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WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract

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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#21 » by esqtvd » Thu May 30, 2024 12:56 am

45 wins is better than 37 is the textbook definition of an awful plan.


It's pretty much Ballmer's only choice at this point, though. And it IS better. A lot better. And who knows? He might get lucky.

As for "fans" who desert the team now, so be it. They will not be missed. Ballmer is building his Wall and intends to enjoy his $4 or 5 BILLION [after you add it all up] toy. 37 wins is no fun at all.

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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#22 » by MartinToVaught » Thu May 30, 2024 1:14 am

og15 wrote:There are excellent x/o guys who would be awful as head coaches because they don't manage personalities well

Does Lue manage personalities well? Seems to me like he lets veterans walk all over him and puts young players who don't have the tenure to complain yet in his doghouse. In other words, the path of least resistance. We could pick random volunteers from the stands to coach every game and get the same personality management that Lue's giving us for $70 million.

esqtvd wrote:Ballmer is building his Wall

The Wall is reliant on the team itself being exciting and fun enough to inspire that much passion. Running back this old slow team so they can limp to another 4th seed and 1st round exit at best while playing an unwatchable brand of basketball isn't going to cut it.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#23 » by og15 » Thu May 30, 2024 1:24 am

Quake Griffin wrote:Nah. Kawhi was a good idea. Everything else was pretty terrible and it was recognized as that in real time on this board and elsewhere. It gets worse with every injury, failed season, and the “discovery” of our new Trojan Horse - we’re stuck with this team for better or worse.

Being stuck with a treadmill roster, my private parts, my hand, and some comfort that 45 wins is better than 37 is the textbook definition of an awful plan.


Ballmer is the problem. He is a mentally weak owner. It started with him giving the keys to you know who after Donald T was banned. It was more noticeable when he let Kawhi walk all over him to sign here. It’s culminating with sticking with this geriatric bunch to save us from Opening Night Embarrassment.

Not good enough Mr. Billionaire. We want a championship. If you subject us to 6 years of treadmilling just because other teams own our picks, you will be the worst owner in the sport.

Esquire actually explains it well. The time to change course was at the deadline. At that time the team was rolling and looking like a top contender.

Changing course at this moment isn't valuable, it is just jumping on to a different treadmill, the treadmill of sucking with no point to it since you get no reward.

Here are the Clippers 1st round draft picks:
2024: OKC unprotected
2025: Swap OKC
2026: Swap OKC/Philly
2027: Swap OKC
2028: Philly unprotected
2029: Philly top 3 protected

If the Clippers let Harden and George go, and trade Kawhi, they cannot get a lottery pick by their own doing until 2029, and that one only if it lands in the top 3.

So I'm not particularly sure what people are thinking here. The next year that the Clippers can tank and get a lottery pick is 2030 draft, so 6 seasons from now, 29-30 would be the first tanking opportunity.

The Clipper best course of action is to retain as many tradeable assets as possible (Harden and George). You can always trade older veteran star players and get picks from someone, every time people say a guy is unreadable due to contract, someone traded for him and gives up assets. Now you're not likely to get lottery picks, because the teams looking to trade for those guys will usually be teams trying to contend/move to contention.

In this case your goal would be playing the numbers, getting a lot of picks (even multiple 2nds) and hoping you strike gold.

The other thing is that while doing this, you still have no incentive to be a bad team, so you can still put together rosters that can win games, because your draft picks will not depend on how you perform as a team for another 6 seasons.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#24 » by wakelaunch1 » Thu May 30, 2024 1:25 am

og15 wrote:Every coach has their quirks and nuances, Kidd was considered a terrible coach all regular season by many Mavs fans, even when he started coaching them to a top defense after the trade, etc

Suddenly in the playoffs many people don't know how to talk about Kidd, is he lucky? Maybe he's not that bad? Maybe they simply didn't know as much as they felt they did? Etc, etc

That's the first thing to acknowledge, as fans, our evaluation of own teams coach is generally questionable and more negative than reality. Okay, but that doesn't mean there's never valid criticism.

Multiple Roles
Next is this, being a head coach is a job with more than one role, but many of us as fans judge mostly on just part of the job description.

There are excellent x/o guys who would be awful as head coaches because they don't manage personalities well, might not be good at listening to others, so they don't foster good collaboration, and maybe don't know how to motivate/"rally the troops". That guy is likely an assistant for life who gets a head coaching gig for a short time then goes back to assistant and people ask, "but why was he fired, he's so good at x/os".

The head coach job is a combination of leadership, people management, motivation, x/o's, delegation and collaboration, not just how well you can draw up a play, how you manage rotations or what offensive or defensive schemes you can come up with.

What I can say about Lue is that he seems to be a guy who is solid at many areas even if people say, "oh he isn't great at this, or he doesn't do this thing that well". That helps him.

Easily Disposable
The Clippers limitations as a team so far are not about Lue. In addition, as we know in the NBA, a long coaching contract means very little in terms of job security. How many teams are currently paying Vogel for example? Coaching contracts are the owners money and don't affect cap, so I don't care much about coaching contract lengths when teams fire guys and pay them for 3, 4 years after all the time.



