Game#40 Clippers @ Nuggets Thursday 1/05/23 7pm

[Roscoe Sheed]

I know they've had a rough schedule, but they had 2 days off before this particular game.

This team plays with no energy. They all look dead tired and out of shape except for Mann.

[MartinToVaught]

Is it really a surprise that a team full of ancient over-the-hill veterans has no energy? Seems like a predictable consequence of building a retirement home squad in a young athletic league.

Both Frank and Lue's seats should be scorching hot right now, if you ask me. Let's not forget that they're both holdovers from the Doc era. No wonder we're still seeing the same trash rotations, isoball offense, wasted draft picks, and roster full of the biggest names from a decade ago. The org chart changed on paper, but the philosophy behind our team-building and coaching never changed. We just got lucky having Atkinson on the staff for a year to coach us to the WCF in spite of that.

[Clemenza]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around any support for our board's douchebaggery.

Ty is playing the long game. Strategy. Doc just tried to win games every night. And he did and he does.

The douchebaggers douche either way. It's how they roll and how they get attention. When we win it means nothing and when we lose it's fire the coach and trade half the team.

Hope they had a good time tonight.
.

Stop it. Keep the narrative on the team who's played like **** for a couple of weeks now. Fans have the right to speak out about how awful this team is playing. Its all with in bounds of the rules and I've seen nothing extreme going on after these last few losses. The team doesn't even want to play out there and its pathetic. Kawhi only played a little over one quarter of basketball tonight and he's sitting out tomorrow. Give passes for this stuff in October and November but you can't keep moving the goalposts for the team in January and beyond.

Narrative. You got that part right. The board douchebaggers say the regular season doesn't matter. Except when it does.


Let's fire Ty and play the Ontario Clippers with Terance Mann as the starting center or point guard.

Trade Paul George and Kawhi back to OKC for Shai. Get all our shtttty draft picks back.

Wearing me tf out. What's the point of any real Clippers fan even coming around to our board?

Douchebagistan.

Ain't you from Philly where they cheer injuries and chase players out of town? Clippers criticism lightweight and easy street compared to other teams. Were on a four game losing streak and going on five if Kawhi & PG don't play tonight so don't expect fans to hold hands and sing church hymns. That "you're not a real Clipper fan" talk is another form of douchebaggery if you ask me. Sounds like you're upset with the team like the rest of us but you want to deflect it over to the fans which isn't going to work at this point in the season.

[MartinToVaught]

I can't believe our fanbase keeps playing the same three- and four-guard lineups that couldn't guard a chair! And our fans also need to stop turning the ball over and chucking up so many threes.

Using the Ontario Clippers as an insult is also comical. Those guys just won a championship a week or two ago. What have Morris, Reggie and Wall ever won in their careers to justify the favoritism they're getting?

[KL2]

Read on Twitter

?cxt=HHwWmICy3an_8NwsAAAA

[Roscoe Sheed]

Is it really a surprise that a team full of ancient over-the-hill veterans has no energy? Seems like a predictable consequence of building a retirement home squad in a young athletic league.

Both Frank and Lue's seats should be scorching hot right now, if you ask me. Let's not forget that they're both holdovers from the Doc era. No wonder we're still seeing the same trash rotations, isoball offense, wasted draft picks, and roster full of the biggest names from a decade ago. The org chart changed on paper, but the philosophy behind our team-building and coaching never changed. We just got lucky having Atkinson on the staff for a year to coach us to the WCF in spite of that.

early-30s isn't ancient.

They should have more energy- age can't be an excuse

[Roscoe Sheed]

Read on Twitter

?cxt=HHwWmICy3an_8NwsAAAA

I wonder if Kawhi is losing patience with Lue

[MartinToVaught]

Is it really a surprise that a team full of ancient over-the-hill veterans has no energy? Seems like a predictable consequence of building a retirement home squad in a young athletic league.

Both Frank and Lue's seats should be scorching hot right now, if you ask me. Let's not forget that they're both holdovers from the Doc era. No wonder we're still seeing the same trash rotations, isoball offense, wasted draft picks, and roster full of the biggest names from a decade ago. The org chart changed on paper, but the philosophy behind our team-building and coaching never changed. We just got lucky having Atkinson on the staff for a year to coach us to the WCF in spite of that.

early-30s isn't ancient.

They should have more energy- age can't be an excuse

These guys are pretty much dinosaurs in a league dominated by stars like Giannis, Jokic and Luka who are still in their 20s, and teams like the Grizzlies and Pelicans who run the Clippers out of the gym with their superior youth and athleticism every time we play them.

[madmaxmedia]

Is it really a surprise that a team full of ancient over-the-hill veterans has no energy? Seems like a predictable consequence of building a retirement home squad in a young athletic league.

Both Frank and Lue's seats should be scorching hot right now, if you ask me. Let's not forget that they're both holdovers from the Doc era. No wonder we're still seeing the same trash rotations, isoball offense, wasted draft picks, and roster full of the biggest names from a decade ago. The org chart changed on paper, but the philosophy behind our team-building and coaching never changed. We just got lucky having Atkinson on the staff for a year to coach us to the WCF in spite of that.

