Can the Los Angeles win a championship with the current roster? Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

Since the birth of sports, TV analysts, writers, commentators and local barbershops putting up trophy cases for their alma mater highschool, people have been looking at athletes or the teams they play for on paper.

In my estimation, it will never stop and probably shouldn’t. The art of predicting who will score more points than the other is one of those age-old traditions sporting events thrive on. If no one wanted to know if they were right, no one would watch.

The only thing I feel discouraged about people looking at teams on paper when it comes to the master question, “Who will win the championship?” is the little guys trying to climb to the top of the championship contender mountain from the valley of the average team are often overlooked or over-dissected.

This is the case with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Bleacher Report’s featured columnist Maxwell Ogden wrote a piece about how the Clippers could not win an NBA Championship because of Chris Paul’s unflattering postseason track record, the various injuries players on the Clippers’ roster have endured, the lack of front court depth, mediocre perimeter defense and the age of the small forwards.

Whew, I don’t think I’ve ever read something more wrong about the Clips. Do I think they’re a sure-fire NBA champ, no, but if everything went right could they be a contender and a real scare to the preseason top dogs in the Los Angeles Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder? Yes.

Paul has only been past the second round of the playoffs twice, including last season with the Clips. His postseason career is lackluster but not because of him, but because of what he was surrounded with. He didn’t have Shaquille O’Neal like Kobe Bryant, or vice-versa. He didn’t have Tim Duncan like Tony Parker did. He didn’t have a strong supporting role player like the Rockets, Lakers and Spurs in Robert Horry.

His days as a Celtic were in the twilight of his career, but before time caught up, he was one of the best big men to ever play in the NBA. Paul didn’t have him or anyone close.

Instead, he’s played on teams with a roster full of scrubs or slightly above average players. Before he came to LA, David West — a 2-time NBA All-Star — was the best player he played with. I would take Horry, Shaq and Kobes’ third option, or Duncan and Parkers’ option of Manu Ginobili over West any day.

The last time I checked, there wasn’t a list of players who can get hurt and those who can not. Injuries are never going to be known when it comes, to who it happens to, or when an injury happen. The only thing known about them is a crazy scientific name and what surgery will fix it when the injury does come.

Michael Jordan got hurt and the Bulls didn’t do so hot. Larry Bird got hurt. Magic Johnson retired from the game because of a virus. Yao Ming, Brandon Roy, Tracy McGrady, Penny Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning and the list could keep going, going and going. These things can happen to anyone and shouldn’t be a precursor to a team’s season in a season preview or a main point in an argument before the team has even played a game.

Anyone can get hurt.

The one part of Ogden’s argument I semi-agree with is the fact the Clippers’ front line isn’t overly impressive.

Blake Griffin is a star. DeAndre Jordan is a player who could blossom into something extraordinary or become compatible with Stephen Hunter (thanks Brett Roberts for the name drop the other day). Hunter was an NBA bust who had the athletic ability to become a star — similar to Jordan.

The bench of Ryan Hollins and Ronny Turiaf doesn’t excite fans or intimidate opponents. I agree with Ogden.

On the other hand, what was the last NBA Champion that relied on their front court past the main guys to win, the 2009-10 Los Angeles Lakers. The Miami Heat won because of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and a list of role players who knocked down big shots. The Dallas Mavericks were on the back of Dirk Nowitzki who leaned on Jason Terry, Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion when need-be.

LeBron James and the Miami Heat have Chris Bosh in the front court, but he wasn’t a huge factor in the NBA Finals. Without him, the Heat had no one in the front court. They won the NBA Championship. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The Lakers in the 2010 NBA Finals would never had a chance without Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, but the year before they tore it up in the playoffs without Bynum — who was injured. Even the Boston Celtics in 2007-08 didn’t have much behind Kevin Garnet in the front court.

Turiaf is a big man who is hard to move, will grab rebounds and will hustle every minute he is in the game. Hollins is tall and lengthy with the ability to block shots or disrupt shots. I’m happy with this production in the front court of two players who will play less than 15 minutes a game.

Eric Bledsoe is a good defender. Paul is a good defender. Chauncey Billups is a good defender. Individually, none of them are premier perimeter defenders but if a guy gets past them, there is the shot blocking duo of Jordan and Griffin to help defend. Defense isn’t a one-on-one game, the statistical categories says team defense for a reason.

Now we have the funniest slam on the Clippers of all, aging small forwards who can no longer play the game.

The 39-year-old body of Grant Hill is more like 32-years-old since he did miss three years with ankle injuries. Since his injuries in the mid-2000′s he’s played starter minutes in a large number of games. In the three seasons prior to last year’s lockout season, Hill played in 80-plus games. He has never ended a season scoring less than 10 points per game.