Name the players who have gotten better under Lue? Who has he developed? What under the radar talent has he found? How many players have overachieved in the Lue ERA. Hell Doc got a few players to play above their talent. Lue s teams are mostly lifeless with no hustle and no scheme.

Hell almost any coach would start playing around with the roster to mix in a new player with a bunch of aging players. He tried for 2 secs with Bones but threw it out the window the second we got Harden. And Bones got progressively worse as the season wore on. We had a rookie playing ok and he threw that out the window and gave the mins to a washed up vet.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#25 » by og15 » Thu May 30, 2024 1:49 am

MartinToVaught wrote:
og15 wrote:There are excellent x/o guys who would be awful as head coaches because they don't manage personalities well

Does Lue manage personalities well? Seems to me like he lets veterans walk all over him and puts young players who don't have the tenure to complain yet in his doghouse. In other words, the path of least resistance. We could pick random volunteers from the stands to coach every game and get the same personality management that Lue's giving us for $70 million.

esqtvd wrote:Ballmer is building his Wall

The Wall is reliant on the team itself being exciting and fun enough to inspire that much passion. Running back this old slow team so they can limp to another 4th seed and 1st round exit at best while playing an unwatchable brand of basketball isn't going to cut it.

The hyperbole is fun, but Lue obviously does many things right and also has his flaws and shortcomings.

In terms of the teams direction, I would simply refer you to my post above. The Clippers currently gain zero value from losing more games, it does absolutely nothing. There's no tanking to be done, so it's pointless.

The Clippers greatest means of improving is to trade the old guys for as much as they can get in return.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#26 » by esqtvd » Thu May 30, 2024 1:52 am

og15 wrote:Esquire actually explains it well. The time to change course was at the deadline. At that time the team was rolling and looking like a top contender.

Changing course at this moment isn't valuable, it is just jumping on to a different treadmill, the treadmill of sucking with no point to it since you get no reward.

Here are the Clippers 1st round draft picks:
2024: OKC unprotected
2025: Swap OKC
2026: Swap OKC/Philly
2027: Swap OKC
2028: Philly unprotected
2029: Philly top 3 protected

If the Clippers let Harden and George go, and trade Kawhi, they cannot get a lottery pick by their own doing until 2029, and that one only if it lands in the top 3.

So I'm not particularly sure what people are thinking here. The next year that the Clippers can tank and get a lottery pick is 2030 draft, so 6 seasons from now, 29-30 would be the first tanking opportunity.

The Clipper best course of action is to retain as many tradeable assets as possible (Harden and George). You can always trade older veteran star players and get picks from someone, every time people say a guy is unreadable due to contract, someone traded for him and gives up assets. Now you're not likely to get lottery picks, because the teams looking to trade for those guys will usually be teams trying to contend/move to contention.

In this case your goal would be playing the numbers, getting a lot of picks (even multiple 2nds) and hoping you strike gold.

The other thing is that while doing this, you still have no incentive to be a bad team, so you can still put together rosters that can win games, because your draft picks will not depend on how you perform as a team for another 6 seasons.


Exactly. There is nothing to be gained for Ballmer in turning a middling old team into a young bad one. If people want to see the Oceanside Clippers, it's just down the road apiece and the tickets are much cheaper.

And how soon they forget: January 29, 2024. The trade deadline is less than 2 weeks away. Everything's finally going according to plan.

https://www.nba.com/news/power-rankings-2023-24-week-15

Power Rankings, Week 15: Clippers reign as new No. 1 team
LA surges ahead of Boston while Denver rises to No. 3 in another week of changes to the Top 10.


#1
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LA CLIPPERS
Last Week:2↑
Record: 30-14

OffRtg: 119.7 (4) DefRtg: 113.4 (11) NetRtg: +6.3 (4) Pace: 98.3 (26)

    The Clippers continue to roll. They’re 13-2 since Christmas, with the two losses having come by a total of just seven points. And they got their most impressive win of the season on Saturday, when they were at a rest disadvantage in Boston and won by 19.

Three takeaways

    The Clippers’ 27-7 record since Nov. 17 (Game 6 with James Harden) includes a 15-6 mark (best in the league over that time) against other teams that are currently over .500, having scored more than 122.1 points per 100 possessions over those 21 games. Kawhi Leonard missed two of them, but has averaged 24.9 points on 55%/46%/92% shooting splits in the 19 he’s played in.

    With the win in Boston, the Clippers have avenged six of their seven overall losses since mid-November, having beat the Pelicans, Nuggets, Warriors (twice), Thunder, Celtics and Lakers after losing to them. The only loss since Nov. 17 that they haven’t since avenged is their last one (Jan. 14 in Minnesota), with their next game against the Wolves coming Feb. 12.

