Clipper 2015 Offseason

[Ranma]

I'm not against bringing Austin Rivers back as long as his asking price is not much more than the minimum and the term does not go beyond a year. I get the sense that he thinks he's already proven something in looking to be paid. Sure, he has the occasional big game but he hasn't really done that for anyone but his father with a few exceptions. For a coach's son, he is lacking in the fundamentals, which is why he is inconsistent as a performer who just barely hung onto staying in the league.

[mttwlsn16]

All I want is Javale McGee

i can't believe i live in a world where i have to speak these words

Haha, I've always liked him.

[Quake Griffin]

Wes is fine to me.

[mj_shoefanatic]

McGee, Stoudemire (after we trade Crawford and acquire Haywood's non-guaranteed contract) then add SL invitees McMorrow and Wolters to the squad and we'll be all set.

[Roscoe Sheed]

Wes is fine to me.

He could be fine for 10-15 minutes a game, however I would have preferred Gerald Green

[mkwest]

I'm not against bringing Austin Rivers back as long as his asking price is not much more than the minimum and the term does not go beyond a year. I get the sense that he thinks he's already proven something in looking to be paid. Sure, he has the occasional big game but he hasn't really done that for anyone but his father with a few exceptions. For a coach's son, he is lacking in the fundamentals, which is why he is inconsistent as a performer who just barely hung onto staying in the league.

We're limited in what we can offer him. We can only offer him up to what he would have made if New Orleans would have picked up the 4th season of his rookie contract (i.e. $3.1M).

Supposedly, there are other offers on the table that may be better than what we can offer. Coming back here means that he's taking a risk on himself that he'll be able to improve his value moving forward.

I don't know what those other offers may be. If there's any kind of decent long-term security with them, then he ought to go that route imo.

[og15]

Well here he's limited to backup PG minutes, so he likely can't get over 17 mpg. If there's a team that can give up 20+ mpg, then yea, he should certainly take it. Not sure who the team would bring in as a backup PG then. CJ Watson certainly was not going for the minimum, Cory Joseph got much more also. I guess it is guys like Aaron Brooks now.

[mkwest]

Well here he's limited to backup PG minutes, so he likely can't get over 17 mpg. If there's a team that can give up 20+ mpg, then yea, he should certainly take it. Not sure who the team would bring in as a backup PG then. CJ Watson certainly was not going for the minimum, Cory Joseph got much more also. I guess it is guys like Aaron Brooks now.

Brooks signed with Chicago for one season. I'm not sure on the amount yet.

[Quake Griffin]

Justin Holiday please.

just in case Wes decides to be a complete jackass.

[Xepa777]

None of these discussions matter if the Clippers don't get a real point guard. None of them. It's all a complete and total waste of time because no FA market will help the Clippers get past the second round (even if at that). We're currently a 7th-8th seed (if even that).

What we need to do is sign Robert Upshaw from the Lakers. He just has a camp invite, not a contract yet. Give him a 4 year guaranteed contract with a player option after the first year; that should do the trick.

[nickhx2]

out of all the missing centers and big men on the roster, you think PG is our bottleneck?

[Ranma]

Personally, I don't think Austin Rivers is even worth $3.1 million, but if he came back at that figure for only one season, I'd be okay with his return assuming he doesn't impact our cap situation significantly. If he can find a better deal elsewhere, by all means, he should take it and I wouldn't really miss him.

I agree that expectations for Wes Johnson should be tempered, but he seems like a good fit for us given his length, athleticism, defense, and 3-point shot. Hopefully, Doc can work some of his motivational magic to play more towards what he's capable of. I hear he's also a hard-worker and good locker room guy, so maybe hanging out with Blake Griffin will also help build up his game. DAJ certainly benefited from the influence of both Doc and Blake.

If we do offload Jamal Crawford, I'd somewhat welcome Josh Smith for what's left of our MLE given our limited options. Javale McGee is a good and necessary gamble at the vet minimum. Neither Smith or McGee should get hard commitments beyond 2015-16, only team options for anything beyond the upcoming season. However, I suspect both will leverage for higher pay if we get the TPE from acquiring then forwarding Brendan Haywood.

If we're going to take the chance on redemption from Lance Stephenson, we may as well own it for our season of transition. We missed the boat on Bismack Biyombo and Emeka Okafor's status is up in the air, but looking at the projected lineup below, things wouldn't look bad given the circumstances.

1st Unit

• B. Griffin
• P. Pierce
• J. McGee
• J. Redick
• C. Paul

2nd Unit

• A. Rivers
• L. Stephenson
• TBD
• W. Johnson
• J. Smith

Reserves

• C. Wilcox
• B. Dawson
• TBD
• TBD
• TBD

[nickhx2]

we have to sign rivers for that 3.1M. it's an exception and with our limited resources we have to spend out on every exception we get. i'd only sign him for the one year, though.

[Ranma]

None of these discussions matter if the Clippers don't get a real point guard. None of them. It's all a complete and total waste of time because no FA market will help the Clippers get past the second round (even if at that). We're currently a 7th-8th seed (if even that).

What we need to do is sign Robert Upshaw from the Lakers. He just has a camp invite, not a contract yet. Give him a 4 year guaranteed contract with a player option after the first year; that should do the trick.

