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RALPH: There are 5 Clippers on the floor who weren't here this time last year.


y'all got yer wish
the truck done got backed up

Watching Austin Rivers be our point guard is depressing. Dude just isn't cut out to be one. When is Milos coming back?

Blake tweaking his knee did not look good at all. He was able to walk to the locker room under his own power, but nothing will surprise me at this point. To any who are all aboard the tank train, you may have gotten your wish.

A win over the Lakers. Todat was a good day. **** the Let's Go Laker chants.

And cue blaming Austin on Blake's injury as if it was the last straw before he gets shipped out.

mkwest wrote:Blake tweaking his knee did not look good at all. He was able to walk to the locker room under his own power, but nothing will surprise me at this point. To any who are all aboard the tank train, you may have gotten your wish.

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it's pretty much the only option now.

and BTW it had to be Austin that landed on Blake's knee, no? it's nobody's fault, but it just had to be him. I was actually pleasantly entertained by Austin's playing up until that point.

I will be here tomorrow morning expecting a thread title of "Blake Griffin out for the season with knee injury"

apet8945 wrote:Watching Austin Rivers be our point guard is depressing. Dude just isn't cut out to be one. When is Milos coming back?

19 points, 8 rebs, 6 assists
Austin loses us another one

Austin is trash. How people are STILL making excuses for him after he injured Blake is beyond me.

Just when I was championing getting back to 500.

In other news, Lou Williams has been killer this season, so much better than Jamal Crawford. Wesley Johnson has actually been making shots and been efficient since he became a starter and is close to 60% TS for the season. DJ and Reed are super efficient. We do have players to make an efficient offense (minus Austin, he just hasn't been good when it comes to efficiency), but then Blake gets injured.

esqtvd wrote:

apet8945 wrote:Watching Austin Rivers be our point guard is depressing. Dude just isn't cut out to be one. When is Milos coming back?

19 points, 8 rebs, 6 assists
Austin loses us another one

Well it is so true, he's not a PG. It's also true that he's at best an average NBA player and a well below average starting PG. If your team is a contender, Austin should probably be no more than your 9th - 10th man. If you're a good playoff team, he could be your 7th - 8th man, but that means your team has some talent issues, he probably shouldn't be that for a good playoff team, which is what he was for this team in 14-15 when he was much worse than now, and the past two seasons.

If you're a non playoff team, or borderline playoff team at best then yes, a guy like Austin can be your starter playing 30+ mpg, but that's not really a good thing. So even if we can say "well he's not that terrible", in general, if a guy like him is a big minutes starter on your team, then the team is probably not a playoff team because it means there's some talent deficit that's is allowing him to have the role.

og15 wrote:

esqtvd wrote:

apet8945 wrote:Watching Austin Rivers be our point guard is depressing. Dude just isn't cut out to be one. When is Milos coming back?

19 points, 8 rebs, 6 assists
Austin loses us another one

Well it is so true, he's not a PG. It's also true that he's at best an average NBA player and a well below average starting PG. If your team is a contender, Austin should probably be no more than your 9th - 10th man. If you're a good playoff team, he could be your 7th - 8th man, but that means your team has some talent issues, he probably shouldn't be that for a good playoff team, which is what he was for this team in 14-15 when he was much worse than now, and the past two seasons.

If you're a non playoff team, or borderline playoff team at best then yes, a guy like Austin can be your starter playing 30+ mpg, but that's not really a good thing. So even if we can say "well he's not that terrible", in general, if a guy like him is a big minutes starter on your team, then the team is probably not a playoff team because it means there's some talent deficit that's is allowing him to have the role.

Until he actually gets to play his actual position [SG] for 20 or 50 games, we can't even know how good [or bad] he is. IMO, he would have done fine in JJ's role--not quite the scorer but better at D and as secondary ballhandler. No, he shouldn't be our 3rd leading scorer, but there he is. Not his fault he has to be.

Austin *is* playing his actual position. His position is "whatever allows his dad to give him the most possible minutes."

esqtvd wrote:

og15 wrote:

esqtvd wrote:
19 points, 8 rebs, 6 assists
Austin loses us another one

Well it is so true, he's not a PG. It's also true that he's at best an average NBA player and a well below average starting PG. If your team is a contender, Austin should probably be no more than your 9th - 10th man. If you're a good playoff team, he could be your 7th - 8th man, but that means your team has some talent issues, he probably shouldn't be that for a good playoff team, which is what he was for this team in 14-15 when he was much worse than now, and the past two seasons.

If you're a non playoff team, or borderline playoff team at best then yes, a guy like Austin can be your starter playing 30+ mpg, but that's not really a good thing. So even if we can say "well he's not that terrible", in general, if a guy like him is a big minutes starter on your team, then the team is probably not a playoff team because it means there's some talent deficit that's is allowing him to have the role.

Until he actually gets to play his actual position [SG] for 20 or 50 games, we can't even know how good [or bad] he is. IMO, he would have done fine in JJ's role--not quite the scorer but better at D and as secondary ballhandler. No, he shouldn't be our 3rd leading scorer, but there he is. Not his fault he has to be.

Father Doc puts him in the positions he shouldn't be in, so it's hard to really know what to do with this. It's very unlikely that any other coach would use Austin the same way, so that's probably part of the issue we have.

Did Austin truly have to be a SF in some of the lineups with the team in the past? He certainly didn't "have to", but Doc put him there. Did he have to start at PG when Paul was out over Felton, not at all, but Doc put him there. There can always be a justification, but there are legitimate ones and poor ones.

Austin hasn't done as badly as you make it out to be
he had a bad couple games when the team was falling apart

he won a starting job fair and square last year

Austin's stats as a starter, in a sample of 25 games, are
16.3-4-2.8 on 46-42.4-70.9 shooting splits.
This should finally put the "argument" that he's only in the NBA because of the father to rest.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/riverau01/splits/2017

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5u0t24/austin_rivers_as_a_starter_in_20162017/

The team was designed for him to be our 5-7th best player just as you said

Blake
Gallo
DJ
Beverley

Austin/Lou/Milos

not his fault he's had to step up


you want to start the 2nd rounders? that's ridiculous--Juwan's shooting 35% and 16% from 3

I'm always surprised when he finishes anywhere positive in advanced stats but I also think a lot of people's "eye tests" are jaundiced

Austin is good in isolation, but that's certainly a type of play you don't want too much of. The problem is that it's only one thing. He's not so good as a pick and roll ball handler, Lou Williams is much better. He's one of the leaders in shots after 3-6 dribbles, and he shoots 35% FG on those shots.

Here are his FG% in different situations:
Drives: 37.9%
Catch and Shoot: 29.6% FG / 30.2 % 3PT (.444 eFG)
Pull-Up: 33.8% FG / 44.9% 3PT (.475 eFG)

Some of his general advanced stats:
10.4 PER
.483 TS%
99 Ortg

Those are all pretty bad and well below average numbers. He's certainly not playing "well" this season, worse than last season, and he was barely average last season. I think we should just settle that Austin is a below average player, and if he is used as more, he will look worse than he should because of too large a role.

well I don't judge numbers at the moment--everyone's are down
Blake's down to 42.5% FG
you're not gonna win much when your under-the-basket player is shooting that bad
things are a complete mess

you just can't wave away Austin's numbers as a starter last year
and you just can't say 'play somebody else' when there isn't anybody else