Wammy Giveaway wrote:TrueLAfan wrote:I’d make it Mann; I think we need the scoring more off the bench, and Luke is markedly more productive so far. He's a solid sixth man right now.
I don't know if a solid sixth man will do. Since Doc River's arrival, the Clipper's playoff appearances have been aided by a Sixth Man award winner: Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell. Their bench has always been pretty bad which was proven pretty evident thanks to last night. None of the players on this roster have ever won a Sixth Man award, none can even come close. I originally stated that the Clipper's playoff hopes rest solely on Mann making an All-Star Game, but I may have to change my stance. Whenever one of the Clipper starters is not performing well, the one to pick up the slack has been a Sixth Man candidate/award winner. None of the guys here are going to cut it.
Clippers might need to look into trading for a Sixth Man. No way Crawford's coming back. Williams is in the twilight of his career (he's been getting DNP's lately for a weird reason). Harrell does much better with teams who want to prove the league wrong, such as Wizards who are being seen as another lottery team with Beal's name always being brought up in trade rumors. Who else out there in the league is a bonafide Sixth Man Of The Year award winner, somebody who can replace the points, rebounds and assists for Kawhi Leonard until he comes back?
And as for the big man problem, that's going to be permament thing for Clippers. Their defensive schemes would have to be modified in such a way that they all result in turnovers, either by drawing airball contests, blocks, steals, offensive fouls, shot clock violations, travelling, and other forms of schemes where a rebound is not required. Basically, break the record for turnovers per game, and that's a Herculean task.
Yeah, but Crawford and Lou and Trezz were all one way players. Their strength in one area covered up their deficiencies in all the others. I agree we could use the strength they all had—scoring!—right now, but we’d have to suffer with the deficiencies. Peak Lou would help because he was great; Jamal was a great guy, but he was completely singular—nothing other than scoring. Trezz would help … some. Zu is outplayed because he lacks quicks and and perimeter shooting—but so does Trezz. (A good motor doesn’t give you side to side movement, unfortunately.)
What we need is a glue guy. I was hoping, and still think there’s a chance, that it’s Winslow. A guy who can play multiple positions and has multiple strengths to his game—including D—has enormous value. I think scoring gets a little bit overvalued. Seriously, if we wanted frontcourt scoring again, forget Trezz—just resign Boogie. And that may be an option. But the holes in his current game, like the holes in Jamal’s and Trezz’s, crimp their overall value.
I think the law of averages will work itself out for us; like I said, we’ve got a bunch of guys shooting in the 30s that simply won’t be there all year. The bigers hist to our reboudng has been Mook--he's going to be better when he comes back. But he's got to come back. And it’s hard to find a rhythm for these guys with our without Mook; a team’s pace and style if often dictated by the PG, and we really don’t have one. I really do think it will come together—the question is if it will to be late for a push for the postseason by then.
