Pacific Division Offseason Review

[Smitty731]

Hey Guys!

My Pacific Division Offseason Recap is up for RealGM, complete with grades for this offseason and each team's long term outlook.

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/243330/2016-NBA-Offseason-Review-Pacific-Division

Any and all feedback is always appreciated.

Thanks!

Smitty

[Ranma]

[Ranma]

[Ranma]

[Ranma]

[Ranma]

Ben Rohrbach, Yahoo! Sports (9/16/16)

There’s an old cliche about the definition of insanity. They say it’s doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It’s been attributed to Albert Einstein, Mark Twain and Ben Franklin.

I’m not really sure where the saying started, but I know where I’m going with it: Los Angeles Clippers head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers is, by very definition, an insane person.

... Seriously, if you’re an NBA journeyman looking for work, and Rivers hasn’t offered you a job, I’m pretty sure your phone is broken. Otherwise, you’d be on the Clippers right now.
...

For the record, the Clippers indeed led the league in bench scoring after Christmas last season, scoring 41.8 points per game, according to NBA.com/stats. Of course, their bench also allowed 43.5 points per contest over that same span — good for second-to-last in the league. So, yeah, not great.

BDL 25: Counting on the Clippers to Contend is Insane, So Call Them Crazy

[og15]

Thanks for posting those.

Just a comment on the last post, I've never been a big fan of using "bench scoring" as a measure for how good a teams bench is, so I like that they mentioned the fact that they did give up more than they scored. Back to bench scoring though, a lot of times, high bench scoring can just mean that a team has a player like a Jamal Crawford who gets a decent amount of minutes off the bench and puts up points. More bench scoring does not necessarily mean you have a bench that better suits your starting lineup and is more effective.

For example some teams stagger lineups, so with the bench unit, the first option is still one of the starters who is playing with the bench. That bench unit might have a solid group of defenders / rebounders / playmakers and they are very effective with the lineups they use, etc, but their "bench scoring" might not necessarily be anything impressive.

Sadly some people use bench scoring as a measure of bench effectiveness, but I don't care much for that. If the minutes are there, this years bench could get a lot of "bench scoring", but whether that will actually mean they are an effective bench is a different question.

[og15]

It's nice that the Clippers have 3 top 20 players based on this list. A top 100 is quite difficult to do as there are a lot of players who can move around especially when you start getting out of the top 20-30 players, and of course even in the top 20-30 there will be debate.

I don't have any specific great issue with their list, there will always be specific disagreements, but they make their arguments, and they take into account things like health, etc, which is reasonable. The Warriors of course have 4 top 20 players according to the list, which again is probably what most would think. I expect people would argue about the rankings of guys like Lillard and Irving though, and I'd say rightfully so, and probably largely because Lowry got put decently higher and maybe DJ would get bumped out of the top 20 with those arguments, but even just calling him a top 30 player is still very good. Then you have a guy like Giannis who people would want bumped up based on his end of season play, and maybe Kristaps based on their projected idea of how he will perform as well as Karl Anthony who I think will be better than he was ranked.

I'm still not fully sold on the Clippers bench and the fit of all the players because like last season I still see issues with mintes, and this season I see the hole of not having another C on the roster who can be a defender / rim protector. We'll see how Doc and his crew put everything together, but I'm anticipating some roster changes as the season moves along.

[Don Tommy]

Thanks for posting those.

Just a comment on the last post, I've never been a big fan of using "bench scoring" as a measure for how good a teams bench is, so I like that they mentioned the fact that they did give up more than they scored. Back to bench scoring though, a lot of times, high bench scoring can just mean that a team has a player like a Jamal Crawford who gets a decent amount of minutes off the bench and puts up points. More bench scoring does not necessarily mean you have a bench that better suits your starting lineup and is more effective.

For example some teams stagger lineups, so with the bench unit, the first option is still one of the starters who is playing with the bench. That bench unit might have a solid group of defenders / rebounders / playmakers and they are very effective with the lineups they use, etc, but their "bench scoring" might not necessarily be anything impressive.

Sadly some people use bench scoring as a measure of bench effectiveness, but I don't care much for that. If the minutes are there, this years bench could get a lot of "bench scoring", but whether that will actually mean they are an effective bench is a different question.

Another thing about bench scoring. Many times last year the game was no longer in doubt by the time the 4th quarter started, so the bench played the entire 12 minutes. It seemed like the starters got more rest than ever last year (don't know the stats, just the eye test) which is why they were so healthy come playoff time...

[og15]

So healthy come playoff time until they weren't, right? That was so sad. Also the two times the Clippers have almost had a break in terms of the next round opponent having an injury to a significant player, the team has had a serious injury to one of their own major players. 12-13 with Blake and then last season with both Blake and Paul, pretty sucky.

[Roscoe Sheed]

Ben Rohrbach, Yahoo! Sports (9/16/16)

There’s an old cliche about the definition of insanity. They say it’s doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It’s been attributed to Albert Einstein, Mark Twain and Ben Franklin.

I’m not really sure where the saying started, but I know where I’m going with it: Los Angeles Clippers head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers is, by very definition, an insane person.

... Seriously, if you’re an NBA journeyman looking for work, and Rivers hasn’t offered you a job, I’m pretty sure your phone is broken. Otherwise, you’d be on the Clippers right now.
...

For the record, the Clippers indeed led the league in bench scoring after Christmas last season, scoring 41.8 points per game, according to NBA.com/stats. Of course, their bench also allowed 43.5 points per contest over that same span — good for second-to-last in the league. So, yeah, not great.

BDL 25: Counting on the Clippers to Contend is Insane, So Call Them Crazy

very condescending post by this guy. I regret I wasted time reading that

[nickhx2]

yahoo sports has a history of some good writers, and some very, very, very awful ones.

[Wammy Giveaway]

very condescending post by this guy. I regret I wasted time reading that

Was it just another article meant to smear the Clippers and drag them back into mediocrity?

This is not a rhetorical question.

[nickhx2]

no combination of letters, numbers, words, or prose from an opinion piece has the power to turn a winning franchise into a losing one. doesn't matter what that joke of a writer intends or doesn't intend.

[Ranma]

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[og15]

I wanted him back in the day, it was surprising that no one signed him, but he can shoot, at least the 3PT, and in volume. The thing is that the team doesn't really need another SF who can sort of play small ball PF.

Maybe this is just in case Pierce retires, they want to have options.

[nickhx2]

didn't he really only have that one super sick breakout season before falling off the cliff forever?

[og15]

Sort of. His 07-08 and 09-10 seasons with Miami were good, he was injured in 08-09, then he had the breakout season in GS mainly because he got to play 38 mpg in 10-11. 11-12 and 12-13 were also not bad, but he was not as impressive with Portland. Still, a volume 3PT shooter who can theoretically be efficient, has length and can defend decently, and he rebounds well. He's also low turnover and can handle and pass the ball decently well.

His last two seasons with Portland were a big struggle though, and from what I remember he's super inconsistent.

At least we know he can still get up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOKPumU2bAk

[Ranma]

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