Game 22 : Los Angeles Clippers (16-6) @ Cleveland Cavaliers (10-11) - 8:00 PM

[jbk1234]

I’m pretty ok if they just want to leave Drummond at a rest stop somewhere during the upcoming road trip. Buy him out. His effort just isn’t there.

This was his worst game, but I'm starting to question whether he'll be comfortable with his FGAs getting decreased in a contract year because that's what needs to happen.

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[Revenged25]

I’m pretty ok if they just want to leave Drummond at a rest stop somewhere during the upcoming road trip. Buy him out. His effort just isn’t there.

This was his worst game, but I'm starting to question whether he'll be comfortable with his FGAs getting decreased in a contract year because that's what needs to happen.

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What's funny is if he accepted playing in a role similar to Allen, but being able to do it slightly better, he'd find himself with a much better paycheck than what is awaiting him trying to be a primary scoring option. Like give up some of those attempts for passing back to the perimeter for an open 3.

He could make his life so much easier and improve his value by so much more if he just played smarter. Instead of needing 16 shots to average 16 points because he's forcing up shots in double and triple teams since teams know he won't pass it back out, he could be putting up 16+ points in the 10 attempts as he'd face more 1v1s. On top of that he'd be able to up his assists to potentially 5-6 with him pulling in double teams and passing it to the open guy which makes him that much more valuable and doing that also makes his life easier scoring. It only benefits him if he played smarter and was willing to pass back out.

[JonFromVA]

You exercise poor shot selection against good teams in the 4th quarter, and you're taking the L. You try to trade 2 for 3 against good teams, all game long, and you're taking the L.

We might have a chance to win it shooting 2's but JBB would have to to adjust what he's doing a lot faster than Lue.

JBB needed to get Dre out of their faster, change how we were defending George, and then when Lue adjusted how he was defending Allen; JBB needed a counter.

Big ask for a young team, and I suppose we need to be content that we found some things that worked at points; but then again, it's not *that hard* to run some plays designed to look for an open 3pter.

To this day, Memphis ranks near the bottom in terms of 3pt attempts. Maybe it's just not in JBB's vision for bringing "grit & grind" to Cleveland? Would be a good question from one of our reporters.

Here's what he did have to say:

Watch on YouTube

"We can do a better job generating more 3pters"

So, let's see if he can get the team to adjust rather than settle for running simple P&R and shooting floaters. Young teams sometimes learn best by getting destroyed.

[JonFromVA]

I’m pretty ok if they just want to leave Drummond at a rest stop somewhere during the upcoming road trip. Buy him out. His effort just isn’t there.

This was his worst game, but I'm starting to question whether he'll be comfortable with his FGAs getting decreased in a contract year because that's what needs to happen.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J327A using RealGM mobile app

What's funny is if he accepted playing in a role similar to Allen, but being able to do it slightly better, he'd find himself with a much better paycheck than what is awaiting him trying to be a primary scoring option. Like give up some of those attempts for passing back to the perimeter for an open 3.

He could make his life so much easier and improve his value by so much more if he just played smarter. Instead of needing 16 shots to average 16 points because he's forcing up shots in double and triple teams since teams know he won't pass it back out, he could be putting up 16+ points in the 10 attempts as he'd face more 1v1s. On top of that he'd be able to up his assists to potentially 5-6 with him pulling in double teams and passing it to the open guy which makes him that much more valuable and doing that also makes his life easier scoring. It only benefits him if he played smarter and was willing to pass back out.

Drummond's shooting near the rim has fallen off drastically this season as has McGee's for that matter while Allen continues to be a league leader in the category. Getting Andre to play with more force on a consistent basis has been a challenge throughout his career, but his soft layups would go in just fine if someone wasn't in his face contesting or blocking them.

So, a big part of the puzzle is our floor spacing which Andre makes worse by not being a more willing passer, but perhaps it's not all on him. When opponents pack the paint on us, we need a better plan to make them pay for it than just trying to force the ball in to the paint over and over.

