What would be your top priority if you were in charge?

[Clemenza]

As of right now if no trades are being made on our part.. play Bullock, Cunningham, and TJ Wilcox for better or worse and if possible find a SF/PF from the D-League who can defend. Doc has torched everything so imo just play the youngsters and see what you have. Anything is better that what we have going right now

[TucsonClip]

The problem is defense.

We dont have many problems offensively. The problem late in the game (hell, early in the game, middle of the game, after timeouts) is our defense. We are nearly in the bottom third in defensive efficiency now, allow teams too many open looks, have terrible help defense and as a result foul consistently. We keep losing these tight games because we cant get a stop.

We are leading the league in eFG% and PPS. We are damn near top 3 in every shooting metric. Offense is the least of our worries. We cant get a stop to close a game out. We cant end possession because we give up offensive rebounds.

Part of that is on Doc. His defensive system has not yielded anywhere near the results we were all expecting. The other part is on the players. Outside DJ and CP3, who are above average defenders, we dont defend well as a team and dont have a perimeter stopper.

What would I do? One of my suggestions was to explore dealing Crawford, Bullock, CDR (waive Cunningham) for Lance Stephenson.

I wouldn't be giddy about the deal, but its hard to deny picking up Lance's skills to toss around at SG/small SF. The contract is manageable for the Clippers moving forward, assuming the cap rises around $4 mil per year, being $9 mil flat this year and next, plus has a team option on year 3 if things really go sour.

Yes, we are absolutely sacrificing shooting for defense, but Lance is a monster on the glass, attacks like crazy off the dribble and is a good passer. Throw in the fact that he is actually playing 30% of his minutes at SF this season and you can see some light. He is ++ on defense, but needs to become more efficient offensively.

Finally, he may only be 6'5 in shoes, but he has a 6'10.5" wingspan and moves well laterally. That is why you see him defending SFs, he has the length and quickness to disrupt them.

Mentally, I think we have the ability to handle him (Doc and CP3). I only throw out Crawford because his name has popped up in rumors and Lance is readily available. He needs to handle the ball to be effective, but I think he is a better fit here off the ball (we have much more ball movement and a spread floor) than he is in Charlotte. Jefferson uses a lot of possession on the block and Kemba is going to run the offense. While Paul will dominate the ball, Lance can run the 2nd unit and play in late game situations, attacking off ball movement and giving us another threat off the dribble (not as good as Jamal obviously).

Obviously, that deal is a huge risk, especially with the Pacers' players not wanting Lane back.

[Neddy]

Lance is very tempting on paper, but I think its wise to avoid this wreck as I see him as the next Ron Artest aka Metta World Peace aka A Panda's Friend. if we come down to trading for Lance, I would rather that we wait and sign RonRon later in the season for the minimum as he can provide what Lance can with all the baggage for dirt cheap and still go into the playoffs with an enforcer SF who also is a wrecking ball.

[KyletheDingbat]

Lance would not be preferable to me. That guy seems capable of ruining a team. That's a negative so drastic I wouldn't be shocked if he's not in the league in a couple years.

Forget regular season, let's think playoffs. Guys we'll need to guard: Westbrook, Durant, Gasol, Z-Bo, Aldridge, Curry, Klay, Dirk, Monta, Lillard, Harden, Howard, the Spurs as a collective unit. Out of that group only Harden and Durant are big wings, the rest are PF's and PG's; positions we have reasonably covered. Who's the Reggie Evans of small forwards? We need that guy. KJ McDaniels would be great.

[mattd13]

I agree with kyle. the clips have to get better on defense. the rotations by matt, dj, and blake have been bad of late. at the end of close games they have depended to much on cp3 and blake. clips need to use the offense that worked the first 45 mins. if anyone needs to be replaced it would be matt. he was awful at Atlanta.

[mttwlsn16]

Crawford, Barnes and a 2nd for DeMarre Carroll and Thabo Sefalosha.

as much as i really like jamal and barnes, i would be all for this. that said, i dont see any way Atlanta would agree to that trade. theyre playing really good ball, sitting at 3rd in the east right now

[LACtdom]

After watching a few more games, I've decided that irrespective of whether we solve the SF problem or not, the bench needs a defensive makeover. I realise Udoh was meant to be our defensive big but for whatever reason Doc doesn't play him. We can flexible for example we could play Barnes at SF for the bench and Bullock at SG. But the important thing is that something needs to happen. Our bench is just too bad to be taken seriously.