Clippers 2017: Death of an Era

Vae Victus · Post #1 » by **Vae Victus** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 9:14 am

I hate to say this as the Clips are one of my favorite teams due to Blake and being an LA native, but we're doomed come 2017 FA. Due to Doc Rivers short sightedness, nepotism, and straight up incompetence as a GM /coach, the team will have 1 more good season of mid to high 50 wins, lose in the WCF as the starters gas out again and then it'll get blown up when CP3 and Blake opt out and bolt.

The Clippers did not get better and will likely get worse as CP3 slows down a bit due to age. A low 1st round pick will likely be another non factor as Doc doesnt play rookies. No new incoming FAs to help in positions in need (bench), instead giving HUGE unwarranted raises to undeserving and horrid players like Austin Rivers and Jamal Crawford who will just clog up the cap and give very little value in return, AND losing decent players in FA for nothing in Aldrich (who was pretty good in short stints) and Green (who we traded a future 1st). I've got nightmare of what will happen to future LAC 1sts as when the team enters its Dark Age it will suffer the same ignomity as the Lakers Nash trade where they have to fork over a top 3 protected 1st or come 2018 an unprotected 1st. BOS pulled a slick one getting that future LAC 1st from Memphis for 2 high 2nds knowing full well there's an EXCELLENT chance it'll be high quality by the time it conveys.

Why will CP3 and Blake bolt? Because the team has NO ABILITY to get better. Austin and Jamal will be eating up 26 mil in cap and be anchors giving **** defense and inefficient ISO offense off of the bench, and they shoulndt be playing big mins but do due to Docs nepotism for his son and inability to run a real offense without CP3. CP3 and Blake will be both eligible for 30+ mil 1st year deals and thus there will be no room to improve the team if those 2 re-sign, so unless they're totally cool being 2nd round fodder theyre gonna bolt for greener pastures not being run by sheer incompetence (another cap jump means tons of teams with money).

If those 2 do leave, what will Doc do? He'll likely bail out like a CEO with his golden parachute citing systemic problems with the team that he inherited from Del Negro that were totally unable to be fixed and thus should be traded to another team or let out of his deal to go elsewhere. That's just the best case scenario cuz the worst case is that he will recuse himself as coach to properly focus on GM duties and hire a stooge to be the fall guy when his mismanagement in GMship will ensue into a string of ugly seasons from lack of talent coming in via FA or the draft, cuz he traded all those draft picks away. Oh and to protect his son who will now be the starting PG/SG of the new look Los Angeles Clippers.

The moment that Doc took over Team President/GM duties i knew the team was doomed. As a coach it could be dealt with if we had a good GM to just funnel in as much talent as possible so that theyre a fool proof championship squad ala 08 Boston. Instead we've had this fraud ride that 1 ring all the way to the bank and run the team into the ground.

2017-18... my god its gonna be terrible. I just can't see it unfolding any other way short of a miracle where the team wins a championship or at the very least get to the Finals.

PharmD · Post #2 » by **PharmD** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 9:55 am

Pretty much, yeah.

Post #3 » by **QRich3** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 10:04 am

The pick Boston traded for will never be a good pick, it'll be in the 20's or a 2nd rounder (which is most likely at this pace). At least let's give them that, they didn't mortgage the future by givin away lottery picks.

Other than that, yeah, a few exaggerations in your post but yeah, Crawford's extension was pretty much the nail in the coffin to this team. I don't think Paul or Blake are gonna leave in free agency, but this team is just gonna get progressively worse until we have to start a rebuild a few years from now.

I'm just rooting for maximum chaos at the moment, big injuries, the team not gelling, underperforming, having chemistry issues or whatever. Anything that'll force a drastic change as soon as possible.

Post #4 » by **og15** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 3:50 pm

So sad when maximum chaos is a desired thing. I don't want to look at the actual cap numbers because I don't want to depress myself, but I'll probably do so at some point today.

Not only Paul and Blake, but Redick should be up for at least a $15 million contract, from preliminary thought we'll basically be at the luxury tax mark with just the 4 Main starters plus Rivers and Crawford. It's just not a championship caliber team unless basically every young player blows up, that is including Austin or something unexpected happens.

Sigh...we'll have to get used to it at make the best of it all soon enough.

If Blake and/or CP or Redick leave after they made the team bring back Crawford, I will not be pleased at all.

Actually Redick is an interesting one because the team is going to have to pay almost half the cap for a backup SG, a backup combo guard and a starting SG, none superstars, none really All-Stars. Redick should get at least $15 million next season, which would mean the team is paying about $42 million for those 3 players....

That's being a bad front office, no other way to describe it. If Jamal was even a SG/SF you can say "Oh we're paying for a two position backup", but we don't even have that. We still need a backup SF. We might just be creating an inferior version of the 14-15 team right now. Johnson in place of Barnes, older Jamal who is backup SF because we have no other SF, better Austin if that makes up for anything, and possibly no reliable third big man again.