Caron Butler has never scored less than 12 points a game except for his second year in the league when he put up 9.2 ppg in the 2003-04 season with the Miami Heat.

The Los Angles Clippers have players who can do everything needed on a basketball court at an extremely high level. The team doesn’t need to solely rely on Paul and Griffin to get things done because there are other players on the team who will produce. I think I’ve said this before: the Clippers have the deepest team in the league.

I didn’t even have to mention Jamal Crawford or Lamar Odom to say how good this team really could be. There are quality players all over the roster who could make this LA team just as much as a winner or beyond that of the Lakers.

At least on paper.

Chris Paul is once again a free agent after the 2012-13 season. Will he stay with the Clippers or is he on the next one?

As the NBA off-season menu has read more often than not in the last few years, there is another superstar who could possibly be on another team because of his upcoming free agent status.

This year, such as last year, Chris Paul finds his name at the very top of the list alongside a man known as Dwight Howard. Also similar to last year, is the amount of teams who supposedly want to sign the superstars and the media hoopla surrounding the year/year and a half extravaganza.

At this point, it will never end as another year brings another superstar at the end of his contract. Honestly, I don’t mind the first couple of months because Carmelo Anthony in New York rather than Denver and LeBron James in Miami rather than Cleveland are nice landscape changes that brought intrigue to what the big cities can do with the stars and how the smaller market teams revamp their rosters after the big named players leave.

However, in this case. Paul to another team doesn’t help anything.

Paul playing his old team during the 2011-12 NBA regular season.

CP3 needed to get out of New Orleans because he was about to drown on the sinking ship. He didn’t have anyone around him who could play except for David West and he was on his way out to — now with the Indiana Pacers. In six seasons the Hornets made it to the playoffs three times and out of the first round once. The postseason success or lack thereof, was not because Paul didn’t play superstar ball.

He was the reason they won any games.

This situation is different.

When I look at the Los Angeles Clippers’ roster for the upcoming season, I have to ask myself why any point guard would want to leave. He doesn’t have to do all the scoring because he has Blake Griffin, Caron Butler, Chauncey Billups, Jamal Crawford, Grant Hill and Lamar Odom — who have all been double-digit scorers for the duration of their careers.

Not only does he have players around him who can carry the load if need be, but they make his job easier.

Griffin has proven he can grab any Paul pass out of the air and throw it down. Jamal Crawford, Billups and Butler are marksman who love catching passes for wide-open jump shots, while all of the above would accept a gift for an easy lay-up or 10.

Jamal Crawford brings something the Clippers desperately needed last season, bench scoring.

The same goes on defense. In New Orleans, Paul was the only perimeter defender who could stop guys until Trevor Ariza came along. Eric Bledsoe, Billups and Hill are known to be solid defenders.

Honestly, this sounds like a dream for a guy like Paul. Especially, if you think about the playoff picture and how the Clippers got to the second round last season without Billups, Bledsoe or a bench.

Dallas Mavericks’ beat writer for the Dallas Morning News Eddie Sefko wrote that Dallas was more appealing to Paul because LA is not his kind of city. The glitz and the glamor are passed over for a smaller city with family values, he seems to think.

But what I remember is basketball players go to the NBA to win. Whether it’s to reshape a losing franchise or further a winning legacy is here nor there, players want to win.

Paul has the opportunity to do exactly that with LA because of the team, not because he does or doesn’t like bright lights. He’s been there a year after being in New Orleans for six. I don’t know anyone who can make a move halfway across the country and adapt in 12 months.

If Paul did go to the Mavs, how would he win. Dirk Nowitzki looked like a shell of himself last season. Shawn Marion should call it quits, as well as, Vince Carter. Darren Collison wouldn’t see the court at the same time, so he would be null and void. Yi Jianlian, ha and Delonte West can’t stay out of headlines long enough to actually care about basketball.

If he wasn't tall, Yi Jianlian wouldn't be in the league.

The only two and a half players Paul would have to work with is O.J. Mayo, Chris Kaman and Nowitzki. I’m calling Dirk a half until I see him back at his true form. I’m not ashamed to say the lockout was a cause of his rough season, as long as he has a better season this time around.

I don’t know about you, but it only makes since to stay in LA. If Howard goes to Dallas and they’re able to get Paul as well, then maybe. However, they don’t have Howard, who loves to be the star of the show and is in the biggest show in the NBA.

With the Clippers, Paul has an opportunity to win, an opportunity to help change the culture of a notorious losing program and an opportunity to work with one of the best young talents in the game who wants to play the same fast paced game Paul does in Griffin.

Staying in LA –as a Clipper — should be obvious.