    The Clippers have had a center on the floor for about 2/3 of their clutch minutes over this 27-7 stretch. Overall, they’ve outscored their opponents by 19.3 points per 100 possessions in 417 total minutes with their other four starters on the floor alongside either Ivica Zubac (who’s now missed the last six games) or Mason Plumlee.

    The Clips still have five games left on their longest road trip of the season (seven games over 11 days). The toughest remaining game is Monday in Cleveland, where the Clippers lost by 23 (without Leonard or Paul George) exactly one year ago.

The Clips win 4 of those next 5. Zu plays in only one. Things are looking the best they've looked since the Bubble year. Good times.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#27 » by og15 » Thu May 30, 2024 1:48 pm

wakelaunch1 wrote:
og15 wrote:Every coach has their quirks and nuances, Kidd was considered a terrible coach all regular season by many Mavs fans, even when he started coaching them to a top defense after the trade, etc

Suddenly in the playoffs many people don't know how to talk about Kidd, is he lucky? Maybe he's not that bad? Maybe they simply didn't know as much as they felt they did? Etc, etc

That's the first thing to acknowledge, as fans, our evaluation of own teams coach is generally questionable and more negative than reality. Okay, but that doesn't mean there's never valid criticism.

Multiple Roles
Next is this, being a head coach is a job with more than one role, but many of us as fans judge mostly on just part of the job description.

There are excellent x/o guys who would be awful as head coaches because they don't manage personalities well, might not be good at listening to others, so they don't foster good collaboration, and maybe don't know how to motivate/"rally the troops". That guy is likely an assistant for life who gets a head coaching gig for a short time then goes back to assistant and people ask, "but why was he fired, he's so good at x/os".

The head coach job is a combination of leadership, people management, motivation, x/o's, delegation and collaboration, not just how well you can draw up a play, how you manage rotations or what offensive or defensive schemes you can come up with.

What I can say about Lue is that he seems to be a guy who is solid at many areas even if people say, "oh he isn't great at this, or he doesn't do this thing that well". That helps him.

Easily Disposable
The Clippers limitations as a team so far are not about Lue. In addition, as we know in the NBA, a long coaching contract means very little in terms of job security. How many teams are currently paying Vogel for example? Coaching contracts are the owners money and don't affect cap, so I don't care much about coaching contract lengths when teams fire guys and pay them for 3, 4 years after all the time.



Name the players who have gotten better under Lue? Who has he developed? What under the radar talent has he found? How many players have overachieved in the Lue ERA. Hell Doc got a few players to play above their talent. Lue s teams are mostly lifeless with no hustle and no scheme.

Hell almost any coach would start playing around with the roster to mix in a new player with a bunch of aging players. He tried for 2 secs with Bones but threw it out the window the second we got Harden. And Bones got progressively worse as the season wore on. We had a rookie playing ok and he threw that out the window and gave the mins to a washed up vet.

What do you mean by better? Most people mean put up better counting stats, if that's what you mean, that is just looking at if a player got more minutes or a larger role.

Clippers have had mostly vets under Lue, they are already who they are for the most part.

Mann, Coffey and Zubac have actually all gotten better, but maybe not in the sexy ways you are looking for.

Bones didn't get worse, Bones just had worse statistical production because he has not shown himself to be a winning player on a good team, hence why Denver traded him in the first place.

Bones can magically get "better" with more minutes if by better we simply mean have better stats. Bones can actually get better by getting stronger, playing smarter and commiting more to defense, but they won't necessarily show up in any statistical difference in his play outside of something like TS%.

I have no strong opinion on Lue's merits as a development coach on a roster with minimal development players. Most of it right now is just feeling and armchair coaching where we as fans just guess and make our assumptions. Lue is signed until the team has any opportunity for a high draft pick to actually worry about developing.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#28 » by MartinToVaught » Thu May 30, 2024 2:06 pm

og15 wrote:The Clippers currently gain zero value from losing more games, it does absolutely nothing. There's no tanking to be done, so it's pointless.

The problem with this argument is the assumption that making any changes guarantees that we'll lose more games, and conversely, that running it back as-is guarantees that we won't lose more games.

Next season, our "stars" will be another year older, slower and more fragile. Memphis will get Ja back and be better than they were this year. The Rockets and Spurs will take the next step. Kawhi will almost certainly not play 68 games again. I don't see this as a guaranteed playoff team that just needs to keep doing what they're doing. I see a team that's in a very precarious spot and is one or two injuries away from imploding.

Even if I was on board with running it back, I still wouldn't want to run back this exact same configuration that's incapable of even winning a playoff series anymore.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#29 » by Quake Griffin » Thu May 30, 2024 2:19 pm

og15 wrote:
Quake Griffin wrote:Nah. Kawhi was a good idea. Everything else was pretty terrible and it was recognized as that in real time on this board and elsewhere. It gets worse with every injury, failed season, and the “discovery” of our new Trojan Horse - we’re stuck with this team for better or worse.

Being stuck with a treadmill roster, my private parts, my hand, and some comfort that 45 wins is better than 37 is the textbook definition of an awful plan.


