ImageImageImageImageImage

I Hate Our Version of Load Management

Moderators: og15, TrueLAfan

User avatar
Quake Griffin
RealGM
Posts: 15,415
And1: 4,638
Joined: Jul 06, 2012
     

I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#1 » by Quake Griffin » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:12 pm

Since I was told to shutup and quit whining since I was getting a championship out of all of this at the end, I figured I could finally write that I hated the way this came together, the way it was put together, and the way this organization behaved all year.


Wednesday November 6th, 2019 we had a game scheduled against Milwaukee at home - primetime television spot. Prior to that, our last game was November 3rd against Utah. So we had 2 days off before this game. This was the first of a back to back. The next day we would be facing the Blazers at home. After that we had 3 days off. TONS AND TONS of Kawhi rest time. The Clippers decided to sit Kawhi Leonard against the Greek Freak on prime time television on the 6th.

Who knows what the theory was? Punt on the Bucks game and put everything into a sure win against Portland? I raised a stink about it at the time. Again, shutup and quit whining, Quake. Anything for a championship. None of this matters. blah blah blah.

But it was at this point that I felt like we weren't just Load Managing. We weren't just trying to find spots to rest Kawhi for his health. It was at this moment, I thought the rest was more about sending a message to the fans and the league: WE DO NOT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE REGULAR SEASON - SEE YOU IN APRIL. We need to show them just how much we don't care about it. Even though there's tons of places here to rest Kawhi, we'll rest him in a big prime time game - one of his first as a Clipper.

I thought this permeated to the team over the course of the year and the team lost its dog mentality. This team became a team that didn't care about the regular season. It became a team that didn't care about seeding (a Doc special). It also became a team that only cared about meeting the Lakers in the CF (actually taking that as a foregone conclusion).

Whatever Nick Nurse did last year with Load Management, he had the team ready to play in the postseason. There was no question of effort. There was no tricking quarters or games off. They busted their ass to get that championship. Meanwhile, we couldn't take Dallas serious (getting beat wire to wire, soundly, in Game 2 and blowing a 21 point lead in Game 4). We couldn't take Denver serious. We tricked off the 1st Quarter of Game 2 and everybody said it was okay because, even in the loss, we won the other 3 quarters.

Is this on Doc?
The players?
The overall management for how they put this together?

I say a combination of the 3. But I never want to be a part of the way we did this again. The reality is, we are one of (if not the) worst franchise statistically speaking, in sports. We have the second worst win percentage in league history, only the Timberwolves are worse. We have never been to a conference final. The idea that we, a franchise who has never won anything, could trick off a regular season, trick off the 1st round of the playoffs, like we've ever won anything is ridiculous to me. The idea that we could have patched over all of that history with one big signing, one big trade, ignore all the regular season and just show up in the playoffs and turn it on is ridiculous to me.
“I’ve always felt that drafting is the life blood of any organization.” - Jerome Alan West.
User avatar
MartinToVaught
RealGM
Posts: 15,091
And1: 17,126
Joined: Oct 19, 2014
     

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#2 » by MartinToVaught » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:30 pm

I'm not going to complain about load management because Kawhi has to do it for his longterm health. It is what it is.

You're absolutely right about how terrible this team's attitude was towards anything other than the mythical WCF against the Lakers, though. You know what the most pathetic part is? After all the entitlement and cockiness all season, we would have been lucky to even win one game against them if we actually made it to the WCF. They're the better-coached team, they play harder, they have better habits that are more conducive to winning. I loathe the Lakers and I hate having to admit this, but it's the truth.

Look, I understand that the players obviously weren't around for the Sports Arena days and all that. They're not going to carry the burden of the old Clippers going 9-41 with Mo Taylor and Olowokandi. But I wish they at least understood that this fanbase has suffered through 50 years of the worst franchise in sports. We deserved a team that played hard, took nothing for granted and respected the monumental task of turning this franchise around - not this farce of a season. The way this team acted this year was honestly disrespectful to a fanbase that has been starved for any legitimate success.
Image
ropjhk
RealGM
Posts: 17,551
And1: 10,438
Joined: Jul 09, 2002
     

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#3 » by ropjhk » Wed Sep 16, 2020 6:06 pm

The team takes on the personality of its leader. Kawhi didn't show he cared about the regular season and that permeated to the rest of the team. In Toronto it was different as Kyle Lowry was the leader and his personality led that team.

The Clippers need leadership. Popovich wasn't lying when he said that Kawhi wasn't a leader. Kawhi is a weapon but you won't get the most out of him without the right coaching and leadership. Patrick Beverly, Marcus Morris, Paul George and Lou Williams are not leaders.

