#Spacing - Steve Clifford Thread

[Flip Murray]

the humor in it is that our #spacer is marvin williams

[Elden Payton]

That pairing will allow Cliff to continue to whine about our poor rebounding after every loss.

While he leaves Biyombo on the bench because of #EFFORT.

[catch20two]

Cliff ain't have no problem going over his minutes limit when Fat Albus returned from injury. He made sure Biz was well under his limit.

[mrknowitall215]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/wfnz/status/573202834243633152[/tweet]

[yosemiteben]

Cliff ain't have no problem going over his minutes limit when Fat Albus returned from injury. He made sure Biz was well under his limit.

Well Al had a particularly productive game. 21 and 16 with three steals and a block. We were +9 when he was in the game.

[Radu_Hornets]

Cliff ain't have no problem going over his minutes limit when Fat Albus returned from injury. He made sure Biz was well under his limit.

Well Al had a particularly productive game. 21 and 16 with three steals and a block. We were +9 when he was in the game.

And even though I'm one of the big Biz Protectors, He is not stellar since returning from injury...

[Liver_Pooty]

Biyombo is rusty as hell. He doesn't need any big minutes right now, at all.

[Elden Payton]

Biyombo needs the minutes to get rid of the rust imo.

[Liver_Pooty]

Biyombo needs the minutes to get rid of the rust imo.

Indeed just not in a close game, at least not yet. He should be able to get some rust off during practice and such. Going without doing much for a full month is rough. I'm content with his 16 or so minutes or whatever he will get for now until the rust comes off.

[Elden Payton]

Biyombo needs the minutes to get rid of the rust imo.

Indeedm just not in a close game. I'm content with his 16 or so minutes or whatever he will get for now until the rust comes off.

I like the idea of going to Al in the fourth, I'd prefer if we played Biyombo for the previous three quarters.

16mpg is about right I'd say but only if Max is getting 2-3mpg.

[Liver_Pooty]

Biyombo needs the minutes to get rid of the rust imo.

Indeedm just not in a close game. I'm content with his 16 or so minutes or whatever he will get for now until the rust comes off.

I like the idea of going to Al in the fourth, I'd prefer if we played Biyombo for the previous three quarters.

16mpg is about right I'd say but only if Max is getting 2-3mpg.

Maxiell should never, ever see any playing time with Biyombo healthy.

Like, ever.

[Elden Payton]

Indeedm just not in a close game. I'm content with his 16 or so minutes or whatever he will get for now until the rust comes off.

I like the idea of going to Al in the fourth, I'd prefer if we played Biyombo for the previous three quarters.

16mpg is about right I'd say but only if Max is getting 2-3mpg.

Maxiell should never, ever see any playing time with Biyombo healthy.

Like, ever.

C'mon now, we know that Uncle Cliffy is going to play Max in every other game for at least an 8 minute stretch for no apparent reason.

[yosemiteben]

Cliff ain't have no problem going over his minutes limit when Fat Albus returned from injury. He made sure Biz was well under his limit.

Well Al had a particularly productive game. 21 and 16 with three steals and a block. We were +9 when he was in the game.

And even though I'm one of the big Biz Protectors, He is not stellar since returning from injury...

Well that's beside the point. Al had a nice game last night, and he deserved the PT he got.

I just finished the game (thanks to ballstream and a slow work day) - I actually thought Marvin played pretty well in the minutes he got so I'm less annoyed with Cody not getting PT.

[yosemiteben]

C'mon now, we know that Uncle Cliffy is going to play Max in every other game for at least an 8 minute stretch for no apparent reason.

He hasn't since Biz became available, and he only played 17 minutes in the month of December until Al went out.

[Elden Payton]

C'mon now, we know that Uncle Cliffy is going to play Max in every other game for at least an 8 minute stretch for no apparent reason.

He hasn't since Biz became available, and he only played 17 minutes in the month of December until Al went out.

It was a joke directed at Clifford.

[yosemiteben]

C'mon now, we know that Uncle Cliffy is going to play Max in every other game for at least an 8 minute stretch for no apparent reason.

He hasn't since Biz became available, and he only played 17 minutes in the month of December until Al went out.

It was a joke directed at Clifford.

Got it, was just pointing out that the only reason Max was getting minutes after Cliff's early season message was due to injuries. It's pretty clear that Max is not intended to be part of our rotation.

[Elden Payton]

He hasn't since Biz became available, and he only played 17 minutes in the month of December until Al went out.

It was a joke directed at Clifford.

Got it, was just pointing out that the only reason Max was getting minutes after Cliff's early season message was due to injuries. It's pretty clear that Max is not intended to be part of our rotation.

Whatever Clifford does won't surprise me.

It's clear he plays favourites and even though a guy like Max doesn't get a lot of minutes, it still amazes me he gets any at all.

He's a great vet to have at the end of the bench, but that is all.

[yosemiteben]

I'm hesitant to even bring up the subject of Clifford's rotations, but I found this quote in an article on Lance and I thought it was pretty interesting:

“It’s hard simply because we haven’t ever gotten to the playing groups,” Clifford said. “But that’s this league. A lot of teams are the same way. Ideally, for guys to play effectively every night, particularly younger guys, you want to get to your groups so they know who they are playing with at what times and what shots you are looking for most nights. It’s been a little bit of an issue.”

The quote was in the context of the injuries that we've had, but I thought it was interesting outside of that because this is the first time I think I've seen Cliff talk about "playing groups." I think this quote shows a bit of his coaching philosophy and why he's gone to two full unit lineups so much. It seems like part of the reason he's been so rigid with his rotations, at least in terms of playing more guys, is due to Lance's struggles - he wanted to give Lance a fixed environment with the same guys so that he could carve out a role for himself. Lance was clearly confused about what his role could be on this team, and I think Cliff wanted him to have stable minutes with the same guys so he could see similar situations over and over and figure out how he could be most efficient while being a primary ball handler.

Unfortunately Lance was never really able to do that, and I wonder if Cliff's recent statement that he's changing his approach now to sub-to-win is him saying that he's not going to worry about balancing minutes to give guys time to gel but instead he's just going to focus on guys who are being productive while on the court.

This doesn't explain his rotation choices in end game situations and that's not really what I'm talking about, so let's try to avoid that discussion.

Just spit balling some ideas that popped in my mind. Here is the article - LINKY

[Elden Payton]

Clifford's rotations sucked before Lance got here.

[-Ian-]

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