Ballmer is the problem. He is a mentally weak owner. It started with him giving the keys to you know who after Donald T was banned. It was more noticeable when he let Kawhi walk all over him to sign here. It’s culminating with sticking with this geriatric bunch to save us from Opening Night Embarrassment.

Not good enough Mr. Billionaire. We want a championship. If you subject us to 6 years of treadmilling just because other teams own our picks, you will be the worst owner in the sport.

Esquire actually explains it well. The time to change course was at the deadline. At that time the team was rolling and looking like a top contender.

Changing course at this moment isn't valuable, it is just jumping on to a different treadmill, the treadmill of sucking with no point to it since you get no reward.

Here are the Clippers 1st round draft picks:
2024: OKC unprotected
2025: Swap OKC
2026: Swap OKC/Philly
2027: Swap OKC
2028: Philly unprotected
2029: Philly top 3 protected

If the Clippers let Harden and George go, and trade Kawhi, they cannot get a lottery pick by their own doing until 2029, and that one only if it lands in the top 3.

So I'm not particularly sure what people are thinking here. The next year that the Clippers can tank and get a lottery pick is 2030 draft, so 6 seasons from now, 29-30 would be the first tanking opportunity.

The Clipper best course of action is to retain as many tradeable assets as possible (Harden and George). You can always trade older veteran star players and get picks from someone, every time people say a guy is unreadable due to contract, someone traded for him and gives up assets. Now you're not likely to get lottery picks, because the teams looking to trade for those guys will usually be teams trying to contend/move to contention.

In this case your goal would be playing the numbers, getting a lot of picks (even multiple 2nds) and hoping you strike gold.

The other thing is that while doing this, you still have no incentive to be a bad team, so you can still put together rosters that can win games, because your draft picks will not depend on how you perform as a team for another 6 seasons.

Sign them all, trade them for picks.
It's obvious you cannot literally trade these guys for only picks, so we will be getting players in return. Use that to field your 45 win product.

I watched as a team I cheered for forced me to go to the Playoffs and lose to a Warrior Team in 2019 that I never wanted to lose to in the playoffs...all to sign a guy who was likely coming here any way and has reigned over the most boring and annoying era of Clipper basketball ever. This current team can certainly send these guys out, get players in return, hoard a few picks, and field winning regular season roster in the process.

I think you are underestimating the wisdom of fan bases. This aint the 1990s any more. Everybody knows wrestling is fake and the fans are much more involved with what leadership is picking for who is wearing the belt coming out of Wrestlemania. Sports fans know way more about the cap, their team's draft pick situation, etc. The fans are not going to sit idly by and say "45 wins and limping (literally) out of the playoffs is cool".

I live near Minnesota...the fans all wanted Kirk Cousins gone so they could move on and try to get a higher caliber QB. They did not care that on the other side of the door was possibly some "you don't know what you have got until it's gone" doom for them. This idea that the fans on the internet are the minority and the "real" fans in IRL who touch grass are going to be the ones enjoying the 45 wins aint real. If it is real, it will dissipate very quickly after another quick playoff exit.

That said, telling the Clipper fans to shutup and take 45 wins for the next 6 years is even less of an answer than the one I'm providing. It's lazy. It's a non-answer. We should be making moves to get from under these guys and to get on to better.

The fans will not enjoy 45 win Kawhi-Limp-Out-Of-Playoff seasons. They will enjoy some young kids playing their hearts out to 40-42. Heck, it may even attract another superstar that to sign here that doesn't have a gimpy leg.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#30 » by og15 » Thu May 30, 2024 4:45 pm

MartinToVaught wrote:
og15 wrote:The Clippers currently gain zero value from losing more games, it does absolutely nothing. There's no tanking to be done, so it's pointless.

The problem with this argument is the assumption that making any changes guarantees that we'll lose more games, and conversely, that running it back as-is guarantees that we won't lose more games.

Next season, our "stars" will be another year older, slower and more fragile. Memphis will get Ja back and be better than they were this year. The Rockets and Spurs will take the next step. Kawhi will almost certainly not play 68 games again. I don't see this as a guaranteed playoff team that just needs to keep doing what they're doing. I see a team that's in a very precarious spot and is one or two injuries away from imploding.

Even if I was on board with running it back, I still wouldn't want to run back this exact same configuration that's incapable of even winning a playoff series anymore.

There's no problem with the argument though. There's no argument for losing right now, so when people keep jumping in talking about a rebuild, okay, but a useful rebuild can't happen right now.

Why?

1) The team needs to look like it's still trying to compete in order to keep the player assets they have

2) The team can't repeat the sign you and trade you a few months later like they did with Blake, and especially not with multiple players together, because it will set a bad precedent among future players and FA's as to how the Clippers treat you. You don't want to set that precedent. This means the team has to at least stick with these guys for about a year and a half minimum.

3) Improving/changing the "run it back" roster is always great, but if the end goal plan is to trade them for assets, you aren't really trying to make trades to run it back differently that affect that, and in the end, most trades that actually improve your roster require giving something up. So yes, you can't be stagnant, but you have to be realistic, not to mention the 2nd apron issues the team will face.


