Ty Lue may step down as coach this summer. Ballmer growing impatient with the current roster.

[garrick]

Clips made a mistake signing Kawhi, he's perpetually injured more often than not and his best days are behind him at this point.

Kinda like how Ishbia made a big splashy trade to get KD sometimes it's not always the best to try to create super teams, in the Suns case we had a home grown team with a solid core still not yet in their primes and they had to go and trade for a past prime and oft injured KD.

[Scoundreldays]

PG is hurt and Convington still can't get any burn meanwhile Morris continues to stink it up. Not saying to fire Lue or Covington is their savior but it's mind boggling with how "deep" this team is that Morris gets this big of a leash.

[DelAbbot]

Can you blame Ballmer?

Absolutely. I mean, am I reading this right?

Lawrence Frank is running the team?

All the money in the world, and Ballmer replaced Doc Rivers with Frank?

Can you blame Ballmer for being upset I mean. Ballmer is a very hands off owner. He lets the guys he hires make decisions in their roles. Not sure how it’s his fault if Frank, Lue, players underachieve. all an owner can realistically do is open up the pocketbook and maintain a professional, safe culture. He’s done that.

What’s sad is if they rebuild, the chances of landing a superstar rookie like SGA tier are slim to none.

[Pharmcat]

What can lue do if his two best players don’t bother to play in the regular season ?

[nikster]

DNPing Covington all year, playing Morris 30 mpg, benching Zubac entire 4th quarters, playing Powell entire second halves, downplaying every loss or failure and admitting they almost never practice. Underplaying younger players consistently (Coffey, Mann, Zubac, Diabate, Bones) Yea… he’s done a magnificent job!

Even with injuries factored this team is literally running 10-15 wins below their potential.

That is an insane statement, even for a stan like you. MVP level players sometimes don't make a 10 game impact. You think Clippers with PG and Kawhi on pace to miss 50+ games should be competing for the best record in the conference? 10-15 wins puts them at 52 (which would put them 2nd in the west) to 57 wins (ahead of Denver)

I can count 5-6 wins Morris single-handedly cost the team. You aren’t factoring in negatives. It’s not just wins or win shares. Yes, talent wise and depth wise they are a 52-56 win team realistically. Even with Kawhi missing early season when the schedule was much easier.

It’s definitely closer to 10 than 5.

So the Clips with Kawhi and PG missing 50+ games should be right there with the nuggets for best team in the West. Do you think Kawhi has the best supporting cast of all time?

Im sure you could. Im sure youre also ignoring how many games his replacements would have lost, how many games he's won etc...

[formula 400]

what, why??? i thought they had the King of LA? and they had the next Jordan and Pippen? what's wrong now?

[Adelheid]

how can a team even achieve consistent success when their top guys are on heavy load management?

[kieferli]

They are going to steal NN ,trade for FVV and get Lowry from Buy out market next season

[OkcSinceSGA]

That is an insane statement, even for a stan like you. MVP level players sometimes don't make a 10 game impact. You think Clippers with PG and Kawhi on pace to miss 50+ games should be competing for the best record in the conference? 10-15 wins puts them at 52 (which would put them 2nd in the west) to 57 wins (ahead of Denver)

I can count 5-6 wins Morris single-handedly cost the team. You aren’t factoring in negatives. It’s not just wins or win shares. Yes, talent wise and depth wise they are a 52-56 win team realistically. Even with Kawhi missing early season when the schedule was much easier.

It’s definitely closer to 10 than 5.

So the Clips with Kawhi and PG missing 50+ games should be right there with the nuggets for best team in the West. Do you think Kawhi has the best supporting cast of all time?

Im sure you could. Im sure youre also ignoring how many games his replacements would have lost, how many games he's won etc...

Yes. Raw talent wise they are the deepest team by a mile. Historically deep with above average players. They just use them poorly. It’s also factoring in a historic scheduling imbalance, where the first half of the season was insanely easy compared to the second half.

[ejftw]

I've never understood why anyone takes Jake Fischer seriously, dude is an absolute moron, and has proven to have zero credibility when it comes to the Clippers. He literally flings dookie against the wall, hoping something sticks, and has been as accurate as Arye Abraham

[OkcSinceSGA]

I've never understood why anyone takes Jake Fischer seriously, dude is an absolute moron, and has proven to have zero credibility when it comes to the Clippers. He literally flings dookie against the wall, hoping something sticks, and has been as accurate as Arye Abraham

If he’s right though, it would be the best thing to happen to the team.

[dautjazz]

I mean it was a big risk taking on two players who were injury prone. Could of been high reward, but unfortunately for them luck wasn't on their side.

[xinxin]

They need to home grow a real team again. How many people are even drafted on the current Clippers? At least in the Lob City era, Blake was their generational talent they grew, plus DJ. CP3 was the smart free agent signing. They need to rebuild in that kind of way, picking up good pieces with high draft picks and then finding the right star to sign as a FA to push them to contention. This is the right way to build a team rather than trying to get the biggest names on the market. More teams have had success this way than the Clippers/Nets method.

