CP3 & Redick Reminisce on the Lob City era

[mkwest]

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From a couple weeks ago...

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[esqtvd]

good times
best in Clipper history

maybe the best for all of them individually, depending on what the Rockets and Sixers do

already the best for DJ, Blake, Austin, Jamal


Doc not so bad after all
CP and Blake just not mature enough to lead
to sort out their relationship

it happens
probably more often than not
you don't know what you got 'til it's gone

it was always my dream they'd all take a little less so we could afford one more stud

if we'd had, say, a Tobias Harris, history would have been very different

[Quake Griffin]

Is there a person on our team that played with these two?

Clippers moving onward and upward.

These two, mid thirties, no rings, re-hashing trips to the second round.

Hope they had fun.

[mkwest]

Is there a person on our team that played with these two?

Green for one game during the 2013-14 preseason and Luc. Green didn't really play with them, and Luc hasn't really played with the guys we have now.

[QRich3]

Yeah, when the disappointment of not reaching the WCF wears off, that team is gonna start being remembered as the great thing it was. Deservedly.

I still want Paul, Blake and DJ's jerseys to be the first three that our franchise retires. Wouldn't even have a problem if they retire JJ's too.

[og15]

Is there a person on our team that played with these two?

Clippers moving onward and upward.

These two, mid thirties, no rings, re-hashing trips to the second round.

Hope they had fun.

Mbah is the only one, but as mkwest said, he hasn't really played with the new team

[Quake Griffin]

Yeah, when the disappointment of not reaching the WCF wears off, that team is gonna start being remembered as the great thing it was. Deservedly.

I still want Paul, Blake and DJ's jerseys to be the first three that our franchise retires. Wouldn't even have a problem if they retire JJ's too.

DeAndre? He deserves to have his number retired?


Also...what if we end up winning a chip or two in the 2020s?
Are we going to be a championship level org that looks back and celebrates 2nd round exits?
It's easy now to say, "yeah...that's where it all started" but I think it may be different in the future.

I'd much rather our first jersey be a Kobe or a Duncan....a career Clipper...one who has helped lead us to a ring.

[Wammy Giveaway]

What did Paul say about his punch on Rajon Rondo?

[esqtvd]

Yeah, when the disappointment of not reaching the WCF wears off, that team is gonna start being remembered as the great thing it was. Deservedly.

I still want Paul, Blake and DJ's jerseys to be the first three that our franchise retires. Wouldn't even have a problem if they retire JJ's too.

DeAndre? He deserves to have his number retired?


Also...what if we end up winning a chip or two in the 2020s?
Are we going to be a championship level org that looks back and celebrates 2nd round exits?
It's easy now to say, "yeah...that's where it all started" but I think it may be different in the future.

I'd much rather our first jersey be a Kobe or a Duncan....a career Clipper...one who has helped lead us to a ring.

I would say this is Steve Ballmer's thinking--as we say, the only vote that counts.

You usually do the nostalgia trip when a team's in the doldrums and you want to keep the fan base involved somehow. Ballmer has no real emotional connection with Clipper history. As far as he's concerned, Clipper history starts May 29, 2014. And he's probably having more fun with this team than with the one he inherited.


https://www.nba.com/article/2018/03/07/la-clippers-owner-steve-ballmer-blake-griffin-trade-state-team

Ballmer approved Lawrence Frank's trade of Griffin to the Detroit Pistons. It was a heavily scrutinized deal considering Griffin had just signed a five-year, $171-million contract to be a Clipper for life. But it was a smart rebuilding deal that netted them not only scorer Tobias Harris but also a second first-round draft pick this year, with both picks currently in the lottery.

"I said, 'Look, things aren't going to progress this way … we need to make other changes if we really are going to put ourselves in a position to win a championship,'' Ballmer said. "It was not an easy decision, but we're in it to win championships, and it turns out, you have to take more risks.''

It worked. With Paul and Griffin gone, the Clippers suddenly became a team again, the drama gone, the tension lifted, everyone getting fed.

"Players are playing more freely, I'm thinking about things different, Lawrence has a chance to think more freely about the roster, and Doc has more freedom in the way he thinks about coaching,'' Ballmer said.

...

In four years, even with more wisdom and perspective, his optimism and impatience remain.