The Clippers only different way forward is keeping assets and trading them to get multiple picks, a young player here and there if possible, and then just doing low level asset acquisition and hoping to get lucky. Lots of good players are picked later, but you need multiple of those picks for it to work.

Now they could also not resign George and Harden, but they don't get George and Harden cap space for free agents. I think then the team can sign some MLE guy or something. Play Kawhi plus whomever is left and MLE guy. Trade Kawhi for assets, then ride it out with whatever picks, FA signings and remaining guys you have until you can control your own draft pick destiny.

Ty Lue being signed back as a coach has no effect on any of this, to have your trade assets and also not look like a team with a pattern of backstabbing, you're going to have to have these guys for at least a year and a half, by that time, Lue will have 3 years on his contract, his contract ends before you are in a draft control situation.

NBA coaches are expendable. My point is simply that we have to have proper dialogue about the teams actual situation, not hypothetical or what we wish, or what could have happened. Some things are simply done now, okay, now what? Just throwing out rebuild, rebuild, doesn't mean anything in this situation.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#31 » by og15 » Thu May 30, 2024 4:47 pm

Quake Griffin wrote:
og15 wrote:
Quake Griffin wrote:Nah. Kawhi was a good idea. Everything else was pretty terrible and it was recognized as that in real time on this board and elsewhere. It gets worse with every injury, failed season, and the “discovery” of our new Trojan Horse - we’re stuck with this team for better or worse.

Being stuck with a treadmill roster, my private parts, my hand, and some comfort that 45 wins is better than 37 is the textbook definition of an awful plan.


Ballmer is the problem. He is a mentally weak owner. It started with him giving the keys to you know who after Donald T was banned. It was more noticeable when he let Kawhi walk all over him to sign here. It’s culminating with sticking with this geriatric bunch to save us from Opening Night Embarrassment.

Not good enough Mr. Billionaire. We want a championship. If you subject us to 6 years of treadmilling just because other teams own our picks, you will be the worst owner in the sport.

Esquire actually explains it well. The time to change course was at the deadline. At that time the team was rolling and looking like a top contender.

Changing course at this moment isn't valuable, it is just jumping on to a different treadmill, the treadmill of sucking with no point to it since you get no reward.

Here are the Clippers 1st round draft picks:
2024: OKC unprotected
2025: Swap OKC
2026: Swap OKC/Philly
2027: Swap OKC
2028: Philly unprotected
2029: Philly top 3 protected

If the Clippers let Harden and George go, and trade Kawhi, they cannot get a lottery pick by their own doing until 2029, and that one only if it lands in the top 3.

So I'm not particularly sure what people are thinking here. The next year that the Clippers can tank and get a lottery pick is 2030 draft, so 6 seasons from now, 29-30 would be the first tanking opportunity.

The Clipper best course of action is to retain as many tradeable assets as possible (Harden and George). You can always trade older veteran star players and get picks from someone, every time people say a guy is unreadable due to contract, someone traded for him and gives up assets. Now you're not likely to get lottery picks, because the teams looking to trade for those guys will usually be teams trying to contend/move to contention.

In this case your goal would be playing the numbers, getting a lot of picks (even multiple 2nds) and hoping you strike gold.

The other thing is that while doing this, you still have no incentive to be a bad team, so you can still put together rosters that can win games, because your draft picks will not depend on how you perform as a team for another 6 seasons.

Sign them all, trade them for picks.
It's obvious you cannot literally trade these guys for only picks, so we will be getting players in return. Use that to field your 45 win product.

I watched as a team I cheered for forced me to go to the Playoffs and lose to a Warrior Team in 2019 that I never wanted to lose to in the playoffs...all to sign a guy who was likely coming here any way and has reigned over the most boring and annoying era of Clipper basketball ever. This current team can certainly send these guys out, get players in return, hoard a few picks, and field winning regular season roster in the process.

I think you are underestimating the wisdom of fan bases. This aint the 1990s any more. Everybody knows wrestling is fake and the fans are much more involved with what leadership is picking for who is wearing the belt coming out of Wrestlemania. Sports fans know way more about the cap, their team's draft pick situation, etc. The fans are not going to sit idly by and say "45 wins and limping (literally) out of the playoffs is cool".

I live near Minnesota...the fans all wanted Kirk Cousins gone so they could move on and try to get a higher caliber QB. They did not care that on the other side of the door was possibly some "you don't know what you have got until it's gone" doom for them. This idea that the fans on the internet are the minority and the "real" fans in IRL who touch grass are going to be the ones enjoying the 45 wins aint real. If it is real, it will dissipate very quickly after another quick playoff exit.

That said, telling the Clipper fans to shutup and take 45 wins for the next 6 years is even less of an answer than the one I'm providing. It's lazy. It's a non-answer. We should be making moves to get from under these guys and to get on to better.

