By that I mean, like we saw with the Lob City Clips, it’s easy to call someone a contender, but in most cases, unless you’re like a top 3 team in the league, the chances of actually winning a title is pretty slim. I still think it’s fair to ask if Kawhi and PG make the Clippers better than like the Warriors, Nets, and Bucks. I think it’s close, but not sure they’d be the betting favorite over any of those teams.

Still feels like this team needs another star or borderline star to be like a top 2 betting favorite for a title.

Hartenstein, I actually think at this point, we’re probably overestimating his value around the league. I mean he’s been great, but he played nearly as well last season (albeit, in limited minutes) and it went nearly unnoticed, where he was available for a non-guaranteed deal. The Clips will have another tax payer MLE which would be a pretty decent raise. At least right now, if for some reason the NBA season ended today, I think they could retain him. If he keeps playing big minutes the 2nd half of the season and in the playoffs and keeps performing the same, I could see it getting difficult to retain him, but I still think the value around the league for non-stretch, “hustle” centers, is a little limited.

The big question will be regarding roster spots, and really how good they look at the end of the season. I mean they already have 12 guys under contract next year, maybe 11 if Bled doesn’t get kept for his guaranteed portion. Assuming you can retain Batum, Hartenstein, and Coffey brings you up to 14. If Hart gets the full MLE, means you might want to bring back Bled as an overpaid player, but probably better than a minimum deal point guard you’d be stuck with if you let him walk. Basically, if it plays out perfectly, you’re running it back, so either you hope the roster as constructed can compete for a title, or they have to hope there is a way they can improve the roster on the trade market, with almost no future assets available for trade. but I think we’re getting way ahead of ourselves.