Chris Paul, Tim Duncan, Kyle Lowry, Lebron James are leaders. Somehow the Clippers need to find some leadership for next season.
Captain Ballmer
Pro Prospect
Posts: 943
And1: 704
Joined: Jul 14, 2015
Location: Istanbul
   

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#4 » by Captain Ballmer » Wed Sep 16, 2020 6:45 pm

I miss Boban-Tobias-Gallo-Shai-Teodosic season. We were likable like this Denver team.
Before yesterday people around me hate my team and me, now they joke about me and the team. We just want to have a team plays basketball. No need Drama, No Battle LA ****, No all Defensive 1st team fingers, No racial slur, No headcases-stripclubs, No bitching, No anxiety-depression excuses. We have probably the worst thing ever happened to a sport team at the moment.
2023 Clippers W/L Count (44-27)
(Russ at bench 35-14)
without PG13 3-3
Without Kawhi 3-3
Without Russ 6-6
Clemenza
Lead Assistant
Posts: 5,020
And1: 4,153
Joined: Jan 21, 2013
Location: California
   

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#5 » by Clemenza » Wed Sep 16, 2020 6:47 pm

MartinToVaught wrote:I'm not going to complain about load management because Kawhi has to do it for his longterm health. It is what it is.

You're absolutely right about how terrible this team's attitude was towards anything other than the mythical WCF against the Lakers, though. You know what the most pathetic part is? After all the entitlement and cockiness all season, we would have been lucky to even win one game against them if we actually made it to the WCF. They're the better-coached team, they play harder, they have better habits that are more conducive to winning. I loathe the Lakers and I hate having to admit this, but it's the truth.

Look, I understand that the players obviously weren't around for the Sports Arena days and all that. They're not going to carry the burden of the old Clippers going 9-41 with Mo Taylor and Olowokandi. But I wish they at least understood that this fanbase has suffered through 50 years of the worst franchise in sports. We deserved a team that played hard, took nothing for granted and respected the monumental task of turning this franchise around - not this farce of a season. The way this team acted this year was honestly disrespectful to a fanbase that has been starved for any legitimate success.

I agree with mostly everything but the bolded- I think that's just the LeBron factor who's healthy and has somehow turned back the clock body wise. I think we would've done better against the Lakers, they were a better matchup for us. I want to see how they look against the Nuggets though. Not sure how well they were locked in and focused or did Houston's dwarf ball made them look extremely good.


-But that load management did set the tone for the season. Everybody wondered if we actually ran any plays instead of PG and Kawhi just taking turns on every offensive possession. And we saw teams light us up during the regular season(The Memphis home game) and actually wonder was our defense actually legit. Moe Harkless was actually a better fit for us and I wonder about this when we traded him for Morris who put up good stats on a bad team in nothing but meaningless games in NY.
User avatar
Quake Griffin
RealGM
Posts: 15,415
And1: 4,638
Joined: Jul 06, 2012
     

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#6 » by Quake Griffin » Thu Sep 17, 2020 12:49 am

Read on Twitter
?s=21
“I’ve always felt that drafting is the life blood of any organization.” - Jerome Alan West.
User avatar
Reeko
Forum Mod - Raptors
Forum Mod - Raptors
Posts: 21,813
And1: 32,812
Joined: Jan 04, 2015
Location: East side, in a deluxe apartment in the sky.
   

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#7 » by Reeko » Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:45 am

ropjhk wrote:The team takes on the personality of its leader. Kawhi didn't show he cared about the regular season and that permeated to the rest of the team. In Toronto it was different as Kyle Lowry was the leader and his personality led that team.

The Clippers need leadership. Popovich wasn't lying when he said that Kawhi wasn't a leader. Kawhi is a weapon but you won't get the most out of him without the right coaching and leadership. Patrick Beverly, Marcus Morris, Paul George and Lou Williams are not leaders.

Chris Paul, Tim Duncan, Kyle Lowry, Lebron James are leaders. Somehow the Clippers need to find some leadership for next season.

To add to this I also don't think they had the medical staff to maximize Kawhi's load management. I don't know how good or bad the Clippers medical staff is, but Toronto arguably has the best medical staff in the NBA.
Clay Davis wrote:COMPOSED ONLY OF THE COOLEST WOMEN AND THE HOTTEST GUYS, THE TORONTO RAPTORS REALGM BOARD HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN FOR ITS HIGH-QUALITY DISCUSSION, PASSIONATE LOYALTY, TEMPERATE CELEBRATIONS OF VICTORY, AND GRACE IN DEFEAT.
Vae Victus
Assistant Coach
Posts: 4,007
And1: 1,831
Joined: Jun 09, 2013

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#8 » by Vae Victus » Thu Sep 17, 2020 7:03 am

Load management is a good thing. Kawhi and PG shouldnt be playing more than 62 games a year, to reduce wear and tear. And both should never be sitting during the same load managed game. And game plans should be tailored where either player is the feature superstar on the night the other is sitting.

