Paul George: Doc Rivers tried to use me like JJ Redick + made no playoff adjustments.

[LFAHFN22]

So the season where he registered his second highest PER, to go along with his career high TS%, just happened to coincide with Doc's mismanagement of his skill set? Makes sense.

[xb3at band1tx]

PG is not necessarily wrong, but it's not a good sign if he and his team still can't get over that meltdown and not be able to focus on the season ahead. Like what does bashing Doc (who is still in the league and is by all accounts professional) do other than put the spotlight on themselves and the culture they have created?

This feels like a prelude for more finger-pointing in the season and I'd be terrified if I was a Clipper fan rn

[Dubious Handles]

This thread will 100 % be bumped after the season ends one way or another. Can't wait

[Adam1221]

Is it that hard to accept that Doc doesn't make adjustments in the playoffs?
To me its quite clear.

[Lalouie]

always with the excuses, yet here is the hard fact,,,clips had the talent and the coach didn't coach

[VancouverRaps]

This guy is a clown.

I'm no Doc fan, but man.... have some self respect and take some of the blame yourself. Pinning it all on Doc is a joke.

I can't believe I used to be a PG fan back when he was in Indy.

[Mavrelous]

Doc was horrible at times, but his adjustments almost won game 4 for the Clips against the Mavs, and PG was horrible regardless of the coach.

[oldshoolballer]

This guy is a clown.

I'm no Doc fan, but man.... have some self respect and take some of the blame yourself. Pinning it all on Doc is a joke.

I can't believe I used to be a PG fan back when he was in Indy.

I like PG even less after this. Extremely weak.

[TheNewEra]

People are going to hate the messenger more than the message. Two different teams said the same thing about Doc

Stars blowing double digits leads and not scoring in the 4th isn't a coaching problem. The seem like we saying the stars good enough to get the lead but the coach was at fault for them not winning.

Clippers were up 3-1. Hard to say they was out coached.

It's especially strange when you consider, IIRC, they were leading in every single game.

So obviously you were doing something right.

You lose each game the same way it’s clearly something done wrong. I don’t see see other coaches getting 3-1 beat this often

[TheNewEra]

Doc was horrible at times, but his adjustments almost won game 4 for the Clips against the Mavs, and PG was horrible regardless of the coach.

Yup Reggie Jackson on the floor on a switch everything defense was amazing coaching and end result

[TheNewEra]

PG is not necessarily wrong, but it's not a good sign if he and his team still can't get over that meltdown and not be able to focus on the season ahead. Like what does bashing Doc (who is still in the league and is by all accounts professional) do other than put the spotlight on themselves and the culture they have created?

This feels like a prelude for more finger-pointing in the season and I'd be terrified if I was a Clipper fan rn

Season ended like 2 or 3 months ago he probably recorded this interview a month ago

[HeartBreakKid]

Well, he's not wrong.

[RiseOfTheEmpire]

I mean, JJ and Allen took good shots, what's his complaint. I thought he told Dame he only likes good shots.

Was Doc touching his shooting elbow when he was hitting the backboard?

Barnes and Jackson talk a lot of ****, but become soft as a newborn taking a nap when the guest comes on their show. There's no smoke, just a couple of dick riders. Watch their Durant cast to witness it, were just slobbering all over his knob while he was there after talking about how soft he was for going to GS all summer to others. Stopped watching it after that. Now they sat there and let this guy make excuses and blame Rivers after clowning him when he lost to Denver. They pretend to be real, but are just two fugazies....can't even fake ****.

[The Master]

Read on Twitter

Can't be more delusional.

[celtics543]

The following things can be true independently of each other:

1. Doc doesn't make adjustments and isn't a great x's and o's coach.

2. Paul George was awful and once again fell apart in the playoffs.

Both of those things can be true without one being the cause for the other. Paul George has a losers mentality and it's not going to help him win. I'm not sure what he wants at this point, Doc has already been relieved of his duties and they have a new coach.

[Klayforspicy]

He is off base , first and foremost. Not that Doc didn’t mismanage him but it wasn’t a Reddick style role at all

[ATLTimekeeper]

He just has zero accountability. The guy kept preaching that they were in the driver's seat while they were losing their lead to the Nuggets, and then has the nerve to say that that attitude was Doc's problem. Biggest clown in the NBA.

[Michael Lucky]

Not one shred of accountability for his terrible performance in game 7, wow.

