GAME #10: TOR (2-7) @ LAC (5-4)—SAT 11/9, 7:30 PM, NBA-TV

[esqtvd]

I didn't understand closing with Mann over Coffey last night at all. Mann even didn't his patented pass up an open three move in the final minutes of the game on top of it all. But we won, a win is a win. Do we punt Monday's game against OKC and rest Harden for the games against the Rockets which we desperately need to keep our draft pick status or does Lue play him 35+ minutes in trying to get an upset win at OKC?

I'm even more worried about Zubac. 37 minutes against the Kings and 38 against the Raptors b2b. By mid-January last year, he was beat to hell with a lighter workload than this.



As for Mann over Coffey last night, Mann played 29 minutes [4 points, minus-4] and Coffey played 23 minutes [6 points, plus+8]. Not huge, and Coach must have liked Mann on Quickley. [I'm still laughing at how the Mann-stans on Twitter are acting like Mann won us the game for 2 good defensive plays. Brian Sieman excitedly called one of them a block, but Mann never touched the ball.]

maybe Batum should see more time at small ball center or perhaps give Cousins a call to see if he has anything left in the tank?

Maybe the WORST FO personnel decision this century was letting Hartenstein go over a couple bucks. The Clips went from WINNING the non-Zubac minutes to losing them them badly with garbage like Moses Brown---the net SWING from plus to minus of course was huge.

I'm hopeful but tbh Bamba has done NOTHING in the NBA, even losing his minutes on the 76ers to "Basketball Paul" Reed, a former G-league MVP who is now racking up DNP-CDs for the godawful Pistons.

Looks like they've done it again. Plumlee was kinda crap, but we just replaced something with nothing.

[MartinToVaught]

Maybe the WORST FO personnel decision this century was letting Hartenstein go over a couple bucks.

It's because PG was in the "I'm handling the ball too much" phase of his excuse cycle and forced the FO to sign another one of his washed-up friends to play point guard instead of keeping Hartenstein.

I still don't like our FO at all, but at least their issues aren't being compounded anymore by PG forcing his own terrible ideas.

[og15]

Maybe the WORST FO personnel decision this century was letting Hartenstein go over a couple bucks.

It's because PG was in the "I'm handling the ball too much" phase of his excuse cycle and forced the FO to sign another one of his washed-up friends to play point guard instead of keeping Hartenstein.

I still don't like our FO at all, but at least their issues aren't being compounded anymore by PG forcing his own terrible ideas.

If any FO feels forced by PG to sign someone, that's on them, he's not Lebron.

PG WAS handling the ball too much, and trying to make a 30 year old tall SF into a point guard was born out of desperation, not what the team actually brought him in to be.

The teams need for a PG was evident to anyone with a brain, so let's not revise history and make it into some, "if not for that Paul George, the team wouldn't have used money on the point guard position" because that is patently false.

That doesn't make it less of a poor decision to not being back Hart, but with him currently making $30 million/year, a price OKC could afford because their young guys aren't paid yet, the Clippers would still not have him right now, but would have had him for the in between seasons. So it's actually still irrelevant for the current situation.

[MartinToVaught]

If any FO feels forced by PG to sign someone, that's on them, he's not Lebron.

PG WAS handling the ball too much, and trying to make a 30 year old tall SF into a point guard was born out of desperation, not what the team actually brought him in to be.

The teams need for a PG was evident to anyone with a brain, so let's not revise history and make it into some, "if not for that Paul George, the team wouldn't have used money on the point guard position" because that is patently false.

In hindsight, yes, PG absolutely should have been told "no" more often than not. I assume the sunk cost fallacy of how much we traded for him made the FO defer to him all the time because they were afraid he'd demand out years earlier than he did if he didn't get his way. That's not really an excuse for the FO since it's their fault for getting themselves into such a bind, but it is what it is.

