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Jerry’s first two seasons here have seen Ballmer make significant representations that the team is doing one thing, only for January/February to tell a different story.

Example 1: Clipper for Life Blake Griffin.
Example 2: Anti-tank/Full Steam Ahead/ We Ain’t No Sixers....then trade Tobias.

While we can still make the playoffs, I seriously doubt it.

Bigger question. Is this how our FO works?
Jerry tells Ballmer, “LOL, that’s cute but by the deadline we’re gonna have to do this (trade Blake/Tobias) if we’re going to get where we need to be.”

Guess there could be an innocent explanation that we just took in more information and kept an open mind but I doubt it given that this has happened twice and the two directions are so drastically opposed to what Ballmer said to start the years.

I'm gonna leave this tweet here, cause I fully agree with it:


Jerry West is an important voice in the room everyone respects and listens to, but it irks me that everyone assumes everything good the Clippers do is his decision alone, just because he's the bigger name, when he's just a consultant that probably doesn't get too deep into day-to-day operations. The way we operate mostly resembles the way OKC's been doing stuff for years, and when you hear Winger speak about our future and stuff, you get a more clear sense on how they work than when Jerry speaks.

I'm sure Winger is the first to love being in the shadows and giving all the credit to Jerry, but it bothers me that everyone does that.

QRich3 wrote:I'm gonna leave this tweet here, cause I fully agree with it:

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Jerry West is an important voice in the room everyone respects and listens to, but it irks me that everyone assumes everything good the Clippers do is his decision alone, just because he's the bigger name, when he's just a consultant that probably doesn't get too deep into day-to-day operations. The way we operate mostly resembles the way OKC's been doing stuff for years, and when you hear Winger speak about our future and stuff, you get a more clear sense on how they work than when Jerry speaks.

I'm sure Winger is the first to love being in the shadows and giving all the credit to Jerry, but it bothers me that everyone does that.

I did mean to put, Michael "That's Cute" Winger in the original post (as if to question whether he is behind this) but I edited the post as I was typing it and forgot to add him back in there. Nonetheless, I can own that the thread title still would convey sentiments that necessitate your post.

I still find it odd that we have these ideas at the beginning of the year and we end up doing something drastically different at the deadline.

Yah, I still think what Ballmer says is mostly press, he's a salesman after all. He's just telling you to buy tickets, but I think Winger, Jerry, Frank and them had every intention of trading Tobi when his value was highest, if there was a good package to be had.

I mean, we've been talking about it for months here, and we're not half as smart or informed as they are.

With Blake, I think it was different, I think they gave it an honest shot at building the best team they could around him, and the results were not as good as they expected, so they cut their losses as soon as.

But I do think Ballmer knew this was a possibility all along.

I don't think it's that big of an issue. Flexibility is important and plans can change, that's just the nature of the business. This approach is much better than Doc's desperate attempts to prop up a failing core.

QRich3 wrote:I'm gonna leave this tweet here, cause I fully agree with it:

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Jerry West is an important voice in the room everyone respects and listens to, but it irks me that everyone assumes everything good the Clippers do is his decision alone, just because he's the bigger name, when he's just a consultant that probably doesn't get too deep into day-to-day operations. The way we operate mostly resembles the way OKC's been doing stuff for years, and when you hear Winger speak about our future and stuff, you get a more clear sense on how they work than when Jerry speaks.

I'm sure Winger is the first to love being in the shadows and giving all the credit to Jerry, but it bothers me that everyone does that.

I think Jerry is a backstop. Everybody in the org liked Shai, and Jerry gave the nod, in fact we traded two 2nd rounders to Charlotte just to move up one spot and make sure we would get him. Is Shai worth it, Jerry?

Yup, saith The Logo.

The org realizes Blake is not going to become the team leader and an NBA alpha dog. Jerry agrees.

Although he's passed the 20 ppg threshold with some gaudy shooting percentages, Tobias isn't our max man. Jerry gives the nod--yeah, trade him for what you can get, if it's good enough. Hey, that Landry Shamet looks pretty good. Jerry agrees. But how about that Korkmaz guy? Jerry shrugs.

I'd also say that Jerry's a backstop for deals we're thinking about but DON'T make. His greatest value may be there, keeping us out of the ditch. We might end up thinking about Kyrie or Jimmy Butler, a huge Rubicon of an investment. But if The Logo says no, you're simply not going to cross that river.


As for Ballmer and how you run the club, if he wanted to tank we wouldn't have Avery and Bev and have signed Scott. The philosophy is still to preserve a winning culture. By finishing 42-40 last year and being above .500 again for half of this year, so far so good.

As for GM Doc not giving up on the Clipper Golden Era, that was Ballmer's call too. I agree with the decision. To have folded that hand without playing it out would have been the stupid thing, the thing you'd REALLY end up regretting. It may be awhile before we're a consistent 50-win team again. You have to enjoy these things while they last, and go for the gusto. Any punk can fold his hand.

We're in no worse shape than if we'd have backed up the truck on that team, and today we'd all be saying we quit too soon.

The saddest words of all are "What might have been." We played out the hand, and I have no regrets.

We better not strike out in the FA market because I'm not liking what our FO has been becoming. I don't like these overhauls during the season. Not a fan. Not one bit.

Akklaim1 wrote:We better not strike out in the FA market because I'm not liking what our FO has been becoming. I don't like these overhauls during the season. Not a fan. Not one bit.

