What's the problem with the Clippers? Christmas Check-up

[50CalClips]

Choose all that apply...

- There is no problem with the Clippers
- Turnovers; 4th Worst in the NBA; Career Highs for Kawhi, George, and Lou (each)
- Chemistry/Team-Building... but it's simply a matter of time, they'll be fine by March
- Chemistry/Team-Building... and it's concerning, must be addressed/corrected soon
- Coaching/Play-calling
- Injuries
- Load Management
- Other

[Yogatti]

Coaching.

[Perseus1966]

No real pg?

[esqtvd]

"Load management," in that Kawhi and some others are not gonna bust ass and risk injury for meaningless games in December.

We look to cruise to the 2nd seed, which is just as good as the #1 seed. Until that changes, we're on cruise control. It's all about the Larry.

[NippySudz]

I think its fit, overconfidence, as well as Load management.

I don't think the coaching is the problem. Doc is telling them to push it up the floor, and they're not going fast enough. I literally saw PG trotting and doc was telling PG to push it because they had numbers. drove me crazy that he allowed time for the defense to set up. Might have been tired, but still. Doc rivers telling them about the third quarter and the early stages of the offense was fools gold.

In the NBA, you can wave off a coach's play and do what you think is best in that situation.

No doubt Doc rivers failed as a coach on Thursday night. Having Mcgruder in instead of on Moe Harkless and not trying to get leonard some open looks and free from PJ tucker was a coaching error. Coaches are not infallible they do mess up

But I think the real issue is Load management and the teams overconfidence as the favorites. Earlier in the season, you can see it. Where Zubac says, they're not worried about being down and Kawhi having to score 14 points in the 4th quarter because he's kawhi leonard.

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This mentality is coming back to bite them in the ass. They are over confident and needed to get smacked in the mouth by the rockets on their home floor to see that. They got beat against bad teams, but they can shrug that off, especially on the road. But at home? You have bad habits and that's what happens.

that's the first thing. Second thing is personnell I feel like. Kawhi can't be bringing up the ball or PG. Kawhi by the numbers is a better playmaker than PG, which I didn't think heading in. Kawhi can make the pocket passes to zubac. PG can't. PG has more turnovers than leonard despite less assists. and None of them are great.

Secondly, the interior defense. We need a big. He doesn't need to replace zu or trezz, but one any given matchup, You're going to need a defensive big who can guard and block shots. Zu is great. I love zu, but playoff time the inexperience might hurt him and last yr, he wasn't much of a factor against small ball lineups in teh PO season.

[NippySudz]

When I bring up Load management, that's not to say I don't understand why leonard is resting. I am not an athlete and its his body, but I can't help but to think if he was able to get more reps as a player, he'd be playing much more better and the team would be playing much more better. Load management is harder to establish continuity in a new system with 3-4 new parts(Kawhi,PG, Moe, McGruder). With the raptors, he was the only main Cog. Danny green was there, but he avg 9PPG a game. His usage compared to kawhi isn't that high, so he's easy to fit in meaninglessly along a kawhi.

But PG is a big part of what they want to do. So you need reps. Would I like to see kawhi play as a fan? Yes. I would. Do I think its smart to? No, I think he should listen to his doctors. This is a man who limped in the finals and even before that in march of 2019 he had visual limping. So he should do what's best.

But to say it doesn't effect the early progress of the team, I would be lying.

One more small thing about Load management. I think the team feels just like the fans. I think the team and coaches are frustrated with load management. They will not admit it publicly, but their words and actions suggest that. I know the team feels good when Kawhi is in and they racking off 4 games straight than Kawhi sits out and they lose that game or have to work harder than they are use to. That sucks.

Doc when asked about if PG was playing against chicago after playing so many mins against the wolves, his answer was along the lines of I don't know yet, its frustrating' something along those lines. So it lets you know that the team isn't joyous about it but endure it

Kawhi also kinda shined a light on load management last yr during his sit down after they won, he joked about the raptors being frustrated that he was load managing and made a joke saying, you guys don't want me here anymore.

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go to the 2:10 mark for the load management clip. There are more references to load management frustration throughout the video

[Roach Clip]

So far, the poll results are spot on.

[50CalClips]

No real pg?

Just a bit later, after I posted the Poll, I thought of that option^ ("Personnel")...
There's always "OTHER"

[Roscoe Sheed]

I think Doc should play Harkless more as aforementioned. Also, perhaps they should explore a trade for either a point guard and/or a big man. I like Lou a lot, but he isn’t really a point guard.

What is their end game line up? You want Lou out there to handle the ball, but then who sits? You need Beverley’s defense, Harrell’s toughness, and Shamet’s shooting. Obviously Pg13 and Kawhi will be on the court

[esqtvd]

one thing we should know from what Popovich learned the hard way

Kawhi marches to his own drummer and you can't "coach" him otherwise


as for the rest of our team, except for PG--who has been better than advertised although he's still struggling with TOs--I think a lot of people are overestimating our talent

we are getting a lot done with a random collection of mismatched parts that has barely played together

[esqtvd]

I think Doc should play Harkless more as aforementioned.