Post #5 » by **QRich3** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 3:56 pm

We don't even have young players that can realistically blow up.

Honestly, with Durant going to the Warriors now, I'm just thinking scenarios to go nuclear. What picks can we get for Irving if we send Paul to Cleveland? How many of Boston's assets is Blake worth? what's the best young player we can get for JJ and DJ? and so forth

Akklaim1 · Post #6 » by **Akklaim1** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 4:26 pm

I can see Blake playing for his hometown to convince Westbrook to stay. A big 3 of Blake-WestBrook-Oladipo is pretty formidable.

****, we should've offered Harrison Barnes a contract.

nickhx2 · Post #7 » by **nickhx2** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 4:26 pm

have to pray for blake to go godmode all year and for brice to go ROY, diamond stone to have myles turner rookie wow-factor, and for austin to turn into the a legit two way star for this team to even stand a chance now.

Post #8 » by **og15** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 5:18 pm

QRich3 wrote:We don't even have young players that can realistically blow up.

Honestly, with Durant going to the Warriors now, I'm just thinking scenarios to go nuclear. What picks can we get for Irving if we send Paul to Cleveland? How many of Boston's assets is Blake worth? what's the best young player we can get for JJ and DJ? and so forth

After Irvings finals performance, no way Cleveland is moving him now

Akklaim1 wrote:I can see Blake playing for his hometown to convince Westbrook to stay. A big 3 of Blake-WestBrook-Oladipo is pretty formidable.

****, we should've offered Harrison Barnes a contract.

Harrison Barnes sucks, that would be an even worse treadmill move because we would be decimating the roster to sign freaking Harrison Barnes.

Neddy · Post #9 » by **Neddy** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 6:12 pm

can threads started by non-clipper forum members just stay in the general board? thanks.

DLaren · Post #10 » by **DLaren** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 8:23 pm

News of our demise is already being greatly exaggerated...

Post #11 » by **og15** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 8:41 pm

DLaren wrote:News of our demise is already being greatly exaggerated...

It is and it isn't. We all know we're possibly the second or third best team in the West, which is not a bad position, but also things could change, a lot of movement. What people are more concerned about is our ability to add more talent and the battle with the hard cap and luxury tax that will ensue.

LACtdom · Post #12 » by **LACtdom** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 9:27 pm

og15 wrote:
DLaren wrote:News of our demise is already being greatly exaggerated...

It is and it isn't. We all know we're possibly the second or third best team in the West, which is not a bad position, but also things could change, a lot of movement. What people are more concerned about is our ability to add more talent and the battle with the hard cap and luxury tax that will ensue.

Our concern is that our FO have showed no signs of making this team better over the last few years. We are a top team no doubt about it but if we want to win it all then we simply can't just resign and overpay the same guys who have failed to get it done.

mattd13 · Post #13 » by **mattd13** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 9:30 pm

the clips have to hope that b. Johnson is rookie of the year, blake is mvp, jj averages 20 a game, jamal is sixth man again, cp3 stays healthy for the whole year, and Austin is beat out by the rookie and only plays as clean up. that is an nba championship.

mattd13 · Post #14 » by **mattd13** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 9:46 pm

actually I see our match up against the warriors like this, curry against cp3 even, blake against green even, jj against klay not good, Durant against whoever we get killed, however dj will kill who he plays. so the bench is the key and I just can not see us winning that battle at this time. what do you think?

DLaren · Post #15 » by **DLaren** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 10:02 pm

og15 wrote: We all know we're possibly the second or third best team in the West, which is not a bad position, but...

LACtdom wrote:We are a top team no doubt about it but...

No buts...we're a top-team with a chance to win a title next season; we're better off than 90% of the league right now.

In 2017 CP3 & Blake will re-sign and if Durant was "blown away" by Ballmer's vision then it's safe to assume that we'll be able to attract quality free-agents going forward.

I'm not at all worried about this teams future -- I'm just patiently waiting for our moment in the sun.

Post #16 » by **og15** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 10:11 pm

It's not about being able to attract them, it's about the moves we made this off-season making it not necessarily financially feasible to actually add any quality free agent(s) for at least next off-season, and possibly the one after too.

Everyone forgets, but after these cap jumps and the final jump to $120+ million, the cap is supposed to then drop back down to about $100 million range then have more modest yearly increases, so the big contacts that extend into that time are not going to allow teams with multiple large contracts much flexibility in free agent signings.

A lot of people seem to think that it jumps to the final jump then stays that high and keeps slowly increasing from there, well as of now, that is not the case.

nickhx2 · Post #17 » by **nickhx2** » Mon Jul 4, 2016 11:20 pm

the cap drop down is seriously one of my biggest worries.

Neddy · Post #18 » by **Neddy** » Tue Jul 5, 2016 12:11 am

Yo Mods, can we give Death to this thread? thanks.

mattd13 · