Clippers GM Olshey talks trade deadline

[clippermitch]

I hope Olshey was just saying this not to show his hand.

[RiversideClips]

I think by signing Simmons for 10 more days , it allows Oshley to explore trades w/out tipping his hand.
If someone is out there, Oshley will get him.

[mkwest]

Yes, Smith is much better than DJ, in pretty much every facet of the game. DJ isn't playing well enough to finish games anymore, having been replaced by hot-headed K-mart. And with Butler's recent disappearance, we have 18 million dollars sitting on the bench in crunch time. Seems a bit of a waste doesn't it?

Regardless, if DJ isn't playing at the end of games, and we're finishing games with a small lineup out there, why not just trade DJ and play small throughout the entire game? Look at Miami. They're one of the best defensive teams out there and their Center is freakin' 6'9" Joel Anthony.

I understand that is frustrating that the team is on a severe slide and some key guys are slumping.

Joel Anthony is a nice defender, but sometimes he looks foolish. Miami doesn't have the financial ability to greatly improve the center position, but they would if the could. Also, Miami is not a great defensive team because of Anthony. He barely plays 20 mpg. They have a host of quality defenders at each position and a system that has preached defense for years. We have none of that unfortunately. Not to mention that James and Wade's offense is a defense.

If you look at the Hawks, they have wanted Horford to play his natural position despite having Smith at the 4. They have made it work, because they have had to. However, It's no secret that they would rather have a legit 5 even if it were at the expense of Smith. If he was acquired as a trade asset that we planned on flipping real quick, I may think otherwise about him. Or even if he were acquired because we were trading away Blake in a package for a top notch center (i.e. Howard), then I'd definitely take him. I like Smith, but pairing him up with Blake for any extended period of time is not something that would improve this team moving forward.

It's hard to think that replacing DJ with Smith and essentially replacing K-mart with Smith at the end of games, that we won't become a better team, especially defensively. J-smoove can block his share of shots too.

I didn't know of that 15% increase, but that shouldn't really matter. I'm pretty sure we would extend Griffin to a max contract before Paul and Smoove need a new contract, which is good cause then we can convince them to sign for a bit less to play for us so we can continue to put good pieces around them. It's not like Smoove is making that much more than DJ anyway. It's only a couple of million dollars of difference. And we could convince Marvin Williams to turn his player option to a team option and we can let him go if we need the cap space for 2013.

It's not easy to convince anyone to take less money to do their job. I would not count on our guys taking less than they should even if it may help their chances in winning. Paul and Griffin alone will be taking up around $38-40M alone. Far more often than not, players will only give up money unless they know they are getting even more in return (e.g. Richard Jefferson). I don't see Marvin opting out of his contract after being associated with the word bust throughout his career. I'm not saying that DJ is necessarily the answer for this team, especially at his contract. I'm saying that trading for Smith doesn't make matters better for us.

[og15]

You mean Josh Smith? The same reason Blake doesn't start at C is why Josh Smith doesn't. Josh Smith is a hybrid PF/SF. He just lost weight so he could be quicker on the floor, he's 6'9 and weighs in the 230 range. The Hawks are already complaining about lack of size because they have Al Horford (a natural PF) at C.

Having a legitimate C is more beneficial than having a player like Smith on this team. It's not just the skill level, it's the size, ability to keep teams off the offensive glass, not having to double team on average players because they always have a mis-match against your C, all those things.

DJ has lost his role to play in crunch time because of his inability to keep guys off the offensive glass. I remember one game in particular, forgot who it was against, but he gave up 2 or 3 absurd offensive rebounds. I think we ended up winning anyway, but barely.

These are the teams one would have trouble with:
Lakers: Bynum/Gasol
Timberwolves: Love/Pekovic (already have trouble against them)
Memphis: Marc Gasol
Dallas: Haywood / Mahinmi

We have trouble against these guys you just mentioned already, and we have a legitimate center. How many times has DJ been schooled this year, especially by a bunch of scrub centers? Darko twice, Dalembert, Udoh, Haywood, and there's more that I can't remember off the top of my head. Not to mention Bynum and Howard always have his number.

I'm actually finding it hard to figure out the teams one wouldn't struggle against with Josh Smith at C, Golden State. Even Phoenix with Gortat and Frye would have an advantage inside. One might even struggle against OKC in keeping Perkins off the glass. Then offensively, there's no advantage because Josh Smith doesn't have great blow by ability or a great shot. Teams will guard Blake with the C's and just put their PF's on Josh Smith, so he'll be getting the same defenders he is now that equal his .487 TS% (to his credit he was better the past two seasons, and playing on this team would help him improve that efficiency).

DJ has no ability on offense whatsoever, so I don't see why having a guy who is sound on offense can be a bad thing. Blake is going to draw double teams regardless, Smith will just provide another option on the offensive end.

