QRich3 wrote:So, other than blogging for SBN (a very crappy site from what I've read on there, which is not much admittedly), what has Justin Russo done for me to take something he's been told seriously?
Harper: I'm not sure how you feel on this, but personally for me it feels like it's less about the players on the court and more about how I feel when it comes to Doc Rivers. During the Boston Celtics' days, I had an incredibly high opinion of Doc as a coach. Since taking over the Clippers, I definitely don't have a terribly high opinion of him as an executive and I've become less and less impressed with the coaching. I think I've gone from thinking he could fill in the gaps with his coaching into not feeling like his coaching will make a huge difference for them. I'm not positive what I can pin it on either.
It feels like there's always an excuse instead of a solution. They're top 10 in out-of-bounds and after-timeout situations, which is a pretty decent look at in-game coaching. They have the second-best clutch offense and are an abysmal clutch defense but still good enough to win. They're just outside the top 10 in defense but they're still a top 5 offense. It always seems like we're talking about whether or not the Clippers players are good enough or mentally tough enough to advance to the conference finals. But am I wrong in saying it's more on Doc than anybody?
Moore: I definitely think Doc's got to feel some of the heat for the stagnancy. Seems every year under him they've come out of the gate with an improved roster and still struggled right away. They never get off to great starts. And that's fine, be better at season's end and all, but they're also just not consistent. Every time we buy in they start to falter, every time we write them off they rally to keep themselves in the conversation. But at what point is that just not enough?
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Harper: So much of playing championship-level basketball for consistent stretches seems to stem from urgency. The Spurs had that when they took down the Heat. The Heat found it in their two titles. Dallas obviously had that when we all thought Dirk was past his expiration date for leading a team to a title. And those Celtics teams damn sure had that urgency. But with the Clippers, we don't get that sense of urgency from anybody other than CP3. I think Doc doesn't even seem to embody it at this time, and because they're deeper, we assume that will help in the long run. But really, who are they deep with on that roster?
Even if Blake matches that urgency of Paul, is Jordan capable of doing it as well? Isn't that where the youth and the assumption of "they have time to figure this out" get muddled? Maybe that's why we're having this conversation because we finally realize they may be out of time due to the lay of the West.
Moore: I don't often try and compare them to those Celtics teams, because like you said, those guys were at a different stage of their careers. But there is definitely a quality that goes with the really great teams where they are able to go out and say, "OK, enough of this, we're not losing this game." The Clippers just kind of drift. The urgency you mentioned, that's definitely what's been missing.
I definitely think the young guys have a different approach than CP3 and I think that's been part of the problem. Paul clashed with Griffin early and DeAndre as recently as last summer. I wonder if the Clippers present a cautionary tale about adding a star in his prime to a core that's significantly younger than him. I think Griffin and Jordan were just finding their way in the NBA world as stars over the past four years. That discovery puts you in a different mindset from being ready to contend for a title.
I think they are out of time, and I think that could be leading to a certain amount of lethargy. I get how good they are, I get that it's just January, but I can't help but think that Paul could us a change of scenery and the Clippers could use a recalibration.
_IGNORED: Max Headrom-esqtvd-QRich3-EBledsoe12-alon8882-45clip QRich3 wrote:Everyone is really insistent in the urgency and 'becoming a treadmill team' stuff, I just don't see it. I don't see in any way how we are worse than last year, and last year we were a lot closer to the title than most want to recognize. I'm fine with giving it a go again this year with what we have.
Also, I'm very tired of everyone feeling the need to express their personal feelings for our guys' personalities. This is sports, if grown men can't talk about basketball without catching feelings every time, then better not speak at all. I don't need to read a paragraph about your emotions each time you're gonna write about the Clippers.
_IGNORED: Max Headrom-esqtvd-QRich3-EBledsoe12-alon8882-45clip _IGNORED: Max Headrom-esqtvd-QRich3-EBledsoe12-alon8882-45clip
nickhx2 wrote:I've long held the belief that in order for this team to really progress that it needs to get lance playing at peak level. Whether he can actually do that or not is certainly up to debate, but that's not happening if he's not playing.
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