Let's talk about the bold statement first. Paul was not a free agent signing. He was actually a trade, the most controversial in NBA history. Originally Paul was supposed to go to the Lakers in 2011, but David Stern vetoed the trade for reasons unknown. Some will say it didn't make basketball sense, hence "basketball reasons." I believe Stern was angry at the Lakers for their failure to 3-peat, where they got swept in the 2nd round by Mavericks behind a disgraceful act of Andrew Bynum clotheslining J.J. Barea in mid-air. The barring of Paul to Lakers looked more like a punishment than a renege, and as a result suffered their first ever worst stretch in Laker history with a six-year playoff drought.

Unfortunately, the method you're suggesting is not going to work. Clipper's greatest weakness is wanting to be loved, respected and worshiped like Lakers. They are the red-headed stepchild, the little brother, the runt of the family. They do everything wrong just so they can be accepted. If I were General Advisor of Clippers, I would tweak your suggestion to this:

1. Remove every single player, coaching staff and front office employee who's had at least one year of NBA experience
2. Bar Clippers from acquiring any player, coach or front office employee with at least one year of NBA experience
3. Restrict Clippers to signing players who are undrafted, from overseas, or from the G-League, provided they've never played an NBA game before

If you have a draft pick, get rid of it. If you have a player, trade him. Any player who comes to you as cash fodder, buy them out. Make sure you have zero players signed.

This is known as the Apocalypse Rebuild.

I would force Clippers to start all over. Anything they touch within NBA is going to get screwed up, all because of Clipper's misguided approach to attention over winning. Instead, let Clippers work at their own pace, without the NBA draft, free agency, or trades getting in the way. Forget about superstars, role players and draft picks; other teams will figure out how to use those guys better than Clippers. Accept being a development team for the time being. Not only will players learn, so will front office, and coaching staff. Everyone will be in sync and understand one another. That's how Spurs did it, look at their five championships.

theyre no longer the lovable losers of old...

they've been good the last 10 years... contenders even... but in the process, have been desperately trying to look like multiple title holders with a 'swagger' that hasnt been earned.

Im sure Ballmer has a lot to do with that attitude.. with all those billboards in 2020.. & now, a new stadium..

perhaps they should take a page out of the Mets, & how they overcame being in the same city as the yankees. I'm a big yankees fan, but I dont hate the Mets..


heck, the LA Lakers couldnt win in the 60s... losing all those finals to the celtics and the knicks.. before they finally won in 72..


like what you said, the respect must be earned.. not bought..

[Slava]

I think it shows the limits of wanting to have a firm management structure while also catering to your superstars. Lakers do one thing, which is to empower their superstars, which has its own ups and downs but more ups when that superstar is LeBron. Franchises like Toronto or Miami, OKC swing the other way round, where the most powerful person in the organization is the president of basketball ops.

Clippers are the only team with a burlesque payroll, a superfluous management structure, expensive consultants like Jerry West and all of it comes to naught when Kawhi wants to play less than half the season and PG wants to saddle the team with his best friends. It doesn't help that the man at the helm is notorious edge lord, Lawrence Frank, who got booted out of every coaching job he had in the league.

[Xatticus]

I don’t blame anybody. LAC took a shot, it was a risk, and it hasn’t paid off.

Ballmer is right to be pushing his team - they haven’t delivered.

Lue is right to take some blame, he hasn’t delivered.

I expect some heads to roll and it would be good for the Clips and the league to have an owner who holds his people to account when they don’t deliver.

The problem is that they can't really afford to upset the applecart. Major changes aren't coming, so this is much ado about nothing. We have their picks and swaps, so they don't really have any option other than trying to figure this thing out until Kawhi or PG decide to leave. They can get rid of Lue, but they have to have a better reason than 'change for the sake of change' for doing so.

Wouldn't it be grand if we got to use that 2025 pick swap though?

[cjmcallist]

I don’t blame anybody. LAC took a shot, it was a risk, and it hasn’t paid off.

Ballmer is right to be pushing his team - they haven’t delivered.

Lue is right to take some blame, he hasn’t delivered.

I expect some heads to roll and it would be good for the Clips and the league to have an owner who holds his people to account when they don’t deliver.

The problem is that they can't really afford to upset the applecart. Major changes aren't coming, so this is much ado about nothing. We have their picks and swaps, so they don't really have any option other than trying to figure this thing out until Kawhi or PG decide to leave. They can get rid of Lue, but they have to have a better reason than 'change for the sake of change' for doing so.

Wouldn't it be grand if we got to use that 2025 pick swap though?

That would fit the typical NBA pattern. I’m believing that Ballmer isn’t the typical NBA owner - but as I type this I’m realizing several owners are startup mentality guys.

I’d love to see more decisiveness in NBA front offices and was hoping Ballmer might be that type of guy. But, probably wishful thinking.

Those picks could be a decade-extender for us in 25/26. Im not holding my breath but I am pretty excited.

[Moahst]

I'm glad Ballmer is recognizing the failures of his coach and roster and maybe he takes a little blame himself too. I was always of the mind that if the Clippers could just keep PG and Kawhi active in the playoffs anything can happen, but it seems like those two being in and out of the line up has made it hard for the team to have any identity. I don't know where you go from here, because any trades would net lesser returns, but something needs to change.

[NirvanaFC]

How much of Ballmer's money was well earned by him anyways? Luckiest dude alive thanks to two men - Bill Gates and Satya Nadella