They didn't purposely build an old team, we made a choice to sacrifice the future to acquire 2 Hall of Famers in their primes. The first year we choked away a series to the Nuggets, so yeah of course that sucked. We turned over the coaching staff and roster right after and we had a stronger team, right until Kawhi tore an ACL (we still closed out Utah and gave the Suns a series without Kawhi and Zu), and last year unfortunately was a lost cause from Game 1. Those were our prime years to win a title, they're gone.

So 3 years later, it is what it is. We're collectively a very old team now. We should have a better record than we do, but if we're a 'team full of ancient over-the-hill veterans' then is Lue really underachieving by that much? Or if you think Ty is doing a crap job this year, then you must think the roster is not completely over the hill but is simply not reaching its full potential.

I personally lean a lot more towards age than bad coaching for our record right now. Our age showed even 2 years ago and now Kawhi, PG, Morris, Nico, Reggie are all 2 years older...

They should have more energy- age can't be an excuse

You are 100% right it is no excuse, but a team of 30+ year olds is going to look slow and tired on the court a fair amount when they are playing younger, faster, more athletic squads. I think sometimes its hard to tell whether we're truly not playing hard vs. just looking our age.

[madmaxmedia]

Is it really a surprise that a team full of ancient over-the-hill veterans has no energy? Seems like a predictable consequence of building a retirement home squad in a young athletic league.

Both Frank and Lue's seats should be scorching hot right now, if you ask me. Let's not forget that they're both holdovers from the Doc era. No wonder we're still seeing the same trash rotations, isoball offense, wasted draft picks, and roster full of the biggest names from a decade ago. The org chart changed on paper, but the philosophy behind our team-building and coaching never changed. We just got lucky having Atkinson on the staff for a year to coach us to the WCF in spite of that.

early-30s isn't ancient.

They should have more energy- age can't be an excuse

These guys are pretty much dinosaurs in a league dominated by stars like Giannis, Jokic and Luka who are still in their 20s, and teams like the Grizzlies and Pelicans who run the Clippers out of the gym with their superior youth and athleticism every time we play them.

Team age is like team height IMO. Individually a player can be good short or tall for his position, but collectively team height a lot harder to overcome. Same goes with age.

[madmaxmedia]

Read on Twitter

?cxt=HHwWmICy3an_8NwsAAAA

I think Ty made the right move to bench the starters mainly to rest them since the game was a lost cause, otherwise I get Kawhi's point- when things go bad, there is still an opportunity for the players to try to work out of it and at least right some wrongs. But PG wasn't 100% anyway and also, you know, load management...

[madmaxmedia]

Wow. This has to be rock bottom for the Clippers this season right?

Clippers really need a more dynamic big man. Morris, Batum and Covington are too old and slow to be your primary big men. Zubac is a nice player to have on your team, but he is too slow as well to be your primary center.

Time looks to of caught up to Jackson and Wall as well. Jackson is starting to look washed and Wall is definitely washed. Plus Powell just doesn't work on this team for whatever reason and it's getting old.

Clippers really need to look at making a trade or two this off-season.

This team is starting to remind me of the Lob City Clippers where they looked like possible contenders for a minute and then the league just passed them by.

With Lob City I think we were never able to add a significant 3rd/4th piece to really put the team over the top. Like we tried every offseason, but the additions never worked out. And then our payroll was starting to go up as our main guys contracts ended, it seemed clear that we had reached the point of diminishing returns.

This new squad is definitely better than Lob City and had the potential to go much further, but we pretty much started this squad at the same age at which Lob City ended (we traded CP3 at 32, and Blake at 28.) So it was going to be a short window no matter what. We choked away the first year, and Kawhi's ACL injury took away the next 2.

With both squads we don't have the cap room or trade assets to significantly boost the roster. I agree Powell hasn't made the impact we hoped, but getting him and RoCo for Bledsoe and Preston was still a really good trade even in retrospect. RoCo had a great run for us last year, too bad he's not 2 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier.

We should make a trade (or 2) now or in the offseason, but not sure what is even out there for us?

[madmaxmedia]

To use a Garnett/Pierce analogy, I think we unfortunately used up the Boston phase and are now entering the New Jersey phase.

I still think we can make some noise in the playoffs if we're healthy though, at least this year. Not sure what next year will bring.

[Clemenza]

Read on Twitter

?cxt=HHwWmICy3an_8NwsAAAA

I wonder if Kawhi is losing patience with Lue

He doesn't play enough to be mad at anybody

[Ballings7]

Just a really bad loss. Especially because it was on TNT..

But, I think this team still needs more time, say by a little bit after the all-star break if things haven't gotten better, then probably a 2nd round exit at best, unfortunately; quite possibly even 1st round loss.

I'd also like to see Brandon Boston and Mann get more time, and Diabate. Covington started late and I think needs more time to get into rhythm.

[Scoundreldays]

Just a really bad loss. Especially because it was on TNT..

But, I think this team still needs more time, say by a little bit after the all-star break if things haven't gotten better, then probably a 2nd round exit at best, unfortunately; quite possibly even 1st round loss.

