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Serious question. I feel a bit dissapointed in EJ. His play after the AS game last year actually was better than his game has been so far this season.

Sure he's had a few injuries, but who hasnt and when healthy he has looked a bit passive too. Seems like he's holding back a lot.

Any thoughts?

Good question.
I was gonna bring this up, but I was waiting for the season to end.

He had a pretty good rookie year, but he hasn't shown much improvement in his game in his second season.
I can tell he is physically stronger, and he is more confident with his shots.
However, his ball handling/passing hasn't shown any improvement.
He is passive on the floor, but thats just his character IMO.

Despite the injuries he had, he hasn't been averaging 20ppg we expected from him, but most players usually step up their game significantly in their 3rd season, so if we works out well this summer, especially with the team USA then we should expect a serious improvement in his game next season.

The only thing I'm disappointed about is his inconsistency. His ball handling skills and overall game will get better in time. Don't forget he only played a year of college ball. Also, it is a lot easier to
produce for a bad team like the clippers were last year. Look at Al now in Washington. No pressure and no micro managing coach = better production.

He should work on his pg skills this summer. Dribbling and passing will be key. His free throw shooting is atrocious too. I wouldn't say it is due to lack of focus though. Probably just fatigue. He does play both sides of the game.

It's so annoying that he misses so many free throws! I'd like to see him incorporate a post-up game, since he has pretty good strength. Overall though, I'm not really disappointed. He just needs to be a little more consistent and grow the confidence to know he really has the skills to dominate a game. He's a little too passive to be a great leader, as most superstars have huge egos, so I don't expect him to take over a game like I would a BD or Wade. I'm still more disappointed in the expectations we had for BD.

I Think He Get's Inconsistent Touches One Game He's Getting The Ball Every Time Down The Floor Than In One He Won't Touch It For Five Straight Possesions.He Hasn't Had Much Time Playing Without Baron Davis Or Chris Kaman You Have To Remember Besides His Free Throw Shooting His Percentages Are Terrific.

Slightly. His play making skills do need to improve and I expected they would be a little better this year. But overall I think he is playing his role very well. I don't think the team is really built around his strengths and I think he is doing a very good job of not forcing things. He is avg 17+ points on <13 shots and is keeping his turnovers down. He also is playing solid man defense on a team that doesn't have much perimeter D.

I expected more out of him than what we have seen. I don't think he's been horrible by any means, but it is a little disappointing that we haven't seen much of a difference. I don't know what happened to him at the free-throw line this season. It seemed that it was in his head, but it has stuck for most of the season. He has shot well in the last month, so I'm hoping that it continues.

I agree that his looks are inconsistent. I think he should be getting more attempts than he has gotten. Especially when others are getting the attempts, but can't shoot. I expected his rebounding and assist numbers to be up. They fluctuate. He may have a game where he has 6 assists but only 1 rebound, or vice versa. Those are just a couple areas that he needs to improve in. Other small guards have managed to be decent rebounders for their size, so he's capable as well. He just has to make an effort to work harder to get them. He's said on many occasions that he sees himself as being a pg in this league. I think playing at pg would give him the biggest advantage given what his size, quickness, strength and defensive presence. The problem is that he is not a point guard. You have to have the vision, passing ability, ball-handling and floor-general mentality. I think he's lacking in all of those areas.

I still think that he has a lot of potential and can be a really good player in this league. If he doesn't get any better, he's still better than average, but he can be so much more. Even if playing point guard is not in his future, he needs to improve his passing and ball-handling. The whole team could improve their passing, but making those weaknesses become strengths would greatly improve his versatility and effectiveness on the court. I know that he can't be too happy with the way that he has played, so I fully expect him put in hard work this summer. Hopefully his junior year will be his breakout year.

Are his fluctuating #s a direct result of Baron Davis' fluctuating play maybe?

One Thing I've Noticed Is He's Less Ball Dominant Than He Was In College And High School I Expected Him To Just Get The Ball Everytime And Just Go But He's Way To Passive On This Team.It's Like Him And OJ Mayo Are In The Same Situation They Have To Differ To Lesser Talented Players

moses22 wrote:One Thing I've Noticed Is He's Less Ball Dominant Than He Was In College And High School I Expected Him To Just Get The Ball Everytime And Just Go But He's Way To Passive On This Team.It's Like Him And OJ Mayo Are In The Same Situation They Have To Differ To Lesser Talented Players

Why do you capitalize the first letter of every word?