PG *was* handling the ball too much, but the problem is that whenever the FO and Lue tried to decrease that, he'd immediately shift gears and start complaining that he wasn't handling the ball enough. He always had an excuse about his role to explain away his inconsistency and disappearing acts in every big game and playoff series. There was always another friend of PG we needed to sign off the scrapheap who would totally fix everything (they never did).

The point guard position was an area of weakness for sure, but none of the 35-year-old fossils we kept signing got us any closer to championship contention. Wall in particular was basically unplayable. It wasn't worth giving up a productive younger player like Hartenstein for him. Not only did we still not fill the hole at point guard, we created another hole at backup big that we've never really been able to fill since Hartenstein left.

[esqtvd]

Maybe the WORST FO personnel decision this century was letting Hartenstein go over a couple bucks.

It's because PG was in the "I'm handling the ball too much" phase of his excuse cycle and forced the FO to sign another one of his washed-up friends to play point guard instead of keeping Hartenstein.

I still don't like our FO at all, but at least their issues aren't being compounded anymore by PG forcing his own terrible ideas.

I'm going to admit being WAY wrong on Wall. [I'm wrong once every year or two. ] I thought he surely had something left, and would be a clear upgrade from combo guard Reggie, whom I loved but was not a pure point. And PG WAS right we needed a pure PG. He hated doing the job but had to, because T-Mann couldn't. Yes, they had a great record with Mann in the starting lineup but it was because he and Kawhi were busting ass every night to cover for not having a proper point.

And 213 never played better than that 27-6 streak with Harden at the point. PG was right, and you can be sure Kawhi was nodding and winking approval all the way. If Kawhi didn't want Wall, Russ, or Beard, it would have got quashed. It's not all on PG.

As for Hartenstein, it didn't come out 'til later that the FO adjudged that FINANCIALLY, it was an either/or between Wall and Hartenstein. It's easy to say the wrong choice was made, since Wall is out of the league, but it also wasn't known until later just how PATHETIC the non-Zubac minutes would be.

Now, the FO made some amends by dealing Reggie for Plumlee and keeping Plum for the next season too. But damned if we aren't back in the SAME pickle again--3rd-string project Kai is unplayable as the backup center and there's no guarantee Bamba will be adequate once he heals up.

Meanwhile Plumlee is giving the Suns an adequate 16 mpg at a lousy $2M minimum salary. Now, at least dumping the 35-year-old Plumlee for the former top 10 pick Mo Bamba [26] was an eye to the future. Dumping Hartenstein, they didn't even have a Plan B. But this is gonna get fugly if Bamba can't give us some semi-quality minutes.

[esqtvd]

Maybe the WORST FO personnel decision this century was letting Hartenstein go over a couple bucks.

It's because PG was in the "I'm handling the ball too much" phase of his excuse cycle and forced the FO to sign another one of his washed-up friends to play point guard instead of keeping Hartenstein.

I still don't like our FO at all, but at least their issues aren't being compounded anymore by PG forcing his own terrible ideas.

If any FO feels forced by PG to sign someone, that's on them, he's not Lebron.

PG WAS handling the ball too much, and trying to make a 30 year old tall SF into a point guard was born out of desperation, not what the team actually brought him in to be.

The teams need for a PG was evident to anyone with a brain, so let's not revise history and make it into some, "if not for that Paul George, the team wouldn't have used money on the point guard position" because that is patently false.

That doesn't make it less of a poor decision to not being back Hart, but with him currently making $30 million/year, a price OKC could afford because their young guys aren't paid yet, the Clippers would still not have him right now, but would have had him for the in between seasons. So it's actually still irrelevant for the current situation.

To be fair, Hart might have taken 3 yr/$16M. [He got 2yr/$16M from the Knicks.] After bouncing around 4 NBA teams at the minimum, he was only looking for one not-so-big payday and some financial security.

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Water under the bridge, but the numbers for the non-Zu minutes the year after he left were truly abominable and we're looking at a repeat this year. And Zu is gonna be dying out there soon with this workload, so it's a double whammy.