The fans will not enjoy 45 win Kawhi-Limp-Out-Of-Playoff seasons. They will enjoy some young kids playing their hearts out to 40-42. Heck, it may even attract another superstar that to sign here that doesn't have a gimpy leg.
Read the above post. Clippers have to be careful how they do this. You also have to have a believable pitch to have guys come back. If there's the idea that your going to sign a guy and trade him in January, that's not good.

I'm not suggesting anyone is dumb, but the team is in a position where some options aren't there. Let's accept that and move on and engage in what options are actually available.

Do I think they should bring the exact same roster? No, but I'm aware that 2nd apron and cap realities are a factor that many of us don't take into account when we say "why don't/didn't they do this or that".
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#32 » by MartinToVaught » Thu May 30, 2024 6:17 pm

og15 wrote:The team can't repeat the sign you and trade you a few months later like they did with Blake, and especially not with multiple players together, because it will set a bad precedent among future players and FA's as to how the Clippers treat you.

I have always said that the Blake trade was handled deplorably from the moment it was made. But I do have to push back on this point. Kawhi and PG are not Blake and trading them would not be the same as trading him.

There's a certain emotional/symbolic importance with Blake as the drafted and developed star who turned our franchise around that 213 will never have, even if they're the better players on paper. Blake took on the challenge of the worst franchise in sports, gave it his all and never complained. Kawhi and PG have spent their entire time here making demands that by and large have not made the team better, then either choking or sitting on the bench in street clothes when it matters. Kawhi left the Spurs on bad terms and ditched Toronto after one year; PG demanded trades from his last two teams, so neither of them are known for being loyal either.

Most players have short memories for this kind of stuff anyway, but I also think any player who'd balk at this is the kind of player we probably should avoid. I know I have no interest in repeating the 213 era with different names, but the same attitudes, in the future.

NBA coaches are expendable.

Under a normal owner, sure, but Ballmer doesn't operate that way. Doc only got fired because the Lakers beat the same Nuggets team we had just choked to. The chokejob itself, and all the previous failures, weren't even enough to make Ballmer take action.

No matter how bad things get, I can't see Lue ever getting fired now unless he loses to the Lakers in the playoffs or does worse than them in a year where both teams are hyped as Finals contenders by the media. It's embarrassing that those are the criteria rather than the overall performance of our team, but it's hard to draw any other conclusion from Ballmer's track record.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#33 » by KL2 » Thu May 30, 2024 7:05 pm

If options are that limited or unrealistic then Frank and company should keep their mouths shut. Or get a new spokesperson.

Don’t say you know you need to get younger and more athletic and then continue down the path you really want. Oldest, slowest, and least athletic.

Don’t say with the new CBA that you have to grow your own talent. Then throw every pick away or waste it on a player who’s on the stay ready team only.

Stop with the cheesy slogans like street lights over spotlights. You’ve done the opposite. Stop with the give no quarter or whatever. Especially stop with the all hands on deck crap. That ain’t true either.

Actions speak louder than words right?
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#34 » by esqtvd » Thu May 30, 2024 8:05 pm

KL2 wrote:If options are that limited or unrealistic then Frank and company should keep their mouths shut. Or get a new spokesperson.

Don’t say you know you need to get younger and more athletic and then continue down the path you really want. Oldest, slowest, and least athletic.

Don’t say with the new CBA that you have to grow your own talent. Then throw every pick away or waste it on a player who’s on the stay ready team only.

Stop with the cheesy slogans like street lights over spotlights. You’ve done the opposite. Stop with the give no quarter or whatever. Especially stop with the all hands on deck crap. That ain’t true either.

Actions speak louder than words right?


But it almost worked. See full post above.

And how soon they forget: January 29, 2024. The trade deadline is less than 2 weeks away. Everything's finally going according to plan.

https://www.nba.com/news/power-rankings-2023-24-week-15

Power Rankings, Week 15: Clippers reign as new No. 1 team
LA surges ahead of Boston while Denver rises to No. 3 in another week of changes to the Top 10.


Now, Ballmer is scrambling. Fortunately PG wants to be in LA instead of dying to get out of here a chase a ring. I don't really want Beard back but Russ and Bones as our PGs is no answer either. Fortunately nobody else wants Beard either so Ballmer has a good shot at him.

And let's not cheat the alternative to winning 45-47 games. The alternative is more like 30 and the 6 years of misery the Lakers put their [I have to admit they stayed loyal] fans through between Kobe and LeBron. Ballmer can't take that chance. Can't go back to the DTS days. They were NOT the good old days. Over the last 10 years, the Clippers have the 3rd most wins in the NBA. They're not a championship brand, but they ARE a winning one.

