Clemenza wrote:madmaxmedia wrote:nickhx2 wrote:
i think it's good to acknowledge, but i suppose the question is whether lue agrees with that vision and commits to it as well (assuming he stays).
I think it depends on what the overall goals of the franchise and FO are, and what they communicate to Lue on this. The last couple of years, I am pretty certain they have prioritized winning first and foremost to try to maximize the 213 window. If they tell him that is still the goal, he is going to coach towards that.
OTOH, if Lue is going forward that winning now is not the 100% goal and we absolutely need to consider player development, we might see different things out of Lue. I'm not sure, but given our roster situation the last couple of years I'd be surprised if they told Lue to develop kids over winning as many games as possible now.
I know first & foremost Kawhi needs to be on the court and PG & Harden need to be consistent for a change for us to have any shot at post season success. But I just don't get "win now mode" with so many players that get played off the court like Russ, PJ, Plumlee, Coffey and even Mann at times. Could've had player development going since 213 first touched down in LA.
I wasn't even shocked or pissed at the outcome of this season. Once PJ Tucker arrived with Harden and demanded minutes while Kobe & Bones got kicked to the curb, the writing was on the wall as to how the season would go. It was status quo and textbook Clippers all the way through until the latest playoff disappointment. They'll sweet talk us on getting younger and more athletic, but I'll believe it when I see it.
i listened to a good bit of 213hoops's podcast today and it was a good listen - brought up a lot of criticisms of the team that culminated into the team we see today. also really torched paul george, and for fair reason. some points of discussion i'd wanna bring up:
- In a lot of ways i'm not really sure the vision that lue and the FO share are ever going to be on the same page. It wasn't all that long ago there was a huge disconnect on the team needing a point guard and what good, point guard play even seem to be. We ended up with westbrook as a result, for one thing.
- the FO really backed themselves into a corner with guys like PJ tucker/westbrook who can't really do anything meaningful come playoff time, but it gets a lot worse when you have lue giving them major minutes in actual playoff games. This kinda goes back to the team keeping marcus morris on the team for so long and it's not really a surprise that ty lue played "ty lue" players.
- is some of that because the front office keeps putting guys on the floor that don't make sense for the team? Maybe. But i think their point, and one that i agree with, is you gotta take away dangerous toys from kids sometimes and that has NOT been the case with this team even as far back with doc, and certainly not with lue.
- so pretty much all season we watched westbrook get a lot of burn, as well as amir coffey. And it worked out for a good enough while if anyone actually was out there going "oh yeah, come playoff time westbrook is gonna be our superstar sub!!" i'd say they were lying. We all knew he was gonna be a huge dice roll in the playoffs and quite honestly, it's not at all that hard to tilt the odds against him with very simple gameplans. And in the meantime kobe brown, who looked like he was figuring things out, lost any potential growth or chance, which led to a chain reaction of relying on (and being eliminated with) PJ tucker as a starting PF in game 6. Bones looked like he could do some stuff at the start of the season, conversely was stapled to the bench for the vast majority of said season, and it was just perfectly timed so that we watch westbrook become an ABSOLUTE BLIGHT on the court for us over an entire playoff series.
- westbrook's presence itself kinda comes back to how he even got on the team to begin with, which pretty much was cause paul george pushed for him. Hann in particular was very harsh on him, and he brought up one thing i was thinking of writing up i think after game 5 but just kinda couldn't muster up the effort for (perhaps not unironically like PG"s play overall in the series). When things get tough for him, he doesn't seem to have that fierceness or grit in him to amp it up and impose his will or aggression. And you just can't be that kind of player and think things are gonna go well. It's the easy way out for PG too often and we can't give max money to a player like that.
Anyway, i kinda agree that the outcome was somewhat predictable. I have no idea how PJ tucker didn't get exiled into god damn siberia for the crap he was talking, and if there's one way to obliterate chemistry in any place it's to let entitled idiots and malcontents get their way when they deliver you absolutely nothing, all while the boss lets them run amok. So while i'm personally not opposed to a complete reset of the front office, coaching staff, and core of the team, the cost of doing so isn't on track with the assets and core that we have. Our best chance at making our way through the end of the tunnel is unfortunately to grit our teeth, try to re-sign harden and PG, and to see where the chips fall. And obviously ideally try to recoup assets each of the big 3 if plan A doesn't work out (and at this point i doubt it will). But at least coming away with something is better than nothing at all.
....
I don't have a lot of optimism for the next season for a million reasons. But if i were to craft some kind story where it could all work?
- both PG/harden get re-signed, with tucker sent to siberia/china/i don't care where just not here, and westbrook opts out for greener pastures. and i don't really care if paul george stays on with the team or not, but we absolutely cannot lose him for nothing, so keep him to keep him, keep him to trade him, idc.
- bones/brown get all the time they need to become real players, with kai jones also giving us good backup big minutes, with theis as a go-between - and obviously plumlee can't stay unless it's for a vet min or something.
- kawhi continues to rebuild long-term health and is finally where he needs to be to have a sustained playoff run.
- and all this (ideally) is enough to get the team back to the offense and defense it was at before things went to hell, but this team with some pieces shifted around here and there, and the wasted parts jettisoned, of course.
obviously no idea how it'll all work out but yeah, it's sports, so here's hoping i suppose.