Training Camp/Preseason Thread

[mkwest]

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[mkwest]

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[mkwest]

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Second Unit Impresses At Day 1 Of Camp

“It was a really good practice,” said head coach Doc Rivers. “You can clearly see that we have a lot of talent. It was very competitive. The second group today in the scrimmage, they were tough. They were really tough.”

Rivers said some of the college coaches who attended the practices last year as well noted how much more talent was on the floor. He added that there were times last year the first group could goof around, but that can’t happen anymore.

“It makes both sides better, because there’s no days off in practice,” said Crawford, who’s used to playing around new backup units year-to-year with the Clippers. “We know they’re coming with it and they know we’re coming with it. We’re still figuring it out, but it was a good day for us.”

Griffin said he thought everyone had a good practice, but he noted how well Pierce worked in with the starters. It was obvious to Griffin how well Pierce knew Rivers’ offense, which should help him seamlessly adjust to his new team.

“Paul knows our basic offense, he knows the sets we run,” Griffin said. “So our first unit was moving like we were kind of midseason just really moving the ball. We all kind of knew what to expect.”

Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com

[mkwest]

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[mkwest]

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Day 2 of Clippers training camp

When the team opened the doors at practice today allowing the media a quick glimpse of a scrimmage to end practice, it was obvious how the experience on this roster is manifesting itself on the court. With Paul Pierce running at small ball four on the second unit today, the end of the scrimmage was ridiculously intense for a late September practice. Bodies were banging, people were talking -- it was INTENSE.

Doc Rivers echoed my feelings in his comments after practice saying that he hasn't seen this level of intensity and execution this early in camp in years past. Rivers singled out Smith and Lance Stephenson for praise, but was in general very pleased with what was happening.

Steve Perrin, Clips Nation

[nickhx2]

interesting. really great news. i had some worries that the guys were counting their chickens a bit too early, since more than a few guys echoed the team's "scary" talent level. but with this info you know they are pretty single-minded and that's exactly what a championship team needs to be.

should add that having high level practices is pretty much exactly what young players should be exposed to early on to jump start their progression. i'm not sure that cj wilcox will be with the team, but it'll only help him. dawson, i hope, will learn something too.

[mkwest]

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interesting. really great news. i had some worries that the guys were counting their chickens a bit too early, since more than a few guys echoed the team's "scary" talent level. but with this info you know they are pretty single-minded and that's exactly what a championship team needs to be.

should add that having high level practices is pretty much exactly what young players should be exposed to early on to jump start their progression. i'm not sure that cj wilcox will be with the team, but it'll only help him. dawson, i hope, will learn something too.

It gets better

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Day 2 Notes: Pierce Works At 4, Players Bond, More

On the opening day of camp, Rivers put Wesley Johnson at the four with the backup unit, with Paul Pierce playing his normal role at small forward with the starters. The roles were reversed Sunday, with Pierce playing power forward with the backups.

Rivers said it was the first time he put Pierce in that role, and while it’s clear Pierce still needs time to learn what the Clippers are running, Rivers said Pierce’s smarts and spacing brought a level of calmness to Lance Stephenson, Austin Rivers and Jamal Crawford.

“This team, they have this thing like they want to bring someone along with them,” Doc Rivers said. “My vision of this team in the past, everybody worked on their game. I keep saying, like right now, J.J. does that drill alone, he’s doing that today with Austin. I guarantee you that was J.J. saying, ‘Hey, let’s do this drill together. This morning, Chris had a couple guys. Blake’s been unbelievable. I think that’s been good.”

Redick said working with a teammate on the side is something that typically happens organically. Both players have worked extensively with J.P. Clark, an assistant coach for player development, so Redick said working with Austin Rivers is a natural fit.

Paul said the players he works on the side with will vary. On Sunday, he remembered getting up shots with Pablo Prigioni, Austin Rivers and C.J. Wilcox.

“We’re teammates,” Paul said. “We’re like family. We’re going to be together like this for a long time. Sometimes you get shots on your own, but a lot of times you like to shoot with other guys.”

Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com

[Neddy]

guys are right, this is easily the deepest clippers squad ever.

CP3------Rivers------Pablo
JJ--------Jamal------CJ
Wes------Lance------Dawson(really a 4 but for semantics sake)
Blake----Josh--------Truth(until playoffs and he is the starting SF)
DJ-------Aldrich-------the 15th spot

and the 15th spot fought among Niko Tshki/Mbah a Moute/Hayes.... assuming Dawson is gonna IL and maybe even play for the D league, this is absolutely the deepest clipper roster ever with ease. only player who doesn't merit a starter's minutes if asked, is CJ. that's it. everyone else has started for an NBA team before and many back ups would start for another team right now.

[playaloc916]

guys are right, this is easily the deepest clippers squad ever.

CP3------Rivers------Pablo
JJ--------Jamal------CJ
Wes------Lance------Dawson(really a 4 but for semantics sake)
Blake----Josh--------Truth(until playoffs and he is the starting SF)
DJ-------Aldrich-------the 15th spot

and the 15th spot fought among Niko Tshki/Mbah a Moute/Hayes.... assuming Dawson is gonna IL and maybe even play for the D league, this is absolutely the deepest clipper roster ever with ease. only player who doesn't merit a starter's minutes if asked, is CJ. that's it. everyone else has started for an NBA team before and many back ups would start for another team right now.

I don't want to get my hopes up too early, but I totally agree. That has to be the deepest team we've ever had. The team has a lot of new pieces, but as long as there are no players "falling off cliffs" (ie Jared Dudley, Spencer Hawes, Grant Hill, even Ricky Davis), there is a lot to be excited about.

[McAdoo]

guys are right, this is easily the deepest clippers squad ever.

CP3------Rivers------Pablo
JJ--------Jamal------CJ
Wes------Lance------Dawson(really a 4 but for semantics sake)
Blake----Josh--------Truth(until playoffs and he is the starting SF)
DJ-------Aldrich-------the 15th spot

and the 15th spot fought among Niko Tshki/Mbah a Moute/Hayes.... assuming Dawson is gonna IL and maybe even play for the D league, this is absolutely the deepest clipper roster ever with ease. only player who doesn't merit a starter's minutes if asked, is CJ. that's it. everyone else has started for an NBA team before and many back ups would start for another team right now.

I don't want to get my hopes up too early, but I totally agree. That has to be the deepest team we've ever had. The team has a lot of new pieces, but as long as there are no players "falling off cliffs" (ie Jared Dudley, Spencer Hawes, Grant Hill, even Ricky Davis), there is a lot to be excited about.

With a team this deep we could actually probably handle one falling off a cliff.

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[mkwest]

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Former Top 5 Pick Feels Ready After Worldwide Ride

“You’ve got to play basketball if you love the game,” Tskitishvili said. “As much as I enjoyed being in the NBA, the basketball stuff didn’t click in a lot of ways…I sat down with my family, we talked with Mike D’Antoni, who was my coach, and we talked about this. I talked and said, ‘I think it’s time for me to go and develop myself.’”

Tskitishvili feels more mature, smarter, stronger and more experienced than he was during his first NBA stint, when he averaged 2.9 points and 1.7 rebounds per game.

“I see the game differently, especially when you play in those countries like Lebanon, like Iran and Dubai, it’s not less pressure than here,” Tskitishvili said. “Over there, what makes it tougher is if you have one bad game, they kick you out. One bad game, you’re out of the team, maybe two bad games. I was doing my best to not get cut and doing it every day. I knew I had to work hard to not get cut.”

Tskitishvili said his experiences helped him not only as a basketball player, but as a person. They showed him life from different angles, and they allowed him to play basketball, which is all he wanted in the first place.

With his skills refined in a variety of environments, Tskitishvili feels ready to prove himself once again in the NBA.

“I enjoyed playing so much in every city,” Tskitishvili said. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m really enjoying this.’ I’m just enjoying what I do. With this mentality, I got better. All of a sudden, I was like, ‘Yeah, I can do this.’ I think I’m ready for it.”

Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com

[mkwest]

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Practice Report: Day 3 of Clippers Training Camp

One player that really caught my eye was Luc Mbah a Moute, who is on a non-guaranteed contract, and needs to really show something to the coaching staff if he wants to be on the roster past October. He was off to the side of the main court shooting 3 after 3, making his fair share. With small forward being the most open position for someone to make an impact, watching him work on the 3 pointer was great to see.