Playing back-of-the-draft kids is no assurance they'll get any better. KJ Martin has 5000+ NBA minutes under his belt and Nick Nurse had him eating pine in Philly. And folks--he's still younger than Kobe Brown and Jordan Miller!!
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#35 » by MartinToVaught » Thu May 30, 2024 8:23 pm

Stringing together one good month in the doldrums of the regular season, in year 5 of this era, is not what I'd tout as "almost working." Nor does it vindicate any of Frank's recent decisions. We could have won around the same number of games and had a first-round exit with RoCo and Batum and not be as screwed as we are now.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#36 » by nickhx2 » Thu May 30, 2024 8:32 pm

og15 wrote:Every coach has their quirks and nuances, Kidd was considered a terrible coach all regular season by many Mavs fans, even when he started coaching them to a top defense after the trade, etc

Suddenly in the playoffs many people don't know how to talk about Kidd, is he lucky? Maybe he's not that bad? Maybe they simply didn't know as much as they felt they did? Etc, etc

That's the first thing to acknowledge, as fans, our evaluation of own teams coach is generally questionable and more negative than reality. Okay, but that doesn't mean there's never valid criticism.

Multiple Roles
Next is this, being a head coach is a job with more than one role, but many of us as fans judge mostly on just part of the job description.

There are excellent x/o guys who would be awful as head coaches because they don't manage personalities well, might not be good at listening to others, so they don't foster good collaboration, and maybe don't know how to motivate/"rally the troops". That guy is likely an assistant for life who gets a head coaching gig for a short time then goes back to assistant and people ask, "but why was he fired, he's so good at x/os".

The head coach job is a combination of leadership, people management, motivation, x/o's, delegation and collaboration, not just how well you can draw up a play, how you manage rotations or what offensive or defensive schemes you can come up with.

What I can say about Lue is that he seems to be a guy who is solid at many areas even if people say, "oh he isn't great at this, or he doesn't do this thing that well". That helps him.

Easily Disposable
The Clippers limitations as a team so far are not about Lue. In addition, as we know in the NBA, a long coaching contract means very little in terms of job security. How many teams are currently paying Vogel for example? Coaching contracts are the owners money and don't affect cap, so I don't care much about coaching contract lengths when teams fire guys and pay them for 3, 4 years after all the time.


evaluating coaching is such a funny thing. one of those cognitive dissonance things where you don't realize just how little you know, until you wade into the depths. but as much as we might like to educate ourselves and understand more, basketball fans won't ever be allowed to step foot into said depths.

coaching i think is one of those things that happens to be far greater of an unsolvable mystery because we don't know how the day to day interactions go. we don't know how the players respond to this feedback or that. we don't know the locker-room conversations, the chemistry, and we will NEVER know a whole host of TOO MANY things in regards to what's behind the curtain - where conversely an amateur researcher could look up studies online in any number of fields in any number of credible scientific journals, and educate themselves to a greater relative degree of proficiency, with a greater insight to whatever big pictures are going on there.

so yeah, agree.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#37 » by esqtvd » Thu May 30, 2024 9:18 pm

Stringing together one good month in the doldrums of the regular season, in year 5 of this era, is not what I'd tout as "almost working." Nor does it vindicate any of Frank's recent decisions. We could have won around the same number of games and had a first-round exit with RoCo and Batum and not be as screwed as we are now.


Yes, hindsight is 100%.

OG and I already discussed it above. Ballmer's window to break it up was at the trade deadline, when he could get something back for the expirings. Everyone--even the fair-weather "fans"--were giddy with excitement that Plan 213 was finally coming together. There was zero talk from any quarter about kicking it all to the curb.

I had raised the alert all the way back in the spring of 2023, more than a year ahead of time, that D-Day--the trade deadline in 2024--was coming. Then that fabulous win streak--despite the Grammy road trip--threw a monkey wrench in the monkey wrench! I can blame Ballmer for a lot of things and I do, but not this one. Kawhi was looking fine and healthy, and it was full speed ahead.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#38 » by Quake Griffin » Thu May 30, 2024 9:51 pm

I hate this the most:

1. Implement a bad idea (allegedly with good intentions to help).
2. See how poorly bad idea pans out.
3. Once everybody sees how poorly bad idea pans out, tell people, we have too much invested in bad idea to back out now OR x amount of people are relying on this bad idea and we cannot change course at this point....it would be...it would be...evil.

You see that play run enough times, you begin to wonder if Step 1 is done with good intentions at all. The word wonder there is a euphemism for "roll your eyes when thinking".

These guys aren't close to Blake - who signed with us and was supposed to be a part of a big middle finger to CP3 and the rest of the league. He didn't even get to finish a full season as top dog in his prime.

This isn't the same. These guys have good enough agents who can explain to them why Ballmer did what he did. If they can't see that, then good. Don't sign here. That is not an excuse to do nothing and just watch until Kawhi completely falls off a cliff.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#39 » by esqtvd » Thu May 30, 2024 9:52 pm

nickhx2 wrote:
og15 wrote:Every coach has their quirks and nuances, Kidd was considered a terrible coach all regular season by many Mavs fans, even when he started coaching them to a top defense after the trade, etc

Suddenly in the playoffs many people don't know how to talk about Kidd, is he lucky? Maybe he's not that bad? Maybe they simply didn't know as much as they felt they did? Etc, etc

That's the first thing to acknowledge, as fans, our evaluation of own teams coach is generally questionable and more negative than reality. Okay, but that doesn't mean there's never valid criticism.

