After three games, Harden is even more tired! Compared with last season, how far behind is the Clippers?

The NBA regular season has begun for a period of time, and the competition between the teams has begun to take shape. There are some surprising teams among them. The Rockets finally stopped their losing streak against the Nets, and the Spurs led by Bunyama are making great progress. However, the Clippers, which fans have high hopes for, do not seem to have an overly impressive performance. To be honest, the Clippers' opponents at the beginning were not too strong, and the schedule was relatively easy. Although they had a record of 2 wins and 1 loss, from the perspective of the process, the Clippers' performance was still disappointing. Although they obviously retained the main lineup from last season and made some reinforcements, why did the Clippers not perform as well as last season? Let’s get into today’s topic together.

Defects in the lineup: As we all know, the lineup the Clippers relied on last season was Harden and Zubac's one-and-five pick-and-roll plus Powell's fire support from the outside. With the support of this lineup, the Clippers accomplished the feat of reaching the playoffs without Leonard, but the lineup presented this season is completely different.

In order to strengthen the shortcomings of the 4th position, the Clippers used Powell as the core of the transaction in exchange for Collins. On the surface, the Clippers' lineup is more reasonable, but Director Lu does not seem to play to the Clippers' advantages. The core of the one-five pick-and-roll is not pure. Harden and Zubac need to be involved on the outside at the same time, but with Powell's departure, it seems that no one has filled this vacancy. During the offseason, many people thought that Bill could occupy this position. Looking at it now, the gap between Bill's data and Powell's is still quite big.

Under such circumstances, Director Lu did not hesitate to use Paul or Bogdan to match Harden to make up for the shortcomings in space. However, the aging Paul seems to have lost the ability he had in the past. Even Bogdan, the great killer in the world arena, also handed over disappointing data. The most ridiculous thing is that the Clippers can obviously put Collins in the fourth position to share the pressure of Zubac and Leonard, but even when Collins performs efficiently, Director Lu still keeps his playing time below 30 minutes. Instead, the 36-year-old Harden played 37 minutes. Don't forget, Collins is one of the few young people on the Clippers.

Of course, this is only the beginning of the season, and it may be understandable that Director Lu is debugging the Clippers' lineup, but from a fan's point of view, the position that the Clippers need most now is the No. 2 position. If Bill cannot produce data, everyone will be very tired. This lineup is not as good as the Clippers last season. As long as Bill can maintain a stable output of about 15 points, the Clippers' lineup will still be a strong team in the league. Last season, the Clippers lost Powell and got Collins, but they did not realize his value. This is the responsibility of the coach. But no matter how you look at it, the most worrying thing about the Clippers right now is actually Bill's condition.

It is only the beginning of the season, and the Clippers still have the opportunity to make adjustments. Leaving aside the starting players, the Clippers' lineup on the bench is also luxurious enough. I hope that the Clippers can complete the run-in in a short time and truly allow Harden to reduce the burden, otherwise the offseason reinforcements will really be meaningless.

Where do you think the Clippers’ problems lie? Welcome to leave a message for discussion.