OFFICIAL LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS 2024-2025 SEASON THREAD

[lawdog1]

Let me ask you this Erupt, others feel free to chime in...

I think JJ is the most important player on our team offensively. When he's on our offense looks like one of the top 3 best in the league. When he's off, we barely score 90 points. His movement and gravity is invaluable.

However, come playoff time he consistently comes up short. This is starting to lead me to believe that the way our team is constructed, we depend so much on JJ's movement and shot making that it kills us in the postseason because he isn't big enough, or flat out good enough to warrant that amount of responsibility. He's not Klay Thompson and while he is a good positional defender, having him guard CJ McCullum like last night, or Harden last season is not ideal. He would be guarding Klay Thompson and / Or Harrison barnes next rd if we were to get there, which is a matchup problem in it of itself.

The thinking here is that by moving JJ to the bench or trading him for some pieces, we could get someone in return who's a better defender / athlete in that position. He obviously wouldn't be as good of a shooter as redick but that's kind of null and void because he can't generate nearly the clean amount of looks come playoff time.

In a nutshell, he's just not big or good enough to warrant the amount of responsibility that the Clippers offense places upon him and that's why he comes up short every postseason because he has to go up against wings with size and length which really disrupts what he and the clips do offensively. 

I see what you're saying, but I don't think the problem is as much with JJ himself as how they use him. The do rely too much on him. Particularly early in games, the team treats him like the fist option when he should really be the 3rd or 4th.

I wouldn't be opposed to shopping him necessarily, but I think he is good enough, including on defense, to be the starting 2 on a team that can compete for a championship. But that's with a health Blake and CP being the primary options on offense and JJ getting more complementary open looks.

 

[shoeking2102]

I see what you're saying, but I don't think the problem is as much with JJ himself as how they use him. The do rely too much on him. Particularly early in games, the team treats him like the fist option when he should really be the 3rd or 4th.

I wouldn't be opposed to shopping him necessarily, but I think he is good enough, including on defense, to be the starting 2 on a team that can compete for a championship. But that's with a health Blake and CP being the primary options on offense and JJ getting more complementary open looks.

I suppose you're right, it would be way more beneficial to us if we treated him as a 3rd or 4th option, and in theory that could work. 

But, (and this pains me to say this because I love JJ man, I really do) his offense and defense suffers due to his lack of size for position. Over the course of 82 it isn't an issue, but in the postseason it routinely comes up. Just this series alone, he can't guard CJ, Aminu, hell when we try to hide him on Moe Harkless even he exposes JJ. The next round he would be guarding Harrison Barnes or Klay Thompson which is a mismatch. He's a good team defender, but individually it's rough for him man. Then you factor in the fact that his offense suffers during the postseason...

I just don't know how efficient it is for us moving forward to have JJ be responsible for so much offensively and it really kills us in the long run. If the team could just restructure some things, I'm all for keeping JJ but he is just too heavy of a barometer for us right now offensively and at the moment, I wouldn't mind exploring to see what kind of return he could net. 

 

[lawdog1]

^^^ TBH, while I'd be fine with keeping the core + JJ in tact, I also don't think anyone should be untouchable. I wouldn't have said that a year ago -- mainly with Blake in mind -- but times have changed. If we could get a good haul in trade for JJ or DJ even, I'd be ok with it.

We'll see what happens.

 

[lawdog1]

This is an excerpt from an article Arash Markazi wrote today about Doc. Had no idea Doc and Austin's relationship was like this. Crazy.

“He doesn’t really share his life outside of basketball with me,” Austin said. “He and I don’t know each other like that. We know each other as strictly basketball. A lot of people on the outside don’t understand that because people think we have a relationship like every other father and son. We just don’t. That’s because he’s been gone my whole life, and that’s fine.