Let me guess. We should go out and give wonderboy Jordan Farmar another shot to solve our problems, right? Sorry. No crow on the menu and, pardon my skepticism, but the last person anybody should be listening to is you, especially when it comes to selling another Laker scrub on a guaranteed contract. We still have dead money occupying the cap from buying out Farmar (and his player option).

What is with this "we" stuff, anyway? You haven't shown your face here since your last genius take. Despite his oh so awesomeness, Farm-boy went back to Maccabi Tel Aviv to play overseas even with all the money and opportunities available in the NBA.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/KBergCBS/status/563853001962815488[/tweet]

I guess overseas "leadership" doesn't mean as much in the NBA, after all. Looks like crow is also off the menu.

I have no idea where you're getting the perception that he's a bad defender. He came from UCLA and he learned a lot on D when he played overseas. Farmar is a solid positional defender and incredibly feisty; he's also much stronger than Collison (and smarter).

He's a floor general and he did GREAT with the Nets when he was a starter. He was doing fantastic for LA last year until he got those 2 injuries. He's going to be a real, real, real pleasant surprise for everyone here.

Expecting Farmar to be a stand still shooter is completely under utilizing his skill set. Shows extreme naivete to his skill set. The Lakers don't win the playoff series against Houston if it wasn't for Farmar coming up HUGE after Fisher got suspended.

And I will be here to see y'all eating crow on him next year.

+/- is the dumbest stat out there and there's a reason why no one cites it at the MIT Sloan Analytics conference every year. I'm not president of the Farmar fanclub; I just recognize that he's not the scrub you see him as. He played when Deron was off the floor and last year he was just getting acclimated back in the NBA before getting injured.

He turned down $8 million/year from overseas where he was thriving as a leader to play in Los Angeles, so there's a strong motivation for him to stay in Los Angeles for the lifestyle (othwise it'd just be a terrible overall decision for him).

He went overseas during the lockout and frankly kicked ass, which is why he stayed overseas to grow as a player. That's not a crazy scenario (and again, he was getting paid $$$). Do I think he's worth $8 million a year in the NBA? Probably not, but maybe MLE+ depending on his play with the Clippers next year.

And I bold almost all my posts, especially when they're in responses to crazy fallacies and slurs (like citing +/- and implying Farmar couldn't get a minimal offer in the NBA).

Speaking of fallacies, you continue to misuse my words in your interpretation of them. Where did I say that Farmar "couldn't get a minimal offer in the NBA" when I just stated that he "has a place in the NBA with his skillset"? The two seem to be contradictory to me. Another fallacy would be citing Farmar's leadership ability and presumed success overseas as some how and in some way being relevant to NBA success. You know who else "kicked ass" overseas? Stephon Marbury, a player much more talented than Farmar, but similarly was hampered by his own sense of self and ego preventing him from achieving real NBA success. Farmar's leadership abilities thus far have led his three most recent NBA teams to an overall record of 73-157 for a 31.7% winning percentage, where he's played big roles for those respective ballclubs. Plus-minus may be incomplete (like I said), but I'll take that over "overseas kick-assery".

You're doing a better job than me of arguing that he belongs overseas playing basketball than in the NBA, so I don't get why you're up in arms when I point out his deficiencies. You're happy with Farmar as is. Well, good for you. You see what you want to see. I, on the other hand, want him to be better than he has been for our Los Angeles Clippers in order for us to achieve the ultimate goal of winning "Larry's".

[mttwlsn16]

None of these discussions matter if the Clippers don't get a real point guard. None of them. It's all a complete and total waste of time because no FA market will help the Clippers get past the second round (even if at that). We're currently a 7th-8th seed (if even that).

What we need to do is sign Robert Upshaw from the Lakers. He just has a camp invite, not a contract yet. Give him a 4 year guaranteed contract with a player option after the first year; that should do the trick.

CP3 to Cleveland for MoWill+fillers. Make it happen Doc! Xepa said so!

Looooool

Or since he's clearly a Flaker troll how bout CP3 for the Rapist? Perfect! When we trade Jamal the Rapist can fill the roll as team chucker!

Oh. Even without DJ I would be willing to bet we're a 4/5 seed. Javale can do 75% of what DJ did.

[Lindecision]

I lost it at naivete!

[QRich3]

haha

Yeah, if we're healthy we'll probably be fighting for that 5-6 seed easily. Paul and Blake are too good by themselves for us to get anything behind 45-50 games. Warriors-Spurs-Thunder are gonna be better than us, no doubt. Rockets probably too. Then the Grizzlies and us should be battling in the next tier, then the Mavs, Pels, Suns and Jazz fighting for the last two spots.

All depending on what sort of depth we're able to get in what's left of free agency, and how that affects the health of our best players.

[teleblaze]

Reports are saying about a conflict between JJ and Doc, he might be on the block, maybe for the Haywood contract plus something else.

[QRich3]

lol which reports? the ones tabloid journos are trying to make up because JJ gave our offseason an F?

"Reports" also say you re-signed Love with the intention of trading him, so maybe JJ and filler for him?

[teleblaze]

lol which reports? the ones tabloid journos are trying to make up because JJ gave our offseason an F?

"Reports" also say you re-signed Love with the intention of trading him, so maybe JJ and filler for him?

Only if you include Crawford and Rivers ok?