Anyway, Gordon is a good player, you guys should give him more time to develop, especially with a new coach coming in...

I also thought he would be better this season. He is still very young and can develop his game. He is only 21, looks like we gave up on the season anyways. So when he comes back from the injury let's see what he can do and he may play better with Blake next season.

loot wrote:Are his fluctuating #s a direct result of Baron Davis' fluctuating play maybe?

That's a part of it. Baron already does his own thing, but then other times he'll freeze some guys out. Is it intentional? but it happens. I've seen Gordon force things at times, because he wasn't getting the ball. A lot of that is on Baron (and some of it is on Kaman). I wish Baron played more like his stepbrother, but unfortunately he doesn't.

Now that the season is all but over, I would like to see more of the offense ran through EJ and maybe cut down on Kaman's minutes. Kaman taking 16 shots to get 19 ppg isn't all that great for a C and that isn't even counting him leading the team in turnovers. When you consider that between them Kaman and Davis are combining for 30 shots a game and only getting 34 points along with the TO's it is no wonder that our team is struggling offensively. And I won't even start on Rasual Butler...

I think scoring wise Gordon is capable increasing his load and putting up numbers closer to what we expected if asked to do so. Unfortunately on a team that has Davis, Kaman, and Griffin and whose best role players are also offensive players(Butler, Outlaw) we may not see him really thrive offensively unless we see some major changes. Hopefully we can get Camby back whose D and passing makes him valuable player on this team. Arguably our most valuable this year.

We can't call him a disappointment for the same reasons stated above. He is only 21 years old people. He only played in one year of college, and he is the equivalent of a junior in college right now. I know we all want him to be our savior, but we have to be patient. I still see him as a very #2 player to complement as superstar on a good team in the future.

Yeah I agree with SportsGuy. He had a solid rookie season and I think we were perhaps expecting too much out of him. But on the other hand I was expecting more improvement out of his 2nd season. His ball handling needs to get a lot better. That is the area I think he needs the most work. I just hope that EJ doesn't pull another Al on us. But EJ's case is different than Al's case cause Al spent all four years in college and he was an old senior in college. He was 23 at the start of his rookie season and turned 24 not long after so Al should have improved a lot after his rookie season.

EJ just turned 21 a couple of months ago. He is shooting a decent percentage @ 46% and averaging 17 ppg. He needs to learn how to be more aggressive and use his strength more to get into the lane. If we don't see improvement next season then I think there should be cause for some concern.

You guys need to set EG on the right path soon, he's become way too streaky. He's got the talent but I think he just needs a better defined role in your system.

A new system may save him

As many have stated, he just hasn't really grown in his second year. I think part of this is due to our lack of any team cohesion on offense, so we're basically seeing the same 1-on-1 stuff we saw from EJ last year, except that the NBA picked up on his strength and ability to drive and can draw more charges from him.

I don't think he really needs to improve his strength and driving, I think he actually needs to work on other aspects of his game so that when he does drive he can catch teams off guard more. He's not a bad shooter but is not quite a dead-eye jump shooter, so I think improving and trusting his jumper would help. Also his play off the ball, so he can get more easy opportunities and use his athleticism (although overall team offense has an impact on this.) He's also perhaps not as 'heady' a player as I would like, but that's no big deal for his position.

More than anything, the Clipper team offense routinely gets stagnant. We have a few players with good offensive abilities, but the total really seems to be less than the sum of the parts.

To his credit, EJ has improved at driving to the basket. As exhibited in his sick and-1 dunk last night. He has the ability to do that multiples time on a nightly basis and I look for him to go all out in his 3rd season.

Playing at 60
% and coasting through a losing season (hello BD, Kaman) has rubbed off on EJ. He's been playing uninspired. I hope Griffin still has the fire he had in college. He's a winner. EJ used to be like that too, but lately he seems disinterested even.