REPORT: Clips Get Paul Pierce

[og15]

We gain a roster spot, and room under the hard cap. The team could still use another PG (Donald Sloan) and another C (???).

I haven't been factoring Pierce into my rotation analysis so I guess I should now. He's gotta be in the best shape of his life if he wants to come back because he was not very good.

On paper we do look like the second best team in the West, barring health, which is kind of funny in a way. Still a lot of good teams, but we have a very good squad comparatively.

Serious question. Do you think that our roster before this season starts is better than our roster before last season started?

I'm still trying to figure out how Doc **** up with that collection of players so badly. That roster was the best and deepest roster we've ever assembled and it turned into shambles because Doc is so inept at figuring rotations out. Playing players out of position so his "favorite" players can get playing time and because he wanted to play small with the excuse that that's what everyone else was doing. Ended up driving out Stephenson and Josh Smith, and breaking up a team that would have probably been able to rival the Warriors of two years ago in terms of its talent and depth. And now we have nothing to show for it.

Btw, the Spurs are still probably better than us too. I think our ceiling is third best team in the West.

The talent on last seasons roster was good, but the fit on last seasons roster was not very good, and we all questioned how Doc planned on putting it all together. While talent is important, fit is just as important, and it didn't make sense how any coach could get enough minutes for all those players last season. Of course in the end it was injuries that was the biggest factor in the final outcome, not Doc's rotations.

Let's look at the start of the season depth chart:

Chris Paul / Austin Rivers / Pablo Prigioni
JJ Redick / Jamal Crawford / CJ Wilcox
Lance Stephenson / Wesley Johnson / Luc Mbah A Moute
Blake Griffin / Paul Pierce
DeAndre Jordan / Josh Smith / Cole Aldrich

Now let's look at the starters minutes if the starting lineup stayed and the remaining minutes:
Chris Paul (33 mins) / 15 mins
JJ Redick (28 mins) / 20 mins
Lance Stephenson (22 mins) / 26 mins
Blake Griffin (35 mins) / 13 mins
DeAndre Jordan (34 mins) / 14 mins

How do you make all the backups happy? Luc broke into the rotation, so you had to find minutes for him. Let's say Doc played everyone in position:

PG: Austin Rivers (15 mins)
SG: Jamal Crawford (20 mins)
SF: 26 mins for Paul Pierce, Wesley Johnson and Luc Mbah A Moute
PF: Josh Smith (13 mins)
C: Cole Aldrich (14 mins)

So right from the start, there was no reasonable way of making everyone happy when it come to minutes. Even if Luc didn't break into the rotation, you have 26 minutes to share between Pierce and Johnson. Jamal averaged 26.6 mpg the previous season, he'd be dropping 7 mpg, that's a lot. Of course Doc probably wanted to get Austin minutes, hard to look around that. He played 17.6 mpg in 14-15, and this past season he played 21.9 mpg, based on the roster, I don't know if there were that many minutes for Austin, but I don't want to go there.

Anyways, I've discussed it before, but the team has had some issues with bringing in players and there not being an understanding about roles. Josh Smith was getting 14.3 mpg, higher than what would even be reasonable based on leaving everyone at their position on the roster, and he was not happy about his role.

Clippers vs Spurs: In terms of this, I think the Spurs have a good chance of winning more regular season games, certainly, so they could get 2nd. That said, I do think that in the playoffs we would have a slightly better chance of beating them than they would of beating us. I think we might also have the best chance vs the Warriors as of now. We'll have to see how the season shapes up and how some of the young teams look.

[UKClipperfan]

if paul pierce comes back he is the de facto backup PF. this means that brice johnson is not going to get even 10 minutes a game, let alone 15.

pierce coming back is not good for this team.

Eh, if his shot isn't falling he won't get many minutes. Even if its last year all over again, he's worth keeping for leadership alone. Sullinger isn't getting much interest apparently, and might sign his QO. Wonder if Zeller is in the same boat.

[nickhx2]

opening up developmental time and a roster spot for players who will be plain better than he is is a significantly stronger option than gambling that paul pierce will turn around from the worst year of his career at age 39.

and not that i think we'll be beating GS, but getting the 2nd seed is critical next season. so there's absolutely no way i would want this team to go through 25 games of awful paul pierce just to see that he's still awful.

[UKClipperfan]

Then someone else will play. Its no big deal.

[Clemenza]

Play the youngsters.. Put Pierce at the end of the bench. Even if he hits an occasional-once in a blue moon jumper it does nothing for our team. And I thought re-signing Jamal Crawford was bad

[apet8945]

We gain a roster spot, and room under the hard cap. The team could still use another PG (Donald Sloan) and another C (???).

I haven't been factoring Pierce into my rotation analysis so I guess I should now. He's gotta be in the best shape of his life if he wants to come back because he was not very good.

On paper we do look like the second best team in the West, barring health, which is kind of funny in a way. Still a lot of good teams, but we have a very good squad comparatively.

Serious question. Do you think that our roster before this season starts is better than our roster before last season started?

I'm still trying to figure out how Doc **** up with that collection of players so badly. That roster was the best and deepest roster we've ever assembled and it turned into shambles because Doc is so inept at figuring rotations out. Playing players out of position so his "favorite" players can get playing time and because he wanted to play small with the excuse that that's what everyone else was doing. Ended up driving out Stephenson and Josh Smith, and breaking up a team that would have probably been able to rival the Warriors of two years ago in terms of its talent and depth. And now we have nothing to show for it.

