Skip Bayless has been backing the Los Angeles Clippers to be NBA finalists all season long. The Rajon Rondo trade has given him new ammo.
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The Clippers are one team who have been heavily tipped to take on the Lakers at some point in this year’s playoffs. Most people consider them the second-best playoff team in the Conference at the moment.
On paper, they looked like a great unit, but the absence of a true point guard has clearly held them back. They seem to have made an attempt to rectify this with the Rondo trade. Losing Lou Williams will be tough on the scoring end, but the Clippers have the personnel to replace his buckets.
However, whether this move takes them above the Lakers is a whole different issue altogether. We have to wait and see Rondo’s impact in the Clippers’ final 25-odd games of the season.
But Skip Bayless hardly ever bases his arguments on rational takes, so this comes as no surprise.
Skip Bayless coronates the Clippers as champions of the West after Rajon Rondo trade
On the face of it, Skip’s argument is quite airtight. He rightly points to Rondo’s impact on the Lakers’ playoff fortunes in the bubble last year:
“Rajon Rondo was the catalyst for the Lakers in the bubble. He was the one that made them fly. Every time I looked at him, he’s making a crucial 3-pointer, a steal, a pass, or just some play that no one else can make.”
“The Clippers lack a leader. Kawhi was the best player in San Antonio and Toronto, but he wasn’t the leader. Paul George is a complementary star, he can never be THAT guy. But Rondo? He stood up to Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen as a youngster.”