[damanick10]

PG just finding any excuse he can to defend is pathetic play in the playoffs. While some of it may be true, he was still awful and looks terrible here.

[cupcakesnake]

I meaaaan... no one is going to give Paul George the benefit of the doubt right now, and that's fair.

But a borderline top 10 player like that... playing that bad without a known injury, the coach does have to accept some of the blame. Paul George has played well against good teams in the playoffs before, and I don't see that his game has dropped off in any obvious way. He never looked great last year on the Clippers, and some % of that is how he was used. He's not wrong describing how Doc used him. Paul George is a very good shooter but not Ray Allen or JJ good, especially not out of that specific action. Paul George IS however: a 6'9 elite athlete with a sick pull up game... thought we rarely felt that last year.

Hoping PG bounces back next season and we get to see the Clippers we thought we'd see last year. If not, it's a bad look for everyone involved.

They got him playing the SG role though. I would blame the GM for bringing in two elite SFs and making one play out of position. If anything they should play PG13 as a PF.

Again he likes PnR but only Lou could really run it. They need another guard who can run a PnR.

Also, you have a great scorer in Harrell but no strong defender paired with him to mitigate his flaws on defense. That's a GM thing.

Doc made mistakes and definitely should have played Zubac more but Doc didn't make PG13 forget how to shoot.

If PG13 was a role player like Redick then I could understand him complaining if being used improperly. But how can you be an elite star wing a complain about not being able to change it up because the your role wouldn't let you.

I haven't looked at any play tracking data on PG, comparing different years. I wasn't sure if he wanted to be the pick & roll ball handler or finisher. While they're still short the ideal point guard we all want them to have (Chauncey Billups as a player instead of their assistant coach), I think Kennard has some solid potential on this team, filling that ball handler/creator void.

I'm not sure with their current personnel how you get PG at the 4. Their 2 most commonly used lineups were: Beverly/Kawhi/PG/Zubac and either Morris or Harkless (before and after they were traded for each other). The only other prominent PG lineup was Beverly/Lou/PG/Kawhi/Harrell. (In the playoffs it was Shamet in for the injured Beverly early on). I'd like to see your reasoning for calling PG the "2". Kawhi handled the ball more, initiated more offenses, facilitated more in dribble handoffs and pick & rolls, was afforded more isos and had more decision making abilities. PG went wing, elbow, corner in most of their sets, running baseline to the weakside around a couple screens. bballref tracks Kawhi as the shooting guard in most of these lineups, but I think some of this is pedantic. If was imagining traditional roles... I might say Kawhi was the point, George was the 2, Beverly was the 3. But this is a team that I think we want to see the positionless versatility be a strength, not a weakness. George profiles as the kind of player who this shouldn't matter for. I do think Paul was being used as a role player more often than not. When he was given opportunities to create, they felt meaningless, just Paul iso'ing in space without any purposeful team involvement.

Despite PG's awful playoff shooting, it's hard to look at lineup data and not put Lou and Harrell at the top of the blame list. As a duo they were -16.5 in their minutes together, the only negative on/off duo on the Clippers. There were 3x 5-man lineups in the Clips playoff run than lost their minutes, each of these lineups contained Harrell and Lou (and Leonard). Trez/Lou were in some successful lineups together. Despite the awful shooting, looking over all lineup data has Paul George as pretty neutral overall, which is still a massive disappointment considering the calibre of player he's supposed to be. Their defense got worse in the playoffs, not their offense (until that dooming 4th quarter).

Obviously, PG bears the blame and humiliation for his performance. But I still saw a player who is obviously capable of great things, look extremely uncomfortable and unable to get rolling. I have to ask why, and "forgot how to shoot" isn't a satisfying explanation to me. Nor am I satisfied by allegations of a toxic culture, or some failure of PG's to man up. Some of those things matter but there still has to be a basketball reason for this. While he has had mixed results in the playoffs in general, this was his worst one. I'm not saying: 'Paul George is a perfect angel so what demon hath done this to him?' in blaming Doc, but I think it's fair to wonder how you get the best out of Paul George and acknowledge that Doc Rivers did not do that (without scapegoating or shifting the blame entirely). The Clippers were the favorite to win the championship and they collectively failed. I'm not looking for 1 person to blame, but I am interested in what they could do differently from a basketball perspective to ensure they are what they're supposed to be: an overwhelming amount of size/athleticism and skill on the wings, that opponents should have a very hard time containing and scoring on.