Off season, free agency, coaching change.

[MartinToVaught]

Holiday would be great on a different contract. Great winning player. He brings a combination of a lot of the skills of those guys, but better, but not at that price and kength

...and age, and durability, and actual on-court performance at this stage of his career.

[wakelaunch1]

we are a Backup PG, solid 4, and backup C away from competing. There is no way we win with Harden playing the minutes he does. Our only trade pieces are Powell, and maybe sign and trade with Coffey if he has a lot of suitors.

Players i like having

Dunn, DJJ, and Batum as rotational players depending on matchups. All 3 have good contracts and can play on winning teams. All 3 play hard.

Love Zu. We need to build our offense around him even more. He is in his prime and has almost every type of shot around the rim. His defense has gotten way better and very rarely gets played off the court.

Kawhi was solid. He is not worth his max contract anymore. He only had one elite game in the playoffs. The rest were solid but not elite.

Harden is a one out of every 3 games now where he is great. We need to cut his minutes and have a backup plan when he doesnt have it. He also needs to be forced into less minutes and more rest throughout the season.

Bogi can go if possible. He cant play point guard and run the offense in todays nba.

Powell had some amazing moments throughout the season and won us a lot of games but his game doesnt really translate in the playoffs and he is our most tradable piece to upgrade at other positions. Got to go.

Brown and Miller i just dont know because Lue hasnt given them major rotational minutes to decide their value. So for that reason, they are tradable if we can get someone like PJ washington.

[KL2]

3 more draft workouts:

Tamar Bates 6’5 SG

Nate Bittle 7’0 C (retuning to school)

Chucky Hepburn 6’2 PG

[og15]

Holiday would be great on a different contract. Great winning player. He brings a combination of a lot of the skills of those guys, but better, but not at that price and kength

...and age, and durability, and actual on-court performance at this stage of his career.

Yup, age too, I think on a different team he would produce more, but Celtics have so much scoring, ball handling and playmaking that only so much was needed from him.

Regardless, not interested for the price tag.

I think the idea that the Clippers are blowing it off is hyperbolic, an obviously false, come on. If Ballmer could just buy draft picks And teams were selling them like they used to, The Clippers would be acquiring multiple ones of them to try and get additional talents.

No one in the NBA is oblivious to the fact that draft picks can be cheap talents, but it's about if you're able to acquire them, how you're able to acquire them. So I think it's a bit hyperbolic for us to think that they're just doing random things and don't actually understand what's going on. They do, but you can only do what you can with what you have.

I say the Clippers blow off the draft because that's exactly what their actions suggest. Constantly lying about getting younger and athletic, only to reach for the oldest prospects available. Repeating the same BS lines about "character and toughness" every year because they know they can't sell their draft picks' actual basketball ability with a straight face. And, of course, giving away draft picks like candy to other teams. And I'm not just talking about the PG trade, but also the Jeff Green trade, the EJ trade, so on and so forth.

Nothing this team does gives the impression that they value the draft at all. The Clippers only care about being the retirement home for stars/veterans who used to be good five years ago. They couldn't care less about the finer details of team-building that separate the first/second-round fodder we always are from the true contenders. I'll change my opinion when they start doing anything different.

Old rookies are still young-ish NBA players though.

Most recent pick was 19 year old Cam Christie.

Clippers were the first team to actually give Brandon Boston a chance on a team and had him for 20-22 years old, 3 seasons.

Before the 24 year olds, Brown and Miller, it was 21 year old Moussa, and 21 year old Keon Johnson.

Flipped Beverley to get a younger Bones, but Hyland just couldn't fit with all the better players and wasn't good enough to usurp anyone.

Other undrafted young guys were added, so it's really not been bad.

[nickhx2]

if only progress in life was linear

[Captain Ballmer]

What John Collins did to OKC with Chet&Hart playing three months ago is in a video below. We need that dude goes at Hart&Chet to the rim and finish over them, dunk over them. Watch carefully.

Watch on YouTube

[Clemenza]

Trade was so bad, Baller and L. Frank might have unintentionally created a potential OKC dynasty for the next ten years or so. The fallout from this is unreal and unimaginable at this point.

[TrueLAfan]

Getting back to the offseason/draft – it’s interesting for us (and everyone) for another reason. It’s a good draft, in the respect that there’s a lot of equality among players for different reasons. That means that draft projections are, for the most part, all over the place. There are a lot of players that we could get and have interest in that have projections 10 to 15 spots apart on reasonable, well known sites that were updated recently. That tells me:

1. Teams will draft more for need, especially after the lottery
2. Teams are still looking at age/upside
3. There’s a lot of equality among players 15-35 in the draft

…which means…

4. It’ll be really hard to tell who’s available.

Here’s an example of a player with a player I like who some people think will rise or fall to us. Drake Powell is listed by a couple of sites (SBNation, NBADraftroom) as our pick. He’s out of the first round on Sports Illustrated and CBSSports. He’s at #27 on Bleacher Report, and #20 on Nbadraft.net. I’d love to have him. There’s absolutely no consensus on if he’d be available at #30, or drop to #35 or lower.