Afterwards, coach Doc Rivers shared his thoughts on two of the Clippers new additions, Lance Stephenson and Josh Smith. When questioned about how Lance has been in regards to his reputation as a difficult player, Doc responded by saying "he has been great, that reputation is something I have not seen."

When asked about the position Clippers fans can expect to see Smith playing off the bench this season, his response was the 5, with Paul Pierce playing the 4, along with "the three", which consists of Lance Stephenson, Austin Rivers, and Jamal Crawford.

Josh Smith mentioned that the only problem for the Clippers so far is over passing.

Ray Samora, Clips Nation

Elsewhere in the NBA...
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[nickhx2]

the commentary coming out of this training camp is really making this all feel like a pretty special group.

[mkwest]

Josh Smith Details Why He Chose The Clippers

He credits general manager Dave Wohl for making sure that didn’t happen.

“I give Dave credit,” Rivers said. “He didn’t stop. He called every single day, like 21 days in a row. He kept calling, and Josh called Dave and said, ‘I’m coming.’ Then Dave called me. That’s how we got the news. I just think the opportunity, he looked at our team and what we had, and I think that’s what sold him.”

It’s still going to be a learning process for Smith as he adjusts to his new group and potentially more time at the center spot. Rivers loves Smith’s passing ability, but he said both Smith and Stephenson have to be more careful with some of their passes that they don’t lead to unnecessary turnovers.

In addition, Smith said sometimes players are passing too much because they want to be unselfish and have so much talent around them. He likes getting work as a small-ball five, but he said he still needs work rolling to the rim, and he’s telling his teammates to stay on him if he doesn’t do it right.

Smith said players aren’t bashful about policing one another, despite so many new additions on the team. As he put it, everyone “sees the vision,” which is winning a championship.

Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com

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Day 3 Notes: Stephenson A Walking Triple-Double?

Smith said Stephenson’s unselfish with the basketball, and sometimes it’s always about finding the right fit for a player. He compared Stephenson’s situation last year in Charlotte to his own situation while playing for Detroit, and he believes Stephenson’s looking at this new fit as “a breath of fresh air.”

“He’s a walking triple-double,” Smith said after Day 3 of training camp. “What people don’t understand is when a guy plays so much in the Eastern Conference, you really don’t know how special that player is. He’s a definitely a special player on both ends of the court.”

“He’s great,” Doc Rivers said. “He’s very competitive. You can see that can get in his way at times, it does in practice every once in a while, but he’s a hell of a defender on the ball.”

Doc Rivers said Stephenson’s still learning how to be a better defender off the ball, but people forget Stephenson’s only 25 years old, just like people forget Austin Rivers is only 23.

“No matter how much we get on them, they’re still really young,” Rivers said. “We can’t forget that at times.”

“I think Austin is playing more like the playoffs all the time,” Doc Rivers said. “I think his confidence, probably, he’s been very good, hard to stop. His defense has been great. That’s something we saw at the end of the year anyways, so I guess we expected that.

“Other than that, everybody’s just better. DJ’s better, DJ’s in great shape, he’s playing terrific. I guess DJ’s passing has surprised me this year. He’s really making great passes from the post, and we haven’t seen that.”

Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com

Newcomer Lance Stephenson buys into role with Clippers

“He’s been great. That reputation or whatever, that’s something I haven’t seen so we don’t care. He’s very competitive,” Doc Rivers said. “You can see that can get in his way at times. It does in practice every once in a while. He’s a hell of a defender on the ball; he has to learn how to be a better defender off the ball. We knew that. But, he’s a good player.”

“We want (the starters) to work hard. And at the same time, they push us,” Stephenson said. “That’s what Doc picked us up for, to help the team, the second unit, and make it hard on them so when it comes to a game, they’ll be ready.”

“I think people are looking at it like the time is now. Guys are getting up there in their careers, and they want it more than ever. They feel like they know what the formula is to win,” Smith said. “Paul (Pierce) is definitely a guy we can lean on who won an NBA title. He knows what the sacrifices are to achieve that goal. We just have to be sponges. We can’t be a big ego team.”

“The one thing Josh and Lance need to learn in our culture is the turnovers. They’re such good passers, but they’ll go for it every time,” Rivers said. “When you look at our offensive numbers, a turnover hurts us more than any other team because we score. When we don’t get a shot up, that really hurts us.”