I'd also like to see Brandon Boston and Mann get more time, and Diabate. Covington started late and I think needs more time to get into rhythm.

I've been hearing this since the 2020 season, to me their load management strategy does not work. This team can't build consistency if everybody keeps bouncing in and out of the lineup. The west is too tight this season to lolligag with load management. Being hurt is one thing but I'd argue that having these guys miss so many games hurts them as well trying to constantly play back into game shape.

The strategy has to change, unfortunately I don't have the answer to that lol.

[esqtvd]

Stop it. Keep the narrative on the team who's played like **** for a couple of weeks now. Fans have the right to speak out about how awful this team is playing. Its all with in bounds of the rules and I've seen nothing extreme going on after these last few losses. The team doesn't even want to play out there and its pathetic. Kawhi only played a little over one quarter of basketball tonight and he's sitting out tomorrow. Give passes for this stuff in October and November but you can't keep moving the goalposts for the team in January and beyond.

Narrative. You got that part right. The board douchebaggers say the regular season doesn't matter. Except when it does.


Let's fire Ty and play the Ontario Clippers with Terance Mann as the starting center or point guard.

Trade Paul George and Kawhi back to OKC for Shai. Get all our shtttty draft picks back.

Wearing me tf out. What's the point of any real Clippers fan even coming around to our board?

Douchebagistan.

Ain't you from Philly where they cheer injuries and chase players out of town? Clippers criticism lightweight and easy street compared to other teams. Were on a four game losing streak and going on five if Kawhi & PG don't play tonight so don't expect fans to hold hands and sing church hymns. That "you're not a real Clipper fan" talk is another form of douchebaggery if you ask me. Sounds like you're upset with the team like the rest of us but you want to deflect it over to the fans which isn't going to work at this point in the season.

Yes, the cementhead quotient is very high in Negadelphia too, lol. Some people are happier when we lose than when we win.

Because it's all Doc Rivers' fault.

[esqtvd]

They didn't purposely build an old team, we made a choice to sacrifice the future to acquire 2 Hall of Famers in their primes. The first year we choked away a series to the Nuggets, so yeah of course that sucked. We turned over the coaching staff and roster right after and we had a stronger team, right until Kawhi tore an ACL (we still closed out Utah and gave the Suns a series without Kawhi and Zu), and last year unfortunately was a lost cause from Game 1. Those were our prime years to win a title, they're gone.

So 3 years later, it is what it is. We're collectively a very old team now. We should have a better record than we do, but if we're a 'team full of ancient over-the-hill veterans' then is Lue really underachieving by that much? Or if you think Ty is doing a crap job this year, then you must think the roster is not completely over the hill but is simply not reaching its full potential.

I personally lean a lot more towards age than bad coaching for our record right now. Our age showed even 2 years ago and now Kawhi, PG, Morris, Nico, Reggie are all 2 years older...

They should have more energy- age can't be an excuse

You are 100% right it is no excuse, but a team of 30+ year olds is going to look slow and tired on the court a fair amount when they are playing younger, faster, more athletic squads. I think sometimes its hard to tell whether we're truly not playing hard vs. just looking our age.

You get it. The scapegoating is all in the wrong direction and the solutions are not solutions. You're not going to magically create a contender out of the back of the bench and SRP G-League 22-year-olds.

Hey, Boston got smoked 150-117 by OKC the other night. It happens. Yes, we're not playing hard enough but nobody's giving out points for heroism in January. Everybody's just trying to make it to April in one piece.

And unfortunately, that's not fun. They're not having fun out there. It shows in the play and it shows on the scoreboard. The expectations are so high--a title or else!--that this is drudgery. I don't know how you cure that. Youthful energy is nice but youth also makes mistakes and that's infuriating and not fun either.

It's true that a big part of the problem is that we have precious little between ages 22 and 32.

[esqtvd]

depth my a$$ lol

Read on Twitter

[madmaxmedia]

It's true that a big part of the problem is that we have precious little between ages 22 and 32.

Bingo.

It's actually somewhat ironic, if say PG, Kawhi, and Morris were all 5 years younger and could be counted on for 75 games a season, you might be able to throw in say a Boston in the starting lineup. The other guys would carry him, but he would have an opportunity to show his flashes and fill in his weaknesses over the course of a season (or 2).

But often we're just very 'neither here no there' due to rest, injuries, whatever. If PG is hurt and Kawhi is load managing, you can't have Boston getting 20+ minutes in games that you want to consistently win because he's way too raw.

If I were to guess a single mean or average age for NBA peak, I would say it's around 28. Younger than that and they are still refining skills, older than that they have completely developed but will start getting dinged up more often.

As far as core players in between 22-32, we do have Mann, Zu, and Kennard. They all have their roles for sure, but are all role players (which is fine.) They're also all relatively finished products though, so in terms of significant improvement it's not going to come from them.

So I don't have any solutions to offer. I think others have made valid criticisms, in general I'm 100% fine with our mix of optimists, pessimists, different viewpoints, or whatever. I just don't think there are any quick fixes.