wakelaunch1 wrote:TrueLAfan wrote:esqtvd wrote:Hey, we started the 6'8" Daniel Theis against 7'2" Rudy Gobert. Already behind the 8-ball. Bigtime.
We didn't even show up with our backups squared away. If this had been the well-oiled machine we expect to take to the playoffs, Plumlee would have started in place of Zu, and Theis would have kept his normal slot with the 2nd unit.
Theis has only been here for 27 games, and coming back from injury, Plumlee is practically a new acquisition too. This was only his 31st regular season game as a Clipper and only his 8th game this year. He was playing G-league on rehab a couple days ago.
And I gotta say, Zu has gone up another level this year on both sides of the ball. He's got career highs across the board in the PER categories, and is top 3 in rim protection.
This is not the Zubac of old. He's very arguably a top 10 center now. You can't just toss out a 6'8" guy you got off the buyout scrap pile and be the same team.
Yup. We missed Zu big time. He may or not be our defensive anchor, but without him, we’re undersized against big teams—and Minny is big.
wakelaunch1 wrote:PG shoots early in the clock and without an assist. He tried to create his own shots instead of in the flow of the offense. This team doesnt need that. Its why I am not a big PG fan.
This loss was on PG/Harden, everyone else was good enough to win.
You’re not a PG fan? Do tell.
Anyway. PG had a lousy first half. He’s also coming off a big run—played in 13 out of the last 14 games, averaged 25-5-3 on 51/48(!)/91 shooting splits. There were wins against the Knicks, Pels, Pacers, Heat, and Suns (twice) in that streak. Going to go with “lousy half” for both him and Harden. Since we went 10-3 in those 13 games that PG went off in, I think the team
does need what he does. Big time.
I am a Clippers fan, just not a big PG fan. I think PG needs to be more of a shooter and less of a scorer. If we looked at his shot selection I would bet he makes a million more shots when he is set up by his teammates and just steps into a shot. I would like to see him move the ball more with less dribbling. I would like to see him make make the basic play instead of trying to make a fancy shot/pass. He is a good player when he plays in his role. This team is too good to see him regularly taking his step back, off balance 3s early in the shot clock.
You lose part of what makes Paul George valuable if you try to make him into a shooter. Too much is lost there and he's way too good to do that, and the teams potential would be diminished.
Paul George is also not as mistake prone a player in a scorer role (not playmaker) as his Clipper fan detractors make him out to be.
Part of the issue with the constant highlighting of any little short coming of George is that for example, he just came off 17/18 previous games with 20+ points, the only one without being 15 minutes vs Sacramento.
The 11 games before last night he was averaging 25.8 / 5.1 / 2.6 with 1.5 stls, 0.5 blk and only 2.1 tpg as he's doing less playmaking for others. He shot 50.8 / 48.5 / 89.7 and had a TS% of 66.3 and eFG% of 63.2 in that stretch.
So when a player is doing that and as soon as he has a bad game people come out of the woodwork and say, "you see, PG is so unreliable, he needs to do less this, more that, he's this, he's that", it's like Woah, Woah, Woah, can we hold up here, have we not been paying attention?
Clippers fans complained about Paul George's turnovers a lot, the roster had him in a role where he was playing more point guard than he should out of necessity, they had been trying to solve it, and finally did.
So what happened? Since November 14th, Paul George has averaged just 1.8 tpg. George this season is averaging his fewest turnovers since 11-12 when he averaged just 12.1 ppg / 5.6 rpg / 2.4 apg / 1.8 tpg.
....but because some Clippers fans are so focused on trying to nitpick and find any little fault in him, because it was somehow his fault SGA became a superstar, they probably don't even realize how having two capable PG's and a PG in every lineup has changed his play, but are still watching like a hawk to find any mistake as if there's such a thing as a no mistake player.
Is Paul George better when he catches and shoots? Of course just about everyone is. He's also a 37% 3PT shooter off the dribble which is up there, soo...