Dan Woike, OC Register

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[BlzMwt]

the commentary coming out of this training camp is really making this all feel like a pretty special group.

at first all the mention of how scary this team was, how the talent level was so high and how it felt like an allstar game was a little disconcerting. But then again, we know there is a veteran presence from the top level guys to the coaching staff. And at least by Smith and Lance's comments, it seems like they know who's in charge, especially with Smith's talk of being "policed"

[QRich3]

It's all standard training camp talk though, isn't it? not that it's a bad thing or anything, but every year this time, everyone is in the best shape of their life, and everyone praises everyone else's work ethic, and how special a group every team is. I though Doc's comments about DJ's passing and Lance & Smith's work ethic were pretty transparent motivational phrases.

Which doesn't mean all of those videos and quotes don't make me excited for the new season, cause they do

I kind of like Josh Smith playing C most of his minutes against bench players, but I just don't know how we're gonna get away with it defensively, not when the guys surrounding him will be Crawford Pierce, Austin and Lance. If he had a solid defensive cast around him, I can see him working pretty well as a shot blocking C. There's gonna be few to no bench players capable of hurting us by posting him up, or getting rebounds away from him.

[BlzMwt]

I kind of like Josh Smith playing C most of his minutes against bench players, but I just don't know how we're gonna get away with it defensively, not when the guys surrounding him will be Crawford Pierce, Austin and Lance. If he had a solid defensive cast around him, I can see him working pretty well as a shot blocking C. There's gonna be few to no bench players capable of hurting us by posting him up, or getting rebounds away from him.

i keep hearing all of this talk about how Pierce is such a defensive liability from the General Board, that he won't be such a significant addition to the team.

Obviously when he is at the 4, its gonna be a small lineup but does anyone have any info on how he was defensively for the wizards playing the 4 last season?

I also don't understand why people are trying to discredit him due to his age. It's literally only been a few months since he was playing very well for his role for the wizards in the playoffs.

[QRich3]

I kind of like Josh Smith playing C most of his minutes against bench players, but I just don't know how we're gonna get away with it defensively, not when the guys surrounding him will be Crawford Pierce, Austin and Lance. If he had a solid defensive cast around him, I can see him working pretty well as a shot blocking C. There's gonna be few to no bench players capable of hurting us by posting him up, or getting rebounds away from him.

i keep hearing all of this talk about how Pierce is such a defensive liability from the General Board, that he won't be such a significant addition to the team.

Obviously when he is at the 4, its gonna be a small lineup but does anyone have any info on how he was defensively for the wizards playing the 4 last season?

I also don't understand why people are trying to discredit him due to his age. It's literally only been a few months since he was playing very well for his role for the wizards in the playoffs.

He was visibly bad on defense last year, particularly when he played the 4. If you want to put a number to it, last playoffs, the Wizards allowed 101.3 points-per-100-possessions when he was on the court, only 93.9 when he was on the bench. And guys shot 6% better when he was defending them compared to when other guys were. He was awesome offensively, and hit some timely shots, but his defense left much to be desired. Which you know, it's ok cause he's 38 and can't move like he used to.

[BlzMwt]

He was visibly bad on defense last year, particularly when he played the 4. If you want to put a number to it, last playoffs, the Wizards allowed 101.3 points-per-100-possessions when he was on the court, only 93.9 when he was on the bench. And guys shot 6% better when he was defending them compared to when other guys were. He was awesome offensively, and hit some timely shots, but his defense left much to be desired. Which you know, it's ok cause he's 38 and can't move like he used to.

thanks for clearing that up, obviously not desirable but not unexpected lol

btw where do you find information for that? on-off splits and lineup data?

[playaloc916]

“I think people are looking at it like the time is now. Guys are getting up there in their careers, and they want it more than ever. They feel like they know what the formula is to win,” Smith said. “Paul (Pierce) is definitely a guy we can lean on who won an NBA title. He knows what the sacrifices are to achieve that goal. We just have to be sponges. We can’t be a big ego team.”

Love this quote by Smith. A lot of our guys are at the peak or near-peak of their careers. CP3 isn't going to be able to sustain his MVP-type play for much longer. This may be Pierce's last really productive season. Blake and DJ, they must be nearing the peak of their careers. Anything short of the WCF to me, barring any catastrophies, is a disappointment. I'm hoping we can replicate the type of championship seasons that the recent Celtics and the Mavs had.