RD 1 GAME 7: LAC (3-3) @ DEN (3-3)—SAT 5/3 4:30 PM, TNT

[wco81]

They aren't punitive for Ballmer financially. They're punitive for the front office's ability to build a roster due to all the restrictions on trades, signings, and draft picks you incur by staying over the apron too long. It would only ever be worth dealing with this for a dynasty in its prime - not the oldest team in the league, who can't even win a playoff series anymore.

It's also hard to criticize the Clippers for letting PG walk when we all saw how much of a disaster he was this season in Philly.

PG had a poor, injury-riddled season.

But last season, he was all- NBA level. That is why 76ers gave him a big contract.

Looking at next season, what kind of players could the Clippers add to take more of the scoring load from
KL and Harden?

Can they add an MLE or higher salary player? Will the player they could sign be a #3 in the playoffs next season?

More importantly, would the players they could add be better than the 2023-24 PG? I will concede that PG may never be that player again. Either he’s fallen off a cliff, never to regain 2023-24 form, or he’s going to have a strong bounce back next season.

Clippers had a season well above what most expected of them. Some prognosticators said before the start of the playoffs that Clippers could not only mak the WCF but give OKC a challenge. Now can they add better role players?

Forget about us, what are you guys going to do if you don't beat Houston tonight? Kerr still has his anti-bigman philosophy, Kuminga has to go, Curry and Draymond way up in age, and $60 million a season to Jimmy Butler? Man I thought you guys were set for life and really "light years ahead" having Curry, Klay, Dray, and then being able to draft WIseman, Moody, and Kuminga. Get that win tonight!

Not looking good.

They’re outshooting the Warriors the last 3 games and Adams dominates.

[KL2]

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[og15]

I don't actually expect the team to do anything drastic.

A lot of the talk we have about tanking, etc, assumes that the owner wants something different than what the management has been doing, but he's clearly stated he doesn't.

The reality is that Ballmer's goal is to keep competing for the playoffs and leverage the location and desirability of the team to get in star/superstar players later.

So in his mind, you can tank for 2 years, and suck for 5 years and hope to get a superstar within that time, which gives you around 5-7 years to get a contender.

Or

You can amass the complimentary players while continuing to be solid, then get a star/superstar via trade/free agency

.

Spurs started the tank in 21-22, they bottomed out in 22-23 and 24-25, of course they got Wemby, and if they didn't it would have been longer. They theoretically could be a contender by next year or the year after, so total 5-6 years would be the length for them in a more "perfect" situation.

OKC is another worked well situation, they tanked in 20-21 and 21-22. Technically their actual tanking alone didn't get them a superstar and it was the Clippers trade and Shai who was the 11th pick, so of course luck and timing are also factors.

Then of course we have all the teams where it doesn't work. Both ways can technically work, so that's part of why I can't go all out saying they, "must" do it this or that way.

In general, the aim is having solid assets in general, regardless of which method you choose.

[Ballings7]

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-- I'd be surprised if Harden is gone.. he'll be back most likely.

-- Batum will go another year yep.. he basically confirmed that in his postgame.

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-- I don't see any FO/coaching changes.. it'll all get run back.

-- Out of those three guys pictured.. Jaylen Brown would be the guy I like the most, maybe not a true ace guy right now, but he might be able to be "the guy" on his own and with some further improvement offensively.

Morant and LaMelo I'm not sold on as franchise guys yet. Morant mainly due to his stability past his play.. otherwise he's an ace talent, for sure, and could be a top 5-7 player. LaMelo has some work to do overall, but still young, so who knows in another year or two.

[esqtvd]

My guess/feeling is that the plan will be to modify the supporting pieces some. Coffey and Simmons are FAs; I suspect we’ll try to keep Coffey. Among our young players, I think Cam Christie is the biggest hope; I think it’ll be a dogfight for one team position between Flowers, Baldwin and Lundy. I don’t see a lot of plus movement from Kobe Brown; maybe a bit more from Jordan Miller, but not much. Thing is, the ceiling for most of those guys is Amir Coffey. The problem is a) we’ve already got an Amir Coffey-level player named … Amir Coffey. And, b) it’s very much a crapshoot if they even get to that level. A grade B Amir Coffey is not going to help us.

