Clippers Sign Raymond Felton

[mkwest]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/753703851736170496[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/DanWoikeSports/status/753708531753193472[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/LucasJHann/status/753707770923200512[/tweet]

The cap hit will be $980,431.

[Forte IV]

Hopefully he won't show up fat

[BlzMwt]

gonna be really solid defensively when doc sends out the all bench lineup of felton, austin, jamal, pierce, speights

[JayClips92]

Hopefully he won't show up fat

That was my first thought

[Roscoe Sheed]

I think he is a good insurance policy in case of injury. Otherwise I don't think he will play much because he is the 3rd string pg.

[RussellandFlow]

Good pickup. Felton played some solid ball for the Mavs this past season. He should be able to provide 15 quality minutes a night.

[og15]

I think he is a good insurance policy in case of injury. Otherwise I don't think he will play much because he is the 3rd string pg.

I'm still wondering if last season showed the front office and coaching staff that it is hard to have an effective offense with Austin / Jamal running the show. This was what got Pablo minutes. If that is the case, then Felton is the backup PG for about 12-13 mpg. Rivers is actually the backup SG, and Jamal is the backup SF. This will then force the team to put a SF at PF, just like last season.

Again, this goes back to re-signing Jamal (after you have Austin). You kind of know that neither guy is good at running an offense and that ideally you want someone else running the offense. If you have both and have that need, Jamal has to be a SF with the bench. If Jamal has to be a SF with the bench, then whomever is your backup SF will have to play PF with the bench.

Since bench runs 5 man lineups, if this is actually what happens, we're looking at a bench lineup of:

Raymond Felton
Austin Rivers
Jamal Crawford
Wesley Johnson or Paul Pierce?
Marresse Speights

The defense and rebounding from a unit like that is going to be a bit scary. Last season, the starters rebounded very well as a unit, but the bench was REALLY bad. I don't see anything so far that alleviates that. I don't know about you guys, but I could live with (no Pierce, no Jamal):

Raymond Felton
Austin Rivers
Wesley Johnson
Branden Dawson or Brice Johnson
Marresse Speights

I think that lineup has more balance and that you can still get similar overall scoring effectiveness without having the isolation scoring of Jamal. Anyways, we'll see what happens....

[nickhx2]

honestly kinda feel bad for wes. if we are gonna run jamal at SF half the time (which is stupid but it's doc thing) then i don't see how wes is gonna get any minutes in between jamal, brice, luc and blake.

[LACtdom]

Never been a fan of Felton but I am liking this signing simply because we need a back up play maker instead of our SG Austin and ISO jamal.

[Roscoe Sheed]

I understand the need for a true point guard off the bench. However I'm concerned about playing so small off the bench if it means that Brice Johnson gets no or few minutes. The guy has nba talent and needs to be allowed to develop

[Roscoe Sheed]

honestly kinda feel bad for wes. if we are gonna run jamal at SF half the time (which is stupid but it's doc thing) then i don't see how wes is gonna get any minutes in between jamal, brice, luc and blake.

Depending on the match up, luc could be the odd man out especially if he is totally awol on offense

[og15]

I understand the need for a true point guard off the bench. However I'm concerned about playing so small off the bench if it means that Brice Johnson gets no or few minutes. The guy has nba talent and needs to be allowed to develop

It all starts with having both Austin and Jamal on the team. It was the same issue last season, and it is the same issue now, so if the FO commits to doing that, they commit to having this problem.

[LACtdom]

I understand the need for a true point guard off the bench. However I'm concerned about playing so small off the bench if it means that Brice Johnson gets no or few minutes. The guy has nba talent and needs to be allowed to develop

It all starts with having both Austin and Jamal on the team. It was the same issue last season, and it is the same issue now, so if the FO commits to doing that, they commit to having this problem.

You're simply not meant to play a lineup of Austin and jamal because Austin isn't a true PG and jamal is horrible at defending at the 3 position. It really puts us in a bad position. We should have only resigned one. We have 3 SGs who are on big contracts. It's just not smart.

[nickhx2]

not that i think we should underpay jj, but giving jamal that much money for sure provides even greater leverage to jj's agent.

that deal will screw us so freaking badly.

[Ranma]

I like signing Felton to a vet minimum deal as he provides a legit backup PG albeit one who is inconsistent. His weight and conditioning will be a concern but it's a minimal risk given the financial commitment we're giving him in a prove-it deal. I agree with the sentiment of our self-inflicted logjam with bringing back both Crawford and Junior Rivers. There was no need to have both and the preference was Austin over Jamal. Like I've said before on multiple occasions, Brice Johnson needs to play and contribute, regardless.

I'm so sick and tired of us not only blowing opportunities whether it is in the draft or through trades, but handicapping ourselves by bringing back players who don't help only further exacerbates our inefficiencies with Doc at the helm. It's already bad enough that we brought in Paul Pierce 1 year too late and going on 2 years of being an albatross.

[TucsonClip]

Not a fan of Felton at all. However, if he brings it like last season he'll be the solid backup PG we need. That said, im not counting on it.
Still, with the minimum to offer we had limited options.

[Roscoe Sheed]

One thing I've noticed about Felton going all the way back to his days on the bobcats is that he is a fairly clutch player. Not afraid of big moments at all. Probably won't matter much though because he is unlikely to be playing during crunch time

[QRich3]

Yeah I like it, Felton is a very good pick & roll PG and will give some much needed structure to the 2nd unit's offense. The bench's defense is gonna be a disaster again, and they'll keep hemorrhaging the leads the starters leave them with, but at least the offense will be a bit more normal this way, like it was last year when Pablo played. I hope he can get good synergy with Brice and they're not both standing out there while Jamal, Speights and Austin take turns at brickin shots.

[DtroitBBall8904]

Felton can actually run PG where the line-ups with Rivers and Crawford just ran pure ISO ball. Thats the feast or famine with Crawford and Rivers (to some extent, he doesnt shoot as much) - the ISO ball works well when they are both hot otherwise you need a PG to set up the rest of the team then feed Crawford. Not a bad signing considering there aren't many back-up PGs out there with experience

[clip set]

Having Felton play with the presumed lineup won't be stopping any ISO ball