"It’s worked out for the both of us. But the one person he could always really be with was his mom. That’s the toughest thing I’ve ever seen him go through; more than the Sterling stuff and even when his dad passed away. His mom was everything to him. I’ve never seen him like that.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles...-rivers-stays-strong-in-eye-of-clippers-storm

 

[HIM]

I repped you, shoeking. I agree with what you said in regards to JJ's shortcomings. At the same time, I think it's Doc's fault. JJ was never supposed to be THIS important to the team. If you think back to when we acquired him, if I told you he would have this type of season, who wouldn't be ecstatic? We just started leaning on him too much when he isn't that type of player. Another thing that hurts us is that we play 3v5 on offense every game DJ and Luc have 0 offense. If one of the other starters has an off night, we're gonna struggle.

We're just stuck in the mud a bit. What's our cap situation? Can we afford to bring in a legit 3 eith the cap going up this year? Are there any available?

 

[wavycrocket]

JJ is fine.

Its very hard in the NBA to get that type of shooting, team play and consistency at the SG position. What I noticed is teams pre-rotating to JJ...and leaving the clips weakest position, the 3...open. This is how some of the sets get blown up. His movement is vital. Typically, when his play gets blown up..it turns into a Cp3/BG two man P&R....and when they're clicking and go right into that...it's hard to stop.

Last year, he was good in the playoffs all the way up to game 6 collapse. He was just missing open shots that he usually makes.

The everlasting search for a 3&D wing that can shoot close to 40% from 3 continues. I don't wanna start talking about Free Agency yet...because that's conceding defeat.....

But, whose available

 

[lawdog1]

^^^ Cap situation isn't great if we don't make a trade. Think I read that even with the increase, we're only going to have about 8-9 million to work with. Better than nothing, but not enough to bring in another star probably.

 

[wavycrocket]

^^^ Cap situation isn't great if we don't make a trade. Think I read that even with the increase, we're only going to have about 8-9 million to work with. Better than nothing, but not enough to bring in another star probably.

Fournier & Bazemore are the only guys in that range...and with the cap jump...I can see a team throwing more to them. They'd be welcome additions though. Especially Bazemore.

 

[lawdog1]

Fournier & Bazemore are the only guys in that range...and with the cap jump...I can see a team throwing more to them. They'd be welcome additions though. Especially Bazemore.

Yeah, I used to dislike Bazemore when he was just the chief towel waiver on the GSW bench, but he's turned into a real player.

 

[HIM]

Fournier & Bazemore are the only guys in that range...and with the cap jump...I can see a team throwing more to them. They'd be welcome additions though. Especially Bazemore.

Yeah, I used to dislike Bazemore when he was just the chief towel waiver on the GSW bench, but he's turned into a real player.

His reaction when Blake's 3 hit the side of the backbord had me so salty but I would loooooooooove him on the team.

 

[Nipsey3000]

hard to say JJ was disappointing when he is/was the top 3 point shooter (percentage wise) in the entire league...yes, even better than curry

 

[wavycrocket]

Can anybody explain to me the rebounding woes? I fully believe it has to do with the Blake leak out, and only let DJ rebound. Feel like DJ's stat padding quest, and Doc's early transition push had to do with this.

Even last year, when the team was healthy for the most part...they rebounded badly. And 3/5 starters are great rebounders for their positions...DJ being the best in the league.

 

[HIM]

hard to say JJ was disappointing when he is/was the top 3 point shooter (percentage wise) in the entire league...yes, even better than curry

I meant postseason. He's shooting 13% lower from three. If that's not disappointing, idk what is.

Can anybody explain to me the rebounding woes? I fully believe it has to do with the Blake leak out.

I swear if I tried, I could find a wuote of me sayig this 2 years ago. He started leaking out and his rebound numbers went down. I bet that's when our opponents' off rebeounds starting going up. The fast break opportunities mean nothing when we're giving the other team 2,3,4 tries to score.

 

[lawdog1]

I meant postseason. He's shooting 13% lower from three. If that's not disappointing, idk what is.