Remember that Emeka Okafor a guy who has played C all his career and is bigger and a little taller than Josh Smith is undersized at C.

In the end the main issue becomes that you want to build a championship team. Investing so much into a player that plays the same position as your best player totally negates the reality of accomplishing that.

All very valid points and I agree that Smith isn't the best option. I'm just curios to know, for myself, if the team could do well with that lineup. I believe they can. Josh Smith is a better one on one defender, gets more rebounds than DJ(which would probably go down if he played here), probably boxes out better than DJ, and still has the threat to block shots. And then, he can create his own shot and make plays for others much like Blake. He can ease the burden on Blake's shoulders on the offensive end and allow Blake to conserve more energy for the end of games. Not to mention, in this particular trade we'd be getting a great defender and an amazing year for him shooting from deep in Marvin Williams.

Regardless of all that, DJ has a hard time doing many of the things mentioned, at least consistently anyway, which is a direct result of him sitting on the bench at the end of games. This is more about his inability to do his job than it is trading for Smith. And from what I've seen and observed, he prefers it that way. I don't see see him working harder as a result of his diminished playing time. He still makes the same mistakes many times a game, every game.

I want DJ to be a part of this team moving forward, but he's shown me no improvements from last year, and it is starting to concern me, especially with his double digit salary.

Smith gets more rebounds because he plays more minutes. Per 36 minutes, Smith is doing 9.9 rebounds, while DeAndre is doing 11.4 rebounds, so DeAndre is still the superior rebounder by a decent margin. Rebound rate is 18.5% to 15.8% in favour of DeAndre.

DeAndre needs instruction. Skiles and the Milwaukee coaching staff transformed Andre Bogut as a defensive player by teaching him. Vinny is not the guy that's going to teach DeAndre. I remember watching a clip of practice,many Vinny was saying to DeAndre, " you're going to swat everything that comes in there, and communicate on defense". Both great things, but proper rotations, knowing when to jump and when to stay down, those things are what need to be drilled into the guy.

In regards to Smiths offense, my point was that it hasn't been great this season, he's been below leave average in scoring efficiency, and technically and I think by the numbers hurts his team on offense, but is a great help on defense for them. I checked and his Ortg is about 5 points less than the team offensive rating, but again, this year is a bad year, so I'll give him a pass. He isn't great on offense though, but he's usually not so bad.


Here's the Synergy comparison of their man defense:

DJ:
Overall: 0.7 PPP (25th overall), 33.1% OppFG
Isolation: 0.72 PPP (80th overall), 33.3% oppFG
Post up: 0.7 PPP (38th overall), 35.6% oppFG (111 post ups)
P&R Roll Man: 0.67 (10th overall), 26.7% oppFG
Spot up: 0.72 (31st overall), 31.9% oppFG (78 spot ups)
3PT % given up: 9-32 (28.1%)

Josh Smith:
Overall: 0.81 PPP (140th overall), 38.9% oppFG
Isolation: 0.98 PPP (207th overall), 47.2% oppFG
Post-up: 0.7 PPP (38th overall), 37.8% OppFG (120 post ups)
P&R Man: 0.64 PPP (8th overall), 32.3% oppFG
Spot up: 0.96 PPP (171st overall), 41.1% oppFG (122 spot ups)
3PT% given up: 25-59 (42.4%)

Straight up man defense, DJ is just better. Team defense is obviously a different story, though even with the mistakes he has, DJ is still the highest impact Clippers defender. The team defense aspect though is also dependent on system and coaching, and DJ doesn't have the support there.

DeAndre gets schooled once in a while, but overall, his problem has not been straight up post up or isolation defense against opposing bigs. His biggest problems are getting out of position due to jumping for blocks, some silly fouls, and using athletic ability instead of boxing out for rebounds. Also, part lf why hes out at the end of the games is because hes an awful FT shooter. With all that, DeAndre still holds his man to under 35% FG in every type of scenario. Whether they are isolating, posting him up, the pick setter in a pick and roll, spotting up (this includes shooting, or scoring by putting the ball on the floor off a spot up). DeAndre is by far the Clippers best defensive player when he's on the floor.

Josh Smith has been by far the Hawks best defender. He is comparable to DJ in post defense, but he's defending more PF's (though DJ defends either big man depending on the matchups).

Josh Smith is just plain awful at closing out on guys spotting up and preventing the shot or drive by. His isolation defense is poor, and his 3PT defense is one of the worst in the league. Sadly, one of the Clipper biggest issues is 3PT defense, and DeAndre is quite good at that when it has been his job.

Moving from the Atlanta defensive system to the Vinny Del Negro defensive system, and playing C, it's not very likely that Josh Smith will be a better, or even as good a defender as DJ has been for the Clippers, even with all DJ's faults. Now, if he was at PF, then yes, he would have better defensive impact because he's been great on defense this season, but Blake is better than Smith, so PF won't happen.