But, yeah, lot of questions. Still, like I said, I still enjoyed the year.

You nailed the key point here--we were forced to play Amir Coffey almost 2000 minutes and he wasn't even good enough to get any burn in the playoffs. We'd have won 30-35 games at best fielding a team of our G-Leaguers, who were uniformly terrible statistically, every one of them at the bottom of the plus-minus chart. Not one earned more minutes than he got or he would have got them. It's bad enough when you have to start a pickup team of veterans--the pickup team of these never-wases was a disaster every time they took the court. I'll be surprised if ANY of them is still in the league in a year or three.

The "alternative" was never an alternative, especially opening a new arena. Ballmer and Co. made the best of a very sorry situation.

As for next year, I don't even want to think about it, lol. We're stuck with Beard for another year; Zu, Powell and Dunn had career years but weren't nearly enough; Ty nursed Batum's minutes all year but at age 36 couldn't even give us 2 full games in a row; and Kawhi is Kawhi, the Sphinx, the leader who doesn't lead. I suppose we're one player short, but every also-ran seems to be one player short. Add an above-average PF to this crew and yeah, we win the series. But probably still not enough to get past OKC, so I can't cry about it. Ballmer seems happy enough with it all and he should be--he certainly wasn't going to dig the hole any deeper by trading away 2030s FRPs. This was it, the dregs of the 213 era, sink or swim. We mostly swam.

[MartinToVaught]

So basically, we're in for another wasted season where the best we can hope for is another first-round exit. Awesome.

Can't use the "we need to be good for the first year of Intuit" excuse anymore, so I guess the new excuse to stay on the treadmill is pinning all our hopes on future free agents who probably won't sign here and aren't good enough to carry a team anyway.

If Ballmer is really so deep into the sunk cost fallacy with those picks that he's afraid to make any drastic changes, why hasn't he fired the guy who traded all those picks away in the first place?

[Roscoe Sheed]

Bring in Brook Lopez and CP3- run out of a line up of age 34 and older: CP3, Harden, Lopez, Kawhi, and Batum- what could go wrong?

[esqtvd]

So basically, we're in for another wasted season where the best we can hope for is another first-round exit. Awesome.

Can't use the "we need to be good for the first year of Intuit" excuse anymore, so I guess the new excuse to stay on the treadmill is pinning all our hopes on future free agents who probably won't sign here and aren't good enough to carry a team anyway.

If Ballmer is really so deep into the sunk cost fallacy with those picks that he's afraid to make any drastic changes, why hasn't he fired the guy who traded all those picks away in the first place?

Fire himself?

[KL2]

So basically, we're in for another wasted season where the best we can hope for is another first-round exit. Awesome.

Can't use the "we need to be good for the first year of Intuit" excuse anymore, so I guess the new excuse to stay on the treadmill is pinning all our hopes on future free agents who probably won't sign here and aren't good enough to carry a team anyway.

If Ballmer is really so deep into the sunk cost fallacy with those picks that he's afraid to make any drastic changes, why hasn't he fired the guy who traded all those picks away in the first place?

It’s hard to believe we have the best owner in the league and he’s ok with the team laying eggs in the playoffs. As long as we put on a show in the regular season it’s a win right?

They gambled on Leonard/PG and lost. Now they’ll gamble again in 2026 with fingers crossed.

[MartinToVaught]

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The 21% he's referring to is the percentage of possessions where we ran actual structured offensive plays. The numbers back up the eye test. Lue doesn't actually coach. He watches the games and hopes that the raw talent of our roster can bail him out. There is no gameplanning and no system. A better franchise will hire Hurley while we keep clinging to the second-worst coach in the league.

[Roscoe Sheed]

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The 21% he's referring to is the percentage of possessions where we ran actual structured offensive plays. The numbers back up the eye test. Lue doesn't actually coach. He watches the games and hopes that the raw talent of our roster can bail him out. There is no gameplanning and no system. A better franchise will hire Hurley while we keep clinging to the second-worst coach in the league.

what are these percentages referring to?

[esqtvd]

So basically, we're in for another wasted season where the best we can hope for is another first-round exit. Awesome.

Can't use the "we need to be good for the first year of Intuit" excuse anymore, so I guess the new excuse to stay on the treadmill is pinning all our hopes on future free agents who probably won't sign here and aren't good enough to carry a team anyway.