Btw, the Spurs are still probably better than us too. I think our ceiling is third best team in the West.

The talent on last seasons roster was good, but the fit on last seasons roster was not very good, and we all questioned how Doc planned on putting it all together. While talent is important, fit is just as important, and it didn't make sense how any coach could get enough minutes for all those players last season. Of course in the end it was injuries that was the biggest factor in the final outcome, not Doc's rotations.

Let's look at the start of the season depth chart:

Chris Paul / Austin Rivers / Pablo Prigioni
JJ Redick / Jamal Crawford / CJ Wilcox
Lance Stephenson / Wesley Johnson / Luc Mbah A Moute
Blake Griffin / Paul Pierce
DeAndre Jordan / Josh Smith / Cole Aldrich

Now let's look at the starters minutes if the starting lineup stayed and the remaining minutes:
Chris Paul (33 mins) / 15 mins
JJ Redick (28 mins) / 20 mins
Lance Stephenson (22 mins) / 26 mins
Blake Griffin (35 mins) / 13 mins
DeAndre Jordan (34 mins) / 14 mins

How do you make all the backups happy? Luc broke into the rotation, so you had to find minutes for him. Let's say Doc played everyone in position:

PG: Austin Rivers (15 mins)
SG: Jamal Crawford (20 mins)
SF: 26 mins for Paul Pierce, Wesley Johnson and Luc Mbah A Moute
PF: Josh Smith (13 mins)
C: Cole Aldrich (14 mins)

So right from the start, there was no reasonable way of making everyone happy when it come to minutes. Even if Luc didn't break into the rotation, you have 26 minutes to share between Pierce and Johnson. Jamal averaged 26.6 mpg the previous season, he'd be dropping 7 mpg, that's a lot. Of course Doc probably wanted to get Austin minutes, hard to look around that. He played 17.6 mpg in 14-15, and this past season he played 21.9 mpg, based on the roster, I don't know if there were that many minutes for Austin, but I don't want to go there.

Anyways, I've discussed it before, but the team has had some issues with bringing in players and there not being an understanding about roles. Josh Smith was getting 14.3 mpg, higher than what would even be reasonable based on leaving everyone at their position on the roster, and he was not happy about his role.

Clippers vs Spurs: In terms of this, I think the Spurs have a good chance of winning more regular season games, certainly, so they could get 2nd. That said, I do think that in the playoffs we would have a slightly better chance of beating them than they would of beating us. I think we might also have the best chance vs the Warriors as of now. We'll have to see how the season shapes up and how some of the young teams look.

See this is where I think the difference lies between us and championship teams like the Spurs, Warriors, Thunder, Cavs, etc. Those teams have stacked benches to go along with their stars, and none of them give a shite about who gets how many minutes out of their bench players. They just play to **** win, doesn't matter who gets the playing time.

So how is it that those teams can do it, and yet, when we had our stacked team, we couldn't figure it out? Everyone always says that you need a deep team in order to make a deep playoff run. Okay, yes I agree with that. But then as soon as we get our deep team, all of a sudden there aren't enough minutes for everybody? Come on! What was the **** point of going and getting all those guys then? How come other championship teams don't have this problem?

If we are indeed more concerned about who on our bench gets more minutes and if certain players are getting a certain amount of minutes each game to be kept "happy," as opposed to, say, playing the players that would mesh best together, or playing players based on matchups or just playing the players that give you the best chance to win, then we'll never be a championship caliber team. We'll always be second tier. Because Crawford HAS to get 22 minutes, and Rivers HAS to get 17, and Pierce HAS to get whatever he gets cause these are Docs guys, despite their flaws. And guys like Stephenson and Smith get played out of position, and Aldrich, Prigioni, and LRMaM don't even get to play, until Doc's last ditch effort where he's like, "Well everybody else isn't doing much so I'll just play you guys now and see what you can do," only to realize that those were his best bench players all along, he was just too stupid to realize it till it was too late.

[og15]

You have to get the right players for your "stacked" team. You have to get guys who are willing and content with sacrificing minutes. If you don't get those types of players then being stacked doesn't do anything for you. Being stacked is not just about the names, it's also about the fit.

Still, stacked or not, Paul and Griffin both go down, no longer a championship team. So even if Doc figured it all out, the injuries to those guys would have made it all moot.

[exculpatory]

Report: Paul Pierce will return to Clippers next season - Sports Illustrated https://t.co/2rDrzj0azx

My problem with him is it seemed like his "role" was to stand on the three point line and shoot it. He's not JJ, he should have been moving more. If he can't do that anymore, then it's time for him to go.

The way Doc relegated him to strictly a 3pt shooter was awful. Pierce is a smart player with a post game and a unique driving ability and Doc failed to optimize his skillset. Just seeing what he did months prior in Washington and what he became with the Clips drove me crazy.

THIS! **** spot on!

Paul shot the freaking lights out from EVERYWHERE for the Wizards at age 37 - and was a freaking clutch beast in the 2015 POs.
There is a freaking reason he has scored 26,316 points - SIXTEENTH ALL TIME!
Last year was an aberration at age 38.
Even at age 39 this coming season, he WILL be a very valuable asset in limited minutes for whoever he plays for.