 

ESPN's Marc Stein is reporting via Twitter that the Clippers and Hornets have agreed in principle on a trade that would send Paul to the Clippers.

The better team in Los Angeles belongs to the Clippers. Really—it's not close. 

Let's start with the point guard-center combination of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. The two have skills that work perfectly with each other.

With Paul 26 and Griffin 22, this is a duo that we might as well get used to.

But it's not just that.

The Clippers have a full team of talent. They don't really have a weak link on the roster, with a rotation of about eight or nine guys who can match any team in the league. 

The Lakers don't have that. The Lakers have Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and an injury-prone Andrew Bynum to build around. That sounds like a decent foundation, but it's highly problematic. 

Bryant is 33, Gasol is 31 and Bynum has never been able to stay healthy for a full season.

Remember, this was a team that got swept out of the playoffs a season ago. The big men were not tough enough.

J.J. Barea dominated the series from the point, and the Lakers didn't have the depth needed to win in the playoffs. 

Now, the big men are the same, the point guard position is still a gigantic question mark and the team has thinned out. To top it all off, Lamar Odom was traded to the very team that swept the Lakers. 

The Clippers have a young foundation, but they are already better than the Lakers. If the two teams played a series right now, the Clippers would win. 

If they played a series in two years, the Clippers would still win. Actually, it would be a blowout-filled sweep. 

The Lakers are now the other team in Los Angeles—from a buzz standpoint, from a youth standpoint and from a talent standpoint. 

It's that way now and it will be for a long time. Get used to it. Los Angeles is a Clippers town.

Follow @mdixon1985