"If this was the tech business, I say 'Look, you have a version one, now you know what you do? A version two,' '' said the former Microsoft executive. "You learn, adjust, and move forward, and by version three, you better damn well get it right.''

[Akklaim1]

Ballmer has yet to experience a losing record. He's had it "easy" so far. Yeah, no championship yet but he's had a winning club since purchasing the Clippers.

[esqtvd]

Ballmer has yet to experience a losing record. He's had it "easy" so far. Yeah, no championship yet but he's had a winning club since purchasing the Clippers.

True. And Ballmer refused to tank this year, although he acceded to the future and dealt Tobias. AT the trade deadline, AFTER we built a winning record, kept our winning culture, and got plenty in return for Tobias.

Plus, except for the extra Bird Rights year we could offer him, Tobias can always come back and sign for pretty much the same money anyway.


And now look where we are. If you listened to Don MacLean' s commentary tonight, the trades plugged new players into Doc's system, and still we got younger and picked up draft picks.

Still winning at the rate when Tobias was here. We're 8-2 over our last 10!!


So f*** that douchebag draft pick that we'll now give to the Celtics, which will be 17th or worse. This is fun. We might even knock off the Nugs if we draw them, and get as far as Chris Paul ever did.


True---Steve Ballmer is 62 years old and spent two billion dollars to buy the Clippers. He is never going to experience a losing season if he can help it, for the rest of his natural life.

Steve Ballmer is a Clippers fan.

[QRich3]

Yeah, when the disappointment of not reaching the WCF wears off, that team is gonna start being remembered as the great thing it was. Deservedly.

I still want Paul, Blake and DJ's jerseys to be the first three that our franchise retires. Wouldn't even have a problem if they retire JJ's too.

DeAndre? He deserves to have his number retired?


Also...what if we end up winning a chip or two in the 2020s?
Are we going to be a championship level org that looks back and celebrates 2nd round exits?
It's easy now to say, "yeah...that's where it all started" but I think it may be different in the future.

I'd much rather our first jersey be a Kobe or a Duncan....a career Clipper...one who has helped lead us to a ring.

Definitely. This is a personal thing and every fan will have their own opinion, but for me you definitely retire all three. And if you build a dynasty down the line, you retire their numbers too, I don't see a problem with it.

It's not about celebrating 2nd round exits, and my comments about letting time go by and realising that team was so much more than that -as illustrated by JJ's and Paul's comments that revived all this- were meant to highlight that. That team was the first ever full fledged contender this franchise had in its 40 years of history, and I don't care about resultist takes, that team was a top contender for half a decade, and it will probably be seen like that with time.

It's also about much more than results, it's about what that team brought to us fans, just like the Grizzlies are gonna retire the grit and grind numbers of guys like Zach Randolph and Tony Allen because that team was important to them, even though they got the same or even less results than our lob city era. Yeah, I don't consider getting swept in the WCF because all your rivals were injured as any sort of accomplishment, and that's why I look for more than just results in all this.

[TheNewEra]

The tension in the locker room something had to give either Doc or the team and it was the team

[Ranma]

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[Clemenza]

We had some good runs with Lob City but also so disappointing. That choke to Houston is just now starting to erase from my memory.

[Quake Griffin]

Which season wasn't exactly a disappointment? Maybe 2012. We overachieved beating Memphis. We never had a shot with SAS. Fine.

2013, we go backwards and lose to Memphis. I know Blake rolled his ankle...net result...disappointing.
2014, we are up 7 with 45 seconds left in Game 5 in OKC....We lost that 45 seconds, we lose the next game. Any real fan who was there knows that it stung FOR A WHILE....Ranma can vouch that I said that entire year, we can beat OKC....and we had them...in our sights. We had a vehement argument over this issue.

2015, we beat the Spurs....we're seemingly growing up....oh wait, choke to the Rockets.
2016, injury, injury, and then lose to the Blazers.
2017, injury to Blake, and then lose to the Jazz in a Game 7 in front of our fans in a lackluster fashion.

It's kinda preposterous to me that we're gonna come back years later and pretend this era was good times because we were winning 50+ games. We were not the team that won 50 and consistently just fell to better teams in the playoffs. We choked....A LOT and underachieved....and Blake punched a 5'5" POS over a woman....and all the **** we ate as fans for flopping....DeandreGate....and yeah by 2017, it was nowhere near as fun as it was in 2012 and 2013. Putting a positive spin on it and pretending to be above a lot of the failure and noise surrounding the team rings a little hollow to me.