The problem with the current Load Management scheme is that there's no plan whatsoever in working on improving the role players during games where they have more PT and shots. This seemingly is a coaching issue, as Doc has no clue how to gameplan, scheme, or setup proper rotations. The regular season is when to experiment on what happens if one star is out (whether its load management, foul trouble, or injury).

Yea we have Lou Will and Harrell spamming their usual crap, but they dont seem to be getting better or more importantly, trying to build chemistry or integrate with their teammates. Doc's blatant playing of favorites (this year Harrell is a massive offender) has destroyed team cohesion. All we have is some ISO jungle ball offense where players just do whatever they feel like doing, and no one around to hold them accountable for their screwups.

This is a coaching and culture issue. And we've seen this before with Lob City, and we all know who's hte common denomineitor here.
TheNewEra
RealGM
Posts: 28,627
And1: 10,409
Joined: Aug 28, 2008
Location: Lob City
       

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#9 » by TheNewEra » Thu Sep 17, 2020 7:59 am

DieHardFan wrote:I miss Boban-Tobias-Gallo-Shai-Teodosic season. We were likable like this Denver team.
Before yesterday people around me hate my team and me, now they joke about me and the team. We just want to have a team plays basketball. No need Drama, No Battle LA ****, No all Defensive 1st team fingers, No racial slur, No headcases-stripclubs, No bitching, No anxiety-depression excuses. We have probably the worst thing ever happened to a sport team at the moment.


Don’t think that team was liked either because of Bev talking mess lol. All that stuff we had but we didn’t have any expectations so everything was for fun a Doc speciality. Pressure is a mofo and just like Lob City when pressure hits then characters are challenged and we have a terrible history of containing those issues since day one of the Doc era
clipperlover
Rookie
Posts: 1,161
And1: 956
Joined: Sep 10, 2019

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#10 » by clipperlover » Thu Sep 17, 2020 3:01 pm

I get some of the arguments about the team's attitude about load management. However, we can't say that did or did not work because of the Covid shutdown. The shutdown put an * on the season because teams are making decision based on playing in April and May. In March, Jokic was a lot lighter than he is now. He wasn't going to lose that extra weight in time for the playoffs. We were load managing to peak at a certain time.

That said, there were still warning signs, but the team was starting to come together.

If you want to blame the medical staff for someone blame them for Michael Porter Jr.
TrueLAfan
Senior Mod - Clippers
Senior Mod - Clippers
Posts: 8,070
And1: 1,418
Joined: Apr 11, 2001

Re: I Hate Our Version of Load Management 

Post#11 » by TrueLAfan » Thu Sep 17, 2020 4:03 pm

I’m going old school here. I agree about our version of load management being crap. I get it that Kawhi has chronic issues that require him to miss games and keep minutes reduced.

...but Paul George? Seriously? That dude had a major, major injury. His first season back from that, he played 2800 minutes. He averaged 2800 minutes a season in the nest three years. I can see *reducing* the time for a player like that from 35-36 mpg to, maybe 33 mpg. I can see missing a game or two a month—10 at most in a season. I absolutely do not see how a player like that needs more time off than that—not at age 30. No way. He should be playing 2300-2400 minutes a year, no problem.

The Spurs use of TD is often referred to as defective load management. Except Tim Duncan kinda played a lot. From 30 to 35, he played in 93% of his teams games. That’s 76 games a year. Sure, his playing time gradually went down, but he didn’t dip under 31 mph until the season he turned 35. I mean, come on.

We had problems through the season, and all of us (me included) figured our talent would carry us through until we gelled in the playoffs. But we didn’t gel in the playoffs, and I think a lot of that is because we had too many guys missing too much time. If you don’t play together, you don’t get into rhythms. You lose cohesion. We had two guys on the roster play 90% of the team’s games. Load management is supposed to allow the team to play less time, but still play lots of games. We didn’t have that—partly because of injuries, but partly because our version of load management kept people out for more games and time than necessary.

And at a certain point, that time off becomes counterproductive in every way. Our players weren’t “ready” because of load management. They were out of rhythm. They hadn’t played enough ball—not just together, but in general. They were tired.
Image

Return to Los Angeles Clippers