Harkless has zero offense and is near the bottom of the team in both net rating and plus/minus plus 2 others. You might like him, but the numbers don't.


BBall-Reference NetRating:
+35 = Walton
+13 = Patterson
+1 = Harkless
-24 = Jerome Robinson

Overall RAPTOR Score:
+2.9 = Patterson
+1.7 = Walton
-3.0 = Harkless
-3.6 = Jerome



+/-

Kawhi 9.5
Paul George 6.1
Montrezl Harrell 5.9
Lou Williams 3.8
Patrick Patterson 3.4
Patrick Beverley 3.3
JaMychal Green 3.1
Jerome Robinson 2.7
Derrick Walton Jr. 2.5
Ivica Zubac 1.9
Rodney McGruder 0.9
Terance Mann 0.6
Mfiondu Kabengele 0.4
Maurice Harkless 0.4
Landry Shamet -0.7



PT is being given out pretty much in line with statistical effectiveness, EXCEPT for Harkless.

[Roscoe Sheed]

I think Doc should play Harkless more as aforementioned.

Harkless has zero offense and is near the bottom of the team in both net rating and plus/minus plus 2 others. You might like him, but the numbers don't.


BBall-Reference NetRating:
+35 = Walton
+13 = Patterson
+1 = Harkless
-24 = Jerome Robinson

Overall RAPTOR Score:
+2.9 = Patterson
+1.7 = Walton
-3.0 = Harkless
-3.6 = Jerome



+/-

Kawhi 9.5
Paul George 6.1
Montrezl Harrell 5.9
Lou Williams 3.8
Patrick Patterson 3.4
Patrick Beverley 3.3
JaMychal Green 3.1
Jerome Robinson 2.7
Derrick Walton Jr. 2.5
Ivica Zubac 1.9
Rodney McGruder 0.9
Terance Mann 0.6
Mfiondu Kabengele 0.4
Maurice Harkless 0.4
Landry Shamet -0.7



PT is being given out pretty much in line with statistical effectiveness, EXCEPT for Harkless.

I don’t think he should play a ton of minutes but he is a better defender than Mcgruder mainly because of length.

Besides, I’m more concerned about the lack of a true point guard- which is probably main reason for the high turnover numbers

[nickhx2]

team construction i think should be an option in the poll, though i would not cite it as a problem.

[esqtvd]

I don’t think he should play a ton of minutes but he is a better defender than Mcgruder mainly because of length.

Besides, I’m more concerned about the lack of a true point guard- which is probably main reason for the high turnover numbers

I think McGruder is still being given an audition. He can help on offense whereas Harkless is a liability. Now is the time to see what we've got. I'm afraid we already know what we've got in Harkless, and as much as his defense is praiseworthy, his overall game is severely stunted.


As for turnovers, yes, they're a concern [we're 27th], especially Paul George, who averages 3.5 a game vs 3.6 assists. I still do think his handles aren't back yet. Last year he averaged one less TO per game and .4 more assists.

Kawhi seems rather lax and sloppy to me, and his 3.5 TOs per game are pretty bad. But again, that could be Load Management Kawhi, not Playoff Kawhi.

Lou's 3.1 per game are bad, but with 6.2 apg [not bad at all!], a 2-to-1 ratio isn't terrible.

Bev's 1.3 TOs per game are likewise acceptable vs his 3.3 apg.



At this point, I think we just have to wait and see. We can either add a quality PG or a big, but not both. I don't know which we need more. Frankly, Zubac is a bit of a sacred cow around here, but I'm not sold. When things are going well, he's fine, but when things go to heck, he's standing there watching the world go by.

[Roscoe Sheed]

I agree with your views on Zubac. He is serviceable and a decent rim protector but it would be nice to have a better starting center- not much available though

[NippySudz]

I know it's the spurs but when this team is locked in, they look like the best team in basketball. Looked like the best team each time they played Houston at home. They just didn't do it for all four qtrs.

Hopefully that was a humbling loss, not to take the foot off the gas. Kawhi was pedal to the metal all game as was the team. No more **** around

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Tapatalk

[Kelphus]

I agree with your views on Zubac. He is serviceable and a decent rim protector but it would be nice to have a better starting center- not much available though

He is starting, but Harrell is our center.

zubac still mishandles so many possessions

[NippySudz]

I agree with your views on Zubac. He is serviceable and a decent rim protector but it would be nice to have a better starting center- not much available though

He is starting, but Harrell is our center.

zubac still mishandles so many possessions

zu is a good passing big man. He makes so many passes that trez cannot make. Top of the key passes like the gasol brothers.

[esqtvd]

I agree with your views on Zubac. He is serviceable and a decent rim protector but it would be nice to have a better starting center- not much available though

He is starting, but Harrell is our center.

zubac still mishandles so many possessions

I was combing our 4th quarter stats and Zubac's were less but not significantly worse than Harrell's--except for turnover %, which was shocking--a team-worst 18.8% to Harrell's 8.0%

https://stats.nba.com/players/advanced/?sort=TM_TOV_PCT&dir=1&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&Period=4&TeamID=1610612746

[esqtvd]

Christmas check-up?

Christmas is actually the first day of our season

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