Maybe CP3 gets his jersey retired....maybe Blake...both maybes.
Deandre...lol, no.
Crawford...we srs here?

[Wammy Giveaway]

Which season wasn't exactly a disappointment? Maybe 2012. We overachieved beating Memphis. We never had a shot with SAS. Fine.

I'd still call it a disappointment. Had Chauncey Billups not broken his ACL, they would have had a real shot at the Western Conference Finals by way of a better matchup in the 1st round than the Grizzlies (he could have helped given them a 3rd place seeding). Memphis was a trap series; any team who faced them in the playoffs automatically lost, even if the team was able to beat them. Even the three-game losing streak was a cause for concern - they lost to a title contender, playoff contender and lottery team in that order, Jason Smith's bounty foul to Blake Griffin the cherry on top. It knocked them into the lottery and required a six-game winning streak to bounce back. Also, the loss to the Lakers denied them their first ever Pacific Division.

Putting a positive spin on it and pretending to be above a lot of the failure and noise surrounding the team rings a little hollow to me.

Well, you have to celebrate something, even if it looks lackluster. As for the jersey retirement, they're gonna wait until they actually win a title. Lawler will be first, with or without a ring.

As for Paul, this ties to this year's playoffs. Any team who defeats the Clippers in the playoffs will see automatic elevated success. If Rockets face Clippers, Paul's FINALLY getting to the Finals, and after his ejection by punching Rondo and absorbing the hate that many people like myself have felt so he could have his Man In The Mirror moment, I feel at ease, he's earned it - plus, he gets his emotional revenge. Grizzlies did the same thing to get their first ever conference finals visit. If it's Warriors or another team, Clippers must do We-Believe-Dubs run.

[QRich3]

Which season wasn't exactly a disappointment? Maybe 2012. We overachieved beating Memphis. We never had a shot with SAS. Fine.

2013, we go backwards and lose to Memphis. I know Blake rolled his ankle...net result...disappointing.
2014, we are up 7 with 45 seconds left in Game 5 in OKC....We lost that 45 seconds, we lose the next game. Any real fan who was there knows that it stung FOR A WHILE....Ranma can vouch that I said that entire year, we can beat OKC....and we had them...in our sights. We had a vehement argument over this issue.

2015, we beat the Spurs....we're seemingly growing up....oh wait, choke to the Rockets.
2016, injury, injury, and then lose to the Blazers.
2017, injury to Blake, and then lose to the Jazz in a Game 7 in front of our fans in a lackluster fashion.

It's kinda preposterous to me that we're gonna come back years later and pretend this era was good times because we were winning 50+ games. We were not the team that won 50 and consistently just fell to better teams in the playoffs. We choked....A LOT and underachieved....and Blake punched a 5'5" POS over a woman....and all the **** we ate as fans for flopping....DeandreGate....and yeah by 2017, it was nowhere near as fun as it was in 2012 and 2013. Putting a positive spin on it and pretending to be above a lot of the failure and noise surrounding the team rings a little hollow to me.

Maybe CP3 gets his jersey retired....maybe Blake...both maybes.
Deandre...lol, no.
Crawford...we srs here?

2014 we lost to a better team. You can rationalize it however you want and talk about what hunch you had we could do it, how close we were, or whatever. But we still lost to a better team, one who won 59 games. By the same token, every year you don't win a championship is a failure. It's ok to have that mentality, but I don't share it. I'm left equally disappointed, but then try to understand how and why we lost, and I think that was an outstanding season for the Clippers. Probably best in our history.

2015 is another outstanding season, another that ends in disappointment, but one where they accomplished a lot before that Houston series ended. Again, it's ok that you're left disappointed, but this isn't about how you feel, it's about recognizing these guys accomplishments.

The rest of the seasons end in injury at the worst times, and again, it's ok you feel bad about it, but that doesn't take anything away from their work.

There's not a doubt in my mind that if they ask me, I retire all three, and think long and hard about JJ as a 4th. Who knows what Ballmer does, and each and every one of us is gonna have an opinion, but mine is clear.

[UKClipperfan]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Great listen. Great times. Great memories.

Blake, DJ, CP, JJ and Jamal should all have their numbers retired imo.

[Ranma]

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