I'm with you. And, although Portland is defending him well, he's gotten a lot of very open looks that he's just missed. Shots that could have been potentially really big in terms of momentum of particular games.

 

[Nipsey3000]

we currently have the second highest payroll in the NBA ($82,915,900). first is cleveland. best case scenario, we are only going to be about 9 mil under the cap. but we always have a right to re-sign our free agents and i believe that we can go far over that number (like the cavs) with the right wheeling and dealing.

derozan
P. Gasol
batum
ryan anderson
afflalo
b. jennings

are just a few players that i have read about having outside interest in joining the clippers.

i think these injuries have definitely bought this team another year with this core. considering that many in the organization thought that we could be gsw even at full strength and also SAS being that we beat them last year. not sure of my thoughts on that yet...

but i feel like we shouldnt break the core up if we cant get considerably better.

 

[Nipsey3000]

I meant postseason. He's shooting 13% lower from three. If that's not disappointing, idk what is.

oh ok

agreed


he has missed some shots he should have made, and he is being defended pretty well. i think with everyone healthy and a potentially deep playoff run would have improved those numbers as well

 

[Nipsey3000]

Can anybody explain to me the rebounding woes? I fully believe it has to do with the Blake leak out, and only let DJ rebound. Feel like DJ's stat padding quest, and Doc's early transition push had to do with this.

Even last year, when the team was healthy for the most part...they rebounded badly. And 3/5 starters are great rebounders for their positions...DJ being the best in the league.

i think its truly lack of emphasis by coaching. and putting it into blakes mind that he does so much that he can be excused from being an elite rebounder. although, he was an elite rebounder during last years playoffs.

even CP3 avg 4RPG this year which is great for a PG, especially one his size

 

[Nipsey3000]

seems like every analyst you hear on tv is ready to purge this team and see their personal dream team fantasies come to life. i, personally, dont think its time to "blow it up"

 

[HIM]

^ I swear 80% of it is also us just not boxing out. I can count how many times I've seen DJ actually box out. Look at Plumlee when we shoot the ball. As soon as the ball goes up he finds his man and puts his butt on em (pause). You see blake and DJ especially, they just stand and rely on their jumping ability.


Depends what they mean by "blow it up". Im not ready to scrap the team and rebuild but I am 100% willing to trade our star(s) for another mix of player(s) that may be better for us.

 

[lawdog1]

^ I swear 80% of it is also us just not boxing out. I can count how many times I've seen DJ actually box out. Look at Plumlee when we shoot the ball. As soon as the ball goes up he finds his man and puts his butt on em (pause). You see blake and DJ especially, they just stand and rely on their jumping ability

That's a factor for sure. Ironically though, I think it was JJ who tried to box out Ed Davis the other night and got called for a foul. Damned if we do and damned if we don't. LOL.

 

[lawdog1]

Los Angeles Clippers ‏@clippersbuzztap · now25 seconds ago

http://si.com >> Report: Clippers’ Blake Griffin will miss Olympics with quad injury http://buzztap.com/-V0TvYj

Figured this would be the case. I have mixed feelings about it. While I think being part of a gold medal squad could really be good for Blake, I want him to fully recover from that quad injury because, clearly, its a big problem.

 

[lawdog1]

Depends what they mean by "blow it up". Im not ready to scrap the team and rebuild but I am 100% willing to trade our star(s) for another mix of player(s) that may be better for us.

This. I don't want us to make an lateral moves just for the sake of change itself. But if a move that involves breaking up this team really and truly can make us better, then I'm with it.

 

[lawdog1]

Should the Clips happen to lose tonight, let's not think of it as the end of the 2015-2016 season, but the beginning of the 2016-2017 season.

Going to Disneyland with family today, so I may not see the game. Kind of expecting a blow out for the Blazers, but won't be surprised if we keep it close.

 

[shoeking2102]

View media item 2013257

 

[shoeking2102]

The

Worst

Luck

Ever