I'd like to see more adjustments from JBB and it's just not clear to me what his primary impediments are from making that happen ... whether he's not asking for those adjustments, or it's his ability to get the team to do what he wants, or if it's players not doing what he wants, or just a lack of practice time. Whatever it is, he seems content enough to let what goes on. The only time I can recall him taking direct action is when he yanked all the starters for coming out sluggish. So, he may be primarily concerned with effort and not so much with execution.

[Stillwater]

the guards need to jack a few up early in the shot clock and if they fall it changes the way the defense will respond for at least a little while. But when teams are digging in expecting that early on the 3 pt attempt is a really low % shot and they have to drive and kick. Either way every player on this roster needs to take a page out of the Dylan Windler book of off ball movement and high iq defending. He starts taking and making 3s on this roster and he might be the first option scorer on a contender someday . I think he is vastly underrated as a highly skilled 2 way player and JBB needs to turn his focus towards getting him looks.

[SaiCLE]

Sexton needs to take more 3s. Garland needs to take at least 8 3s a game. Drummond continues to ruin things with his 32% usg rate. I rather lose watching Sexland/Okoro/JA & windler developing & playing majority of the minutes then watching Drummond take up majority of the offense.

[jbk1234]

the guards need to jack a few up early in the shot clock and if they fall it changes the way the defense will respond for at least a little while. But when teams are digging in expecting that early on the 3 pt attempt is a really low % shot and they have to drive and kick. Either way every player on this roster needs to take a page out of the Dylan Windler book of off ball movement and high iq defending. He starts taking and making 3s on this roster and he might be the first option scorer on a contender someday . I think he is vastly underrated as a highly skilled 2 way player and JBB needs to turn his focus towards getting him looks.

I mean I prefer them to hunt for good three point shots than just jack them up, but otherwise this. Both Garland and Sexton had open looks from three and allowed their defenders to recover so they could drive on them last night. That shouldn't be happening unless you're 0-6 in the third quarter or something. Right now we're not keeping the opposing teams honest.

Also, if OPJ for Drummond is on the table, I'm probably taking it. His offensive usage needs to get cut and he's in a contract year. I think he's actually a more valuable free agent as a guy who takes ten shots a game and focuses on dirty work than the guy who you have to worry about getting 15-20 FGAs. I'm just not sure either he or his agent will see it that way. The extra usage last season didn't help TT's value once he hit the open market though. Front offices are getting more sophisticated.

[JonFromVA]

the guards need to jack a few up early in the shot clock and if they fall it changes the way the defense will respond for at least a little while. But when teams are digging in expecting that early on the 3 pt attempt is a really low % shot and they have to drive and kick. Either way every player on this roster needs to take a page out of the Dylan Windler book of off ball movement and high iq defending. He starts taking and making 3s on this roster and he might be the first option scorer on a contender someday . I think he is vastly underrated as a highly skilled 2 way player and JBB needs to turn his focus towards getting him looks.

I mean I prefer them to hunt for good three point shots than just jack them up, but otherwise this. Both Garland and Sexton had open looks from three and allowed their defenders to recover so they could drive on them last night. That shouldn't be happening unless you're 0-6 in the third quarter or something. Right now we're not keeping the opposing teams honest.

Also, if OPJ for Drummond is on the table, I'm probably taking it. His offensive usage needs to get cut and he's in a contract year. I think he's actually a more valuable free agent as a guy who takes ten shots a game and focuses on dirty work than the guy who you have to worry about getting 15-20 FGAs. I'm just not sure either he or his agent will see it that way. The extra usage last season didn't help TT's value once he hit the open market though. Front offices are getting more sophisticated.

If there's was anything interesting at all on the table for Andre or Kevin, I suspect they would have been gone already. Now, that doesn't mean a team won't get desperate and pull the trigger before the deadline, but in most cases Andre is far more attractive to another team if we buy him out first.

Either way, we should be doing what's in the best interest of the team on the floor and the future.

Andre's value was low last year when we got him, and has not risen significantly since. It doesn't take a whole lot of sophistication when you're looking at trading $28M in players and giving up assets .vs. potentially signing the same player for as little as the vet minimum.

Not much practice time is available to fix problems this season. If they can pull something off on the fly, we should give them credit - because I've seen plenty of cases in the past it simply wasn't possible to change habits on the floor until we had a multi-day break in the schedule.