During TNT’s Monday night “Players Only” broadcast, NBA greats Isiah Thomas, Chris Webber, Chris Bosh, and Baron Davis discussed the Clippers current circumstances. Isiah Thomas held back nothing.
A link to a video of the broadcast is below.
Isiah Thomas: ‘Clippers’ Championship Window Has Closed’
Disclaimer : This response is not written in disrespect towards Isiah Thomas or his opinions. His illustrious career and knowledge of the game has earned him the right to analyze our team critically, and we appreciate his insight. However, his evaluation deserves a response from an opposing analyst.
The Clippers segment of the broadcast opens with the players looking at the Clippers’ standing in the Western conference. Baron Davis states that the Clippers need to start “jelling” now before the playoffs start, and Isiah Thomas replies with the following statement.
"“A couple of years ago, that opportunity was there. I think that window of opportunity has closed and I think it may be shut forever in terms of a championship.”"
He then corrected himself slightly by reassuring us that “yeah of course they will make the playoffs…” (paraphrased). Somehow our window of opportunity is already closed in his eyes, even when this season’s playoffs have not even started yet. His statement sure is confusing in this aspect. Actually, his statement is a straight contradiction. How? Well, he states that our window of opportunity is closed, yet he admits that we will be climbing through that window of opportunity to compete for a championship in just a few weeks along with seven other Western conference teams. Someone really needs to check out what kind of windows Isiah Thomas has been using, because he is clearly not keen on how they work.
As if the comment on our apparently closed window was not illogical enough, Isiah Thomas went on to seemingly blame it on Chris Paul. Check out his explanation.
"“The point guard position has become the most dominant position in the game today. When you look at west, you’re looking at Curry, Westbrook and Harden and they’re not going anywhere soon..When you look at the Clippers right now, Paul was the best point guard in the NBA for a lot of years. Now he’s a solid player, he gets great numbers, but at the end of the day he can’t elevate his game the same way those three can right now.”"
Well that’s a doozy. We assume here that by “Chris Paul not being able to elevate his game”, Isiah Thomas means that he cannot go out and get 40 points on any given night like the other guards mentioned. He fails to recognize that Chris Paul has never been referred to popularly as a “ball-hog”, while the rest of the players mentioned are great examples of that term. Curry takes 18 shots per game, Westbrook nearly 24, and Harden almost 19. Chris Paul takes a quiet 12.7, and has a higher field goal percentage than each member of the NBA ball-hog club.
Rather than force shots, Chris Paul works to get his teammates going, always. We all know he is the best playmaker in the league, but it is during criticism such as Isiah Thomas’ comparison to these other guards that people mistake Chris Paul needing to be a scorer. He is a completely different type of player than those other guys, and he is a lost breed in the modern NBA.
We are not the only source to examine Isiah Thomas’ statements, Stephen A. Smith spazzed on him about his statements on ESPN’s First Take shortly after. A link to the full video is below.
Stephen A. Smith chose to bring Isiah Thomas’ career into the mix, and blame Blake Griffin rather than Chris Paul, which we will not touch on in this article. We agree with the idea that you cannot blame any short runs in the playoffs from the Clippers on Chris Paul. In the end, he is the reason that we have been able to go to the playoffs every season since him coming to LA.
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