Obviously OKC is gonna be an awesome watch. So is Minnesota’s defense. If they manage to somehow move on from KAT and add a better defender, I’d watch them for the defense alone.

Portland – can’t see them win 26 games unless there’s massive steps forward from in particular Scoot and maybe Sharpe as well. They just don’t have enough games vs the Nets and Pistons to get there. Wouldn’t be shocked to see their win total at something like 18

I don’t really know what the Philly fan view of former Clipper THarris was

As far as I can tell, they essentially blame Tobias (along w/ Embiid’s injury woes) for their playoff failures the last couple of seasons because he was so bad for them that they couldn’t spin his contract into any more useful players. They are gonna turn on George the first time he has a string of 3 consecutive games where he just floats and doesn’t contribute much, and then turn on him even harder when he inevitably doesn’t live up to expectations yet again in the postseason.

Any note–Mr. Philadelphia–on how Philly fans ended up feeling about former Clipper Tobias Harris? Can’t be good, right? Does the THarris comparison and trajectory for PG there make sense? I think PG does better on the defensive end with his occasional steals and general mobility, though his false claim of “guarding the best player on the other team every night” is close to being laughable, and the lazy turnovers can offset his defensive opportunism. My sense of THarris–who I liked a lot as a Clipper, but I was happy to see them forego paying him the max (another PG similarity)–is that he hit shots and played well in bursts, but disappeared and had empty stretches all too often, and he didn’t show up or take a bigger load in critical situations (Embiid out, for instance). The similarity becomes more compelling as I think about it.

Is anybody in Philly saying “the Sixers just signed their Tobias Harris replacement, after letting him walk”? Probably not–seems like there’s so much “Sixers won free agency” talk going on (and that’s not true–OKC did, no?), with nobody still kicking the tires on PG’s actual track record.

One way to look at it is that the Clippers have two different ways to go, defense vs. offense. My guess is that they’ll tilt towards defense, and the critical and amazing addition of JVan Gundy to the inner circle and sideline will be a significant factor in the team’s fortunes. Starting DJJ and TMann, with Kris Dunn as Harden’s backup and Nic Batum in the mix, is a recipe for a top tier defense. Mo Bamba’s rim protection is even an upgrade over Plumlee and Theis, all his question marks notwithstanding. But as you say, where the eff do the buckets come from with that rotation?

The other side of the coin is the Offense Approach. I like this lineup, and would take it for a spin just to see if it’s viable–dare other teams to stop it. Everybody is so scared to start Norm, saying that a Harden-Powell backcourt is defensively untenable. That might turn out to be true, but it would be nice to see how other teams react and defend against it, and what the JVG-influenced defense actually looks like with Norm as a marquee piece. He certainly could be a 20ppg scorer, replacing a lot of the PG drop off. (I expect Zu, playing with Harden, to add points as well.).

The other piece of the Offense Approach would be, as you mention, putting Bones in the rotation. Starting Norm would allow Kris Dunn and Bones to be a bench duo. Sliding Dunn over and making Bones the backup PG, rather than 3rd string with no path towards minutes, would be a boost. It was upsetting that Westbrook took away all the opportunities for Bones last year, taking him away as an option when Westbrook was a playoff disaster. Buried so deeply, it was no surprise that Bones didn’t react well (tho it should be added that he didn’t shine in the brief stretch where Westbrook was hurt). The question is how far gone he is in the doghouse, and if there’s any way out for him. I’m leaving aside Porter, as I don’t know him at all.

Starting Norm and putting Bones in the rotation seems very unlikely, but it’s an option.