If Ballmer is really so deep into the sunk cost fallacy with those picks that he's afraid to make any drastic changes, why hasn't he fired the guy who traded all those picks away in the first place?

It’s hard to believe we have the best owner in the league and he’s ok with the team laying eggs in the playoffs. As long as we put on a show in the regular season it’s a win right?

They gambled on Leonard/PG and lost. Now they’ll gamble again in 2026 with fingers crossed.

679,593---28th of 30 in attendance. I've been commenting all year how empty the wildly-overpriced Ballmerdome looked on TV. Just saw the figures.

By Game 6 there, The Wall was functional and the house was [mostly?] full. Ballmer was looking at a 2-billion dollar EMBARRASSMENT if we hadn't fielded at least a competitive team.

Except for the Game 7 stinker, the Clippers were in almost every game all year. They played hard and with pride. Yes, the regular season counts, especially when you're the owner. 41 home dates plus playoffs. If we'd got to Round 2 and got skunked by OKC, we're looking at a few more home games tops and the Shai/PG trade just rubs more salt in the wounds.

2024-25 is not a great reverse for the organization. If you're thinking like an owner, it's a win...all things considered.

[KL2]

They sure didn’t act like it.

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[esqtvd]

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[KL2]

Like how is that even possible?

[esqtvd]

Like how is that even possible?

Doc Rivers died for their sins.

[esqtvd]

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[Ballings7]

I do have to say I've been impressed by Denver in the OKC series.

They're doing better than I thought they would.. good for them. Still have a solid chance to win, because OKC is just not really proven yet to be a consistent offensive team in the playoffs, and may still lack the reliable options past SGA.

My long-term skepticism on OKC's offensive dynamics are showing to be legitimate too.. and decently as a result of Denver's defense in the least (not everything though).

Glad to see OKC won today to keep that series balanced, and going back to OKC : )

And I mean hey, if Denver takes OKC 7 and loses, or even wins.. goes to show you how good of a team Denver still actually is.

[Clemenza]

I do have to say I've been impressed by Denver in the OKC series.

They're doing better than I thought they would.. good for them. Still have a solid chance to win, because OKC is just not really proven yet to be a consistent offensive team in the playoffs, and may still lack the reliable options past SGA.

My long-term skepticism on OKC's offensive dynamics are showing to be legitimate too.. and decently as a result of Denver's defense in the least (not everything though).

Glad to see OKC won today to keep that series balanced, and going back to OKC : )

And I mean hey, if Denver takes OKC 7 and loses, or even wins.. goes to show you how good of a team Denver still actually is.

We aren't as far off as people are making it out to be. Our best bench was complete sh*t against Denver. That was the deciding factor imo. What's workng against us is the age of our stars. Probably have one more year of Kawhi & Harden playing at a high level.

[clipperlover]

I do have to say I've been impressed by Denver in the OKC series.

They're doing better than I thought they would.. good for them. Still have a solid chance to win, because OKC is just not really proven yet to be a consistent offensive team in the playoffs, and may still lack the reliable options past SGA.

My long-term skepticism on OKC's offensive dynamics are showing to be legitimate too.. and decently as a result of Denver's defense in the least (not everything though).

Glad to see OKC won today to keep that series balanced, and going back to OKC : )

And I mean hey, if Denver takes OKC 7 and loses, or even wins.. goes to show you how good of a team Denver still actually is.

I know Jokic is taking some heat today for his last couple of games, but there is one thing they are not considering: Denver hasn't been playing with desperation yet. OKC had to step up in Game 2 and Game 4 because they didn't want to go down 0-2 or 1-3.

Denver's season hasn't been put on the line yet this series. OKC better not get comfortable with getting home court back. They lose Game 5 and then they are immediately back in Denver for Game 6 with their season on the line. If they win Game 5, then they have potentially 2 games vs a Denver team who has its season on the line.

Denver is the Top team in the West until someone can truly take them down. I am not upset that we lost to them. I am more disappointed that we didn't even compete for most of Game 7. I know Dunn is a great defender, but DJJ was a key playoff starter for Dallas last year. He should have been moved to the starter role in the later part of the regular season.