Game 17: Los Angeles (8-8) vs Minnesota (8-8)

[Wammy Giveaway]

By starting Mbah A Moute, it's becoming clear now that Clipper's small forward spot will never be solved. It is now a wild card spot for any guard or forward to take over. On one game, the Clippers could be traditional, or semi-traditional with two power forwards. On another, it's a three guard lineup. The permanency of the spot will all depend on the opponent, as well as the Clipper's winning record with their chosen small forward. Here's the skinny stuff:

Stephenson: 5-5
Pierce: 1-2
Johnson: 1-1
Moute: 1-0

* These stats are regardless of the starting makeup. It doesn't have to be explicitly Paul-Redick-Griffin-Jordan.

The Clippers are now 1-0 when Mbah A Moute starts AND are back in the winning zone. Meaning, Doc will be blinded by using Moute as a loss-preventative starter. So, if the Clips have a loss with Moute, Doc will choose another player to fill the spot. I predict there will be a game in the future where Austin gets to start at small forward.

[LACtdom]

I like Luc as our starter. He shoots the 3 as well as most of our underperforming shooters and can defend well, plus giving our bench more offense. My dream bench lineup is Rivers, Stephenson, Wes, Pierce & Smith (obviously very flawed). Rivers and Lance can share ball-handling and can both drive / cut to the basket. Wes can play a traditional 3 & D while being an athletic option on the fast break. Pierce can.... eerrmmm.. try. Smith can provide us with rim protection and rebounding while slowly gaining confidence in his offensive game.

[nickhx2]

i don't mind luc as the starter if he can start developing some cutting chemistry and also shoot the ball with some decent consistency. i don't know if i'd call him a stopper but i really like his activity on defense. btw, i think it's pretty clear that lance has a new vitality off the bench so it almost doesn't matter who's starting as long as lance can be lance.

annoyed that doc has such a short leash on wes johnson. i find it appalling he got 4 mins today because of his defense, while crawford gets to play his usually 15-25 without so much as a word about how crappy he has been on both ends.

[og15]

Luc used to be a "stopper" a little while back, but he's a few injuries and a couple of year away from that guy

[clip set]

Luc could be a decent starter, as it seems anyone may be at this point. I was pleasantly surprised at how he looked on his man defense this game. I thought he'd lost a step earlier in the year. If he can at least keep the big athletic SFs in front of him, I think it could do a lot for our defense. Our wings being sieves out there leads to a lot of the penetration that consistently wrecks our defense. DJ is still looking bad anticipating/rotating, so the less everyone has to be covering and recovering due to athletic wings penetrating off the dribble the better.

[nickhx2]

yeah, LR being an active deterrent is kind of all you can ask for at this point. him being able to harass wings from easy penetration should help dj out a lot, who hasn't been looking that great.

[QRich3]

It was sad to see Andre Miller school Austin and Jamal with his slow old man moves for a few plays in a row. It's sadder that we still don't have a 3 that we can play after Barnes left, every one we've tried has not been good. Luc probably had the best game he's gonna have in a while and still felt like a weak point, Wes and Lance have been bad, as much as everyone likes to hope they are not, and Jamal is just Jamal, he can't guard bench SGs, let alone starting SFs.

[nickhx2]

It was sad to see Andre Miller school Austin and Jamal with his slow old man moves for a few plays in a row. It's sadder that we still don't have a 3 that we can play after Barnes left, every one we've tried has not been good. Luc probably had the best game he's gonna have in a while and still felt like a weak point, Wes and Lance have been bad, as much as everyone likes to hope they are not, and Jamal is just Jamal, he can't guard bench SGs, let alone starting SFs.

that's why we're gonna run this smallball down your throats, with jamal crawford as my star wing player

famous last words - doc rivers

[og15]

It was good to see Lance and Pierce play well, but every dog has its day, and one nice performance while hopeful means little in the grand scheme. We need them to be doing that in more like 60-70% of their games, then we're talking.

Also looks like CP is back to his baseline per minute production. Per 36 he's now at:
19.8 ppg / 4.0 rpg / 9.5 apg / 1.9 spg / 2.7 tpg, ORtg is at 118, TS% at .582

Even though I mentioned Luc fouling less than Wes last game, based on the season he's at 5.1 fouls/36, so he's been a hack too. Wes has been at 4.5 fouls/36, so we'll see how Luc does if he keeps getting more minutes. Maybe he can plug in as a low minute starter, we'll see. Most likely we'll see someone else starting next game though, lol

It probably isn't in Doc's mind, but I think the team should be looking into backup PG's as the season goes on. CJ Watson on Orlando is still a guy that interests me, Orlando does have a lot of guards, but Skiles likes defense and he was giving him almost 20 mpg in the games that he did play before getting injured. I don't know what the Clippers would offer there, but just a thought.

Frye was awful last season, and is not much of a defender, and they are starting him now for spacing but if the Clippers could figure out some way to get Frye or Watson from Orlando along with some other teams maybe clearing space or minutes for someone while moving Jamal (cap space), both those guys could be reasonable for the bench. Play Frye at C with Josh Smith at PF so they sort of compliment each other.

Anyways, just some thoughts, but the team has had bad luck with their attempts at stretch big men, though of course Mullens was bad either way, so he doesn't really count. Frye has a longer track record of actual success in comparison to those guys though, since Hawes only had one good season, but if he fails, that's one more season of paying him almost $8 million.

[ChargerMan]

I want Wes or Mbah manning the starting SF spot for the duration of the year. Also give Mbah some minutes at the stretch 4, Pierce doesn't need big minutes until the playoffs start rolling around.