Terry: Durant's move takes pressure off Clippers, West teams

The 2016-17 NBA season hasn't even gotten underway, yet many NBA fans and analysts have already pegged the Golden State Warriors - who won 73 games last year and added four-time scoring champion Kevin Durant - as the champions for the second time in three years.

Veteran guard Jason Terry, who hopes to join a contender as an unrestricted free agent, doesn't think we should crown the Bay Area powerhouse just yet.

"The (Los Angeles) Clippers can easily win 60-plus games and be the No. 1 or 2 seed and win the NBA championship," Terry said Tuesday on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

"The best thing that could have happened to the Clippers and the rest of the Western Conference is Kevin Durant going to Golden State. There's no pressure on those teams."

The Clippers finished 20 games behind the Warriors last season with a 53-29 record - a respectable mark considering five-time All-Star Blake Griffin made just 35 appearances due to a partially torn left quad, broken right hand, and four-game suspension for punching the team's equipment manager.

So what has "The Jet" so optimistic about the Clippers' chances in the West?

"The Clippers will never quite be that dark horse because of those big three they have with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan," Terry said. "But they won't be as high on the radar as Golden State, as San Antonio when we get ready to kick this thing off. All the attention is going to be on Kevin Durant."

Terry added, "That's where the attention is going to be at, that's where the focus is at. That's what's going to allow the Clippers to fly under the radar, which they need to be."

Advancing to the Finals would be quite the feather in the Clippers' cap, as they've never gotten past the second round in franchise history. With Golden State featuring a four-man core of Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, and the San Antonio Spurs always in the fold for the Larry O'Brien trophy, getting over that hurdle will be easier said than done.

- With h/t to NBC Sports Bay Area