Multiple Roles
Next is this, being a head coach is a job with more than one role, but many of us as fans judge mostly on just part of the job description.

There are excellent x/o guys who would be awful as head coaches because they don't manage personalities well, might not be good at listening to others, so they don't foster good collaboration, and maybe don't know how to motivate/"rally the troops". That guy is likely an assistant for life who gets a head coaching gig for a short time then goes back to assistant and people ask, "but why was he fired, he's so good at x/os".

The head coach job is a combination of leadership, people management, motivation, x/o's, delegation and collaboration, not just how well you can draw up a play, how you manage rotations or what offensive or defensive schemes you can come up with.

What I can say about Lue is that he seems to be a guy who is solid at many areas even if people say, "oh he isn't great at this, or he doesn't do this thing that well". That helps him.

Easily Disposable
The Clippers limitations as a team so far are not about Lue. In addition, as we know in the NBA, a long coaching contract means very little in terms of job security. How many teams are currently paying Vogel for example? Coaching contracts are the owners money and don't affect cap, so I don't care much about coaching contract lengths when teams fire guys and pay them for 3, 4 years after all the time.


evaluating coaching is such a funny thing. one of those cognitive dissonance things where you don't realize just how little you know, until you wade into the depths. but as much as we might like to educate ourselves and understand more, basketball fans won't ever be allowed to step foot into said depths.

coaching i think is one of those things that happens to be far greater of an unsolvable mystery because we don't know how the day to day interactions go. we don't know how the players respond to this feedback or that. we don't know the locker-room conversations, the chemistry, and we will NEVER know a whole host of TOO MANY things in regards to what's behind the curtain - where conversely an amateur researcher could look up studies online in any number of fields in any number of credible scientific journals, and educate themselves to a greater relative degree of proficiency, with a greater insight to whatever big pictures are going on there.

so yeah, agree.


Doesn't it seem like the firings are quicker and more numerous? And though the game of musical chairs is absurd, first-time coaches seem to win Coach of the Year then join the fired-hired-fired carousel themselves.

The Monty Williams story is a hoot. After winning COY with the Hornets/Pelicans, he was eventually let go. 4 years later, he got the Suns gig in 2019. Then after a Finals appearance in 2021

On March 9, 2022, Williams was named the 2021–22 season NBA Coach of the Year leading the Suns to a franchise record in wins at 64–18 and the best record in the league after finishing second the year prior in the voting.

On July 27, 2022, the Suns signed Williams to a multi-year contract extension.

On May 13, 2023, the Suns fired Williams after losing to the eventual champion Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals of the 2023 NBA playoffs.


From genius to turkey in less than 18 months. He's now on this third HC job in NBA Siberia with the Pistons.
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Re: WOJ Clippers sign Ty Lue to a long term contract 

Post#40 » by Clemenza » Thu May 30, 2024 9:57 pm

We're not blowing it up. Ty is back long term. Unless there's a dramatic turn of events, I take it PG and Harden will be back. But I think we're all in agreement that something new and different has to come out of this team. An x-factor, some player development, some slither of excitement for once. Post Lob City we had Mann's 39 point game to close out the Jazz and make our first WCF appearance in franchise history. BBJ's 27 point game in his rookie season. A couple of 20 point games from Coffey. Bones 30+ game against the Suns nearly two months ago, etc. But not much else to scream about as far as youth is concerned. Lue and the staff has to find someone or something new to move this thing forward for a change. Hell, I'd be happy to see Zu incorporate his mid range and three point shot that we all know is buried somewhere inside his offensive bag.

The stop gap-plug the leaking dam with your index finger sh*t has to be over with. Choosing Wall over Hartenstein, now lets try Russ, now lets try Harden, "Stop crying PJ Tucker, here's your baby formula(minutes)"..to now lets look at CP3, Lowery, and DeRozen. When will it stop and try the practice of forming a real team? Love or hate the kids on the team but now is the time to see if 1-3 of these guys can add anything meaningful to the team. Hypothetically, lets say Kai Jones shocks us and turns into something, our whole outlook changes after that. Not saying this would happen, but for once they have to open up a lane if there's any type of promise with any of these guys. Not even talking star player potential, just players that make the load on the stars easier like rebounding, defending, and put backs. We're a franchise that rarely if ever has a moment like this. Its so status quo and by the books seniority.

With no cap space, no picks we control outright until 2030, and our stars getting slower and more injured by the month, somebody has to emerge on this club within the next couple of years or its going to look real spooky.

-I will say this though. Our new arena is going to be a monster hit just like SoFi Stadium is. So I do get the need to have at worst a 45 win team or better playing in the building to keep everything on the up and up. And who knows, maybe our very own building gives us a boost, a new beginning, a vibe, an aura, better health, and of course better start times. But they have to open up a lane for some new contributions and not treadmill everything to death.

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