Or another possibility with a twist. CBSSports has us picking Yanic Konan Niederhauser. But he’s out of the first round at SBNation, Sports Illustrated and NBADraftroom. He’s at #39 on Bleacher Report, and #32 on Nbadraft.net. Should we take him at #30? Should we consider trading a couple of those new second round picks to move into the bottom of the 30s in a good draft if Niederhauser is available?

I know there’s never *total* consensus with mock drafts. But they’re more all over the place than usual at this late date. The guys I noted are upside guys. Powell is 19. Niederhauser just turned 22 (he’ll be 22 at the end of the next NBA season) and got better and better as the season went on. But we’ve been drafting older guys who can play immediately more often in recent years. For people that talk about developing players and youth, this draft will probably tell us something.

[MartinToVaught]

Read on Twitter

Meanwhile Lue is still employed after being humiliated by an interim head coach in his first weeks on the job and winning a total of zero playoff series since the WCF that Kenny coached us to.

[esqtvd]

Says more about the Knicks org and their terrible, terrible owner James Dolan. Thibs was a sacrificial lamb.

https://www.basketballnetwork.net/latest-news/james-dolan-gets-dishonest-about-fans-criticism-of-him

Even though we're talking about one of the most famous sports franchises in the world, since the Finals appearance in 1999, the Knicks made the Playoffs only three times until 2010 and the Carmelo Anthony era. Melo led them to three consecutive playoff appearances then, but the Knicks never made it out of the second round. Following 2013, it took another seven years for New York to reach the playoffs again.

Now, when the Knicks are winning, even the loudest Dolan critics have quieted down, which is not a surprise because winning heals all wounds. If the team wins their first championship since 1973, bad years under Dolan will forever be forgotten. However, James should know what reaction he should expect when the Knickerbockers are bad.

As the owner of the team, he's the only constant behind all the GMs and coaches he fired over the years. He's always going to be considered the most responsible person for New York's results, especially because most of those results have been underwhelming. Dolan should also get credit for Rose's hiring in 2020, which laid the foundation for a championship contender in 2025. He'll never get the credit he deserves, though, if New York doesn't win a championship, and the reason is simple. The Knickerbockers have been so bad under his decades-long ownership that only a championship can erase all those embarrassing results.

Read on Twitter

[wakelaunch1]

Read on Twitter

Meanwhile Lue is still employed after being humiliated by an interim head coach in his first weeks on the job and winning a total of zero playoff series since the WCF that Kenny coached us to.

Lets trade Lue for either 1 first round or 2 second round picks to NY Knicks. We elevate B Shaw and make Van Gundy the lead assistant

[MartinToVaught]

Lets trade Lue for either 1 first round or 2 second round picks to NY Knicks. We elevate B Shaw and make Van Gundy the lead assistant

I would much rather hire someone from outside the organization instead of promoting from within our own losing culture once again. There's plenty of great coaches all over the world. And Shaw already had a chance to be a head coach in Denver and failed.

[MartinToVaught]

Says more about the Knicks org and their terrible, terrible owner James Dolan. Thibs was a sacrificial lamb.

The Knicks invested a ton of picks and assets into their current roster, so they don't have time to waste any more seasons with such a limited, flawed coach. Thibs has no offensive system, makes zero adjustments, and is notorious for running his players into the ground with his rotations. He is the textbook example of a coach who you hire to make your team start competing and playing hard and then fire once it's time to actually win something. They're now at the stage where they expect to win and need a coach who can get them over the hump.

It's far more baffling that the Clippers have had four straight years of first-round exits with no accountability for anyone other than PG - and, don't get me wrong, he deserved to be shown the door, but Frank, Lue and Kawhi are all long overdue for some harsh scrutiny themselves.

[wakelaunch1]

Lets trade Lue for either 1 first round or 2 second round picks to NY Knicks. We elevate B Shaw and make Van Gundy the lead assistant

I would much rather hire someone from outside the organization instead of promoting from within our own losing culture once again. There's plenty of great coaches all over the world. And Shaw already had a chance to be a head coach in Denver and failed.

U cant judge him off of this roster... he was given on one the worst rosters. It has been a decade since then of learning and growing. I liked how he coached the team in Lues absence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014%E2%80%9315_Denver_Nuggets_season

[Roscoe Sheed]

Lets trade Lue for either 1 first round or 2 second round picks to NY Knicks. We elevate B Shaw and make Van Gundy the lead assistant

I would much rather hire someone from outside the organization instead of promoting from within our own losing culture once again. There's plenty of great coaches all over the world. And Shaw already had a chance to be a head coach in Denver and failed.

U cant judge him off of this roster... he was given on one the worst rosters. It has been a decade since then of learning and growing. I liked how he coached the team in Lues absence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014%E2%80%9315_Denver_Nuggets_season

I agree- it was a very small sample size, but I think Shaw got more out of the roster than Lue did

[esqtvd]

I would much rather hire someone from outside the organization instead of promoting from within our own losing culture once again. There's plenty of great coaches all over the world. And Shaw already had a chance to be a head coach in Denver and failed.

U cant judge him off of this roster... he was given on one the worst rosters. It has been a decade since then of learning and growing. I liked how he coached the team in Lues absence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014%E2%80%9315_Denver_Nuggets_season

I agree- it was a very small sample size, but I think Shaw got more out of the roster than Lue did

The backup quarterback syndrome. Wins a game or two and everybody's calling for him to replace the starter. Winning 50 games with Kawhi missing over half of them was proof of Ty's worth. Ty coaches the season, not just the game. The war, not the battle. Shaw just carried out his orders.

FTR: Shaw took over George Karl's 57-win team and won 36 games with it and was fired during the next season when they were 20-39. [Interim coach Melvin Hunt went 10-13.] Shaw never got a top job again.

[MartinToVaught]

Lets trade Lue for either 1 first round or 2 second round picks to NY Knicks. We elevate B Shaw and make Van Gundy the lead assistant

I would much rather hire someone from outside the organization instead of promoting from within our own losing culture once again. There's plenty of great coaches all over the world. And Shaw already had a chance to be a head coach in Denver and failed.

U cant judge him off of this roster... he was given on one the worst rosters. It has been a decade since then of learning and growing. I liked how he coached the team in Lues absence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014%E2%80%9315_Denver_Nuggets_season

All we ever do is hire retreads and then find out why their last team(s) fired them. Shaw is better than Lue, but that's a very low bar. Go get Hurley or one of the top Euro coaches. In our situation, we need to try something different.

[esqtvd]

I would much rather hire someone from outside the organization instead of promoting from within our own losing culture once again. There's plenty of great coaches all over the world. And Shaw already had a chance to be a head coach in Denver and failed.

U cant judge him off of this roster... he was given on one the worst rosters. It has been a decade since then of learning and growing. I liked how he coached the team in Lues absence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014%E2%80%9315_Denver_Nuggets_season

All we ever do is hire retreads and then find out why their last team(s) fired them. Shaw is better than Lue, but that's a very low bar. Go get Hurley or one of the top Euro coaches. In our situation, we need to try something different.

Why? If Jesus H. Auerbach coaches last year's team it still wouldn't have won the title, lol.

Coach is there 24/7. At home, on the road. In the film room. It's a loooooooooooong season. What everybody's missing is that coaches don't win titles, players do. What a coach can do is keep your spirits up, and PUT YOU IN POSITION TO WIN. Ty did that by squirreling out 50 wins and the 5th seed over an EXCRUCIATING 6-month season, with Kawhi only there for 37 games. MetaSCRUB Amir Coffey played over 1700 minutes.

Amir Coffey instead of Kawhi Fkn Leonard. And still won 50 games. Even an idiot can do the math.

[MartinToVaught]

Why? If Jesus H. Auerbach coaches last year's team it still wouldn't have won the title, lol.

Coach is there 24/7. At home, on the road. In the film room. It's a loooooooooooong season. What everybody's missing is that coaches don't win titles, players do. What a coach can do is keep your spirits up, and PUT YOU IN POSITION TO WIN. Ty did that by squirreling out 50 wins and the 5th seed over an EXCRUCIATING 6-month season, with Kawhi only there for 37 games. MetaSCRUB Amir Coffey played over 1700 minutes.

Amir Coffey instead of Kawhi Fkn Leonard. And still won 50 games. Even an idiot can do the math.

With an actual coach, we would have beaten Denver in 5 or 6 and at least been competitive with OKC. Maybe a coach can't win a series (though I don't even agree with that) but they can certainly lose one by doing dumb ****. You know, like having Harden, Norm and Bogi all in the game when we desperately needed to get a rebound over Gordon. Or sticking with a starting lineup that was clearly ineffective and putting us in a deep hole to start every game. You can't say Lue put the team in position to win when he refused to do glaringly obvious things that would improve its chances of winning. And I don't know how you can make a case for him keeping the players' spirits up after they quit in Game 7.

Lue did nothing special in the regular season. Norm played way over his head for half the year and then Kawhi came back. The best coaching we saw all year was when Lue was out and Shaw coached in his place. A proven failure as a head coach was still better than Lue just because he benched players who weren't performing and played players who were. The bar is just that unacceptably low for coaching in this franchise.

[esqtvd]

And play who? You think everybody sucks lol. Except the ones who DO suck.