Where do the Clippers stand?

[mkwest]

Clips' fine line between elite and excellent

When the Clippers were plowing through an undefeated December, there were a number of popular points in favor of calling them contenders. For a while, they were the only team in the league that had both a top-5 efficient offense and a top-5 efficient defense. The Clippers’ locker room was the happiest place on earth, with players’ sons trading a little trash talk with Blake Griffin and generally being endearing and hilarious. There were two well-defined five-man units, each thriving and learning each other’s tendencies. The team’s flaws were very manageable, and its combination of athleticism and confidence intimidated opponents.

The electricity generated from the collective buzz is important for a team’s psyche, but you can take only so much satisfaction from the drubbing of a lottery-bound team ranked in the bottom third of the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency. A win over Memphis on Wednesday night would be a helpful salve, but the shadows of recent home losses to San Antonio and Oklahoma City will recede only so far. That’s when the whispers started that the Clippers are just shy of elite, that there’s no shame in being the fourth- or fifth-best team in basketball, but that might not get you past a conference semifinals.

That’s the pressure that hangs over the Clippers now, even as they win three out of every four games. Barring a collapse by San Antonio (which will be without Tony Parker for another three weeks) or Oklahoma City, the Clippers will have to outperform their seeding and pull off an upset against an elite opponent to exceed what they achieved in the 2012 postseason.

Kevin Arnovitz, ESPN

The Fundamentals: Clips need further evolution from Blake Griffin to contend

All of which brings us to the Clippers’ Blake Griffin — a consensus star, albeit one whose role and capabilities seem particularly misunderstood. Griffin is not his team’s best player, but he bears the burden of his amazing athletic ability; a big man so quick and so explosive would seem capable of doing anything, and thus Griffin is largely expected to do everything. Even Clippers teammate Chris Paul expects the world of Griffin, despite the fact that the 23-year-old big man is still finding his way through the league.

And given the lack of systemic help from Del Negro and his staff, that’s exactly what the Clippers need. The more hats that Griffin can wear within L.A.’s offense the better, as every new dimension will bring with it a new set of valuable alternatives. That versatility is the real measure of Griffin’s offensive value, and of far greater reward than topping some arbitrary 20-points-per-game standard. The Clippers need Griffin’s work as a roll threat, which forces opposing defenses to collapse and opens up room for shooters all over the floor. They need Griffin’s off-ball movement, which so often helps to extract value from a busted possession. They need his unconventional post-up game, his emerging mid-range jumper and his stellar-for-his-position playmaking. The scoring itself is nice, but it’s hardly as nice as the wealth of ways in which Griffin can attack opponents:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpB-wwkrFME[/youtube]

In that, Griffin’s ability to live up to a lofty defensive standard may be most important of all. He’ll rely on his teammates plenty on that end of the floor, but the responsibilities of his position leave him little choice but to be aggressive and engaged at all times. There are no breaks and there will be no respite; Griffin has to be consistently terrific in rotation if the Clippers are going to seriously contend on the level of the Spurs or the Thunder. Anything else would create too many problems in a potential playoff series against an upper-echelon team. That’s quite a charge, but one suiting the confidence the Clippers have in Griffin’s overall development.

Rob Mahoney, Sports Illustrated

[mike3]

Griffin is my favorite player, he's my favorite player because there's so many reason's to root for this guy to become 'elite'. He's not the perfect basketballer, the superstar KD, LeBron, Kobe type players, he's got flaw's. He's got area's he needs to improve a lot on, but I can't help but root for him in every possible way.

This article, good little read, even more reason's to root for him. I want to see him take the lead by storm.

I think a lot of Blake's problem is his mindset, he picks and chooses when to attack and dominate it seems like.. other times he's relaxed, doesn't look to be trying to hard. I don't know why he does that but it looks like a attitude/mind set issue. Sometimes he try's to do much or try's the hard things rather than focusing on the easy option and just making the right play, or making the shot.

[og15]

I agree, Blake's all-round game is more important to team success than simple scoring alone, but in the post-season, winning is going to be dependent on how the team can defend, and Blake has had times where he's done a very good job, but he has to be consistently very good on that end.

[hatreserve]

hes goin to be a spactacular player but i dont think he will be an elite

[mkwest]

Clippers must figure out a way to improve

"Regular-season games are regular-season games," forward Blake Griffin said. "It's important to win them, but the games we're looking forward to are the games in the playoffs."

In the short-term, sole possession of the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs was on the line, and in the bigger picture, the Clippers needed to get a victory over a West playoff team, something they haven't done since before the All-Star break. In fact, the Clippers are 0-6 against teams seeded sixth or higher in the West since Jan. 14. In other words, they're 0-6 over the past two months against teams they could face in the first round of the playoffs.

"We need to start beating some of the upper-echelon teams," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "We haven't done that. I'd like to see us play with an edge and with an intensity of what's at stake. Our guys know that. Talking about it is one thing, but we have to go out there and perform. We've won some games of late, but we've lost to a few top-tier teams and that doesn't sit well with me or anyone on this team."

"One of my old coaches used to tell me and another player that you're pretty good as is, but I'm going to need you to be 1 percent better," Chris Paul said. "I got to be better, Blake has to be better, everybody has to be better."

"I couldn't care less what seed we are," Paul said. "We need to be playing the right way when the time comes and we're not there yet."

"I don't know what it is," DeAndre Jordan said. "But we have to figure out soon what it is or it's going to be a quick postseason."

Arash Markazi, ESPN Los Angeles

[og15]

Another part of improving is making adjustments, and it comes from the coach down. Vinny needs to make better adjustments, he needs to know what players of his are better for what and be willing to go away from his regular rotations in order to force the opponent to adjust to him.

He's been learning, and he will continue to learn. Things like throwing out a zone and putting a certain lineup in, he just needs to be better at sensing when it's time to switch away from the zone, or bring the starters back in.

In terms of the players, Paul needs to play like he is less trusting of his teammates and be more aggressive through whole games. He should go aggressive to start the game, then start passing because then the scoring is in the opponents mind. Second quarter he can pass everything if he wants, but again be aggressive with scoring opportunities to start the 3rd, just to set a precedent. Then in the 4th he can do whatever is most beneficial.

I get why he wants to set up his teammates, and he is one of the league's most effective isolation scorers and can get shots off almost whenever he wants, but he should allow his scoring and aggressiveness to also open up the passing game for him. Start off beating a team with scoring sometimes, then have them start adjusting in a way that opens up even more passing. As opposed to looking to pass because you know you can shoot whenever you want. It's about the pressure it puts on the opposition. Sort of like the pressure Bledsoe puts on the opposition when he's aggressive.

Next is Blake who needs to be more willing to encourage his teammates to force feed him the ball against a good matchup, not jut to score, but because he draws defenses.

I think these guys are smart and can make those adjustments, but in the end, the biggest adjustment is can we guard the three point shot, run guys off the three point line and be disciplined on defense. That is what is going to tip the scales to win the games against teams that can also find ways to score.

[hatreserve]

they are going to end up fourth..