I don’t buy that thinking. Tobias Harris increased his value during the final year of his contract. You have to trade him during the season to get max value. And the fact of the matter is that teams make deals at the trade deadline; that’s why there’s a deadline in the first place.

The main goal for any team is to make moves that help the franchise and that’s going to happen during the season pretty often. A lot of teams make bad deals or make other bad moves at/near the deadline (*cough*Lakers!*cough*). The Blake trade and the deals we made this year at the deadline don’t fall into that category. If our team is worse now—and it’s actually kind of an “if”—we gained in youth, flexibility, and draft picks. Sure, free agency is important (again, for every team that wants to contend for a title), but these trades weren’t just about free agency.

Quake Griffin wrote:Jerry’s first two seasons here have seen Ballmer make significant representations that the team is doing one thing, only for January/February to tell a different story.

Ballmer is not involved in day-to-day basketball operations, simple as that. He has always said that he wants to let the basketball people do their job.

Interesting to see now all these stories about Lakers potentially poaching Jerry, a couple weeks ago it was Doc Rivers.

Akklaim1 wrote:We better not strike out in the FA market because I'm not liking what our FO has been becoming. I don't like these overhauls during the season. Not a fan. Not one bit.

The Clippers haven't been making trades to clear out cap space, they've made trades to IMPROVE the team, AND create cap flexibility. Look at the Pistons, and look at us. Look at what we've now net from trading Blake Griffin, an absolute haul of players and picks for a player that I really like, but is of very questionable value given his contract and age.

madmaxmedia wrote:

Quake Griffin wrote:Jerry’s first two seasons here have seen Ballmer make significant representations that the team is doing one thing, only for January/February to tell a different story.

Ballmer is not involved in day-to-day basketball operations, simple as that. He has always said that he wants to let the basketball people do their job.

Never said he was involved in day to day operations.

mkwest wrote:

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Jeannie **** up sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard when she didnt bring in the Logo when she had the chance. Putting so much faith in Maginka was literally a franchise killing move, i so wish i was a fly on the wall in regards to their internals discussions on whether to bring the Logo back or not. I'm 99% sure that Maginka were the ones who didnt want Logo in there to ride herd on the morons.

Vae Victus wrote:

mkwest wrote:

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Jeannie **** up sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard when she didnt bring in the Logo when she had the chance. Putting so much faith in Maginka was literally a franchise killing move, i so wish i was a fly on the wall in regards to their internals discussions on whether to bring the Logo back or not. I'm 99% sure that Maginka were the ones who didnt want Logo in there to ride herd on the morons.

My guess is that the bad blood back from the Phil Jackson/Jerry West days eliminated whatever chance there was for West to return. But yeah once Jeannie decided on Magic I think that further cemented the decision to not bring West back.

It's interesting that West was very open to or actually wanted to come back. But it was Jeannie and Phil that had the personal relationship, I think West was more willing to let business bygones be bygones.

QRich3 wrote:I'm gonna leave this tweet here, cause I fully agree with it:

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Jerry West is an important voice in the room everyone respects and listens to, but it irks me that everyone assumes everything good the Clippers do is his decision alone, just because he's the bigger name, when he's just a consultant that probably doesn't get too deep into day-to-day operations. The way we operate mostly resembles the way OKC's been doing stuff for years, and when you hear Winger speak about our future and stuff, you get a more clear sense on how they work than when Jerry speaks.

I'm sure Winger is the first to love being in the shadows and giving all the credit to Jerry, but it bothers me that everyone does that.

That's why Magic, Jeannie, and Palinka didn't want him around. Jerry West sucks all the accolades out of the room. They wanted to be the people that brought the Lakers back to winning glory. Of course it all blew up in their faces and are currently a mess of an organization but you get the gist of what they're thinking.

Ranma wrote:The fact that Jerry West said that "there's probably four or five players out there that people really covet" seems to be in line with my own assessment, which I've previously stated. Assuming LeBron James is that fifth probable player due to his age and signs of wearing down, I'm guessing the other four our Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard and Anthony Davis. I guess some will think Kyrie Irving should be in place of the Brow, but I would disagree. However, Kyrie would arguably be a better pursuit than Butler.

It'd certainly be big disappointment to miss out on both Kawhi and KD given our current position, but it wouldn't necessarily mean that we'd be in a bad one as long as we don't rush to spend the available cap space on the "fool's gold" West mentioned. It'd be disappointing in not being able to capitalize on such a ripe opportunity, but compounding the problem by by spending haphazardly would only set us back.

Probably not LeBron since he is under a new contract. If he's included, then Curry and Harden have to fit in there as well.

I think he's probably referring to this FA and possibly Davis since he's supposedly available. There's certainly a tier where you're getting the most bang for your buck (i.e. KD). After that it's caveat emptor imo. Good, but not great players. Kyrie, Kemba, Butler & Thompson. A team adds two of those 4 players, they're going to be a good team, but by no means will they be favorites. If you add KD, then you may feel more comfortable paying big bucks to one of those 4. That could be enough if you have a decent supporting cast.

As you said, the opportunity is prime right now to really capitalize and make the most of our situation. A year from now, Beverley and Zubac have higher salaries on the books, 2 FRP cap holds, and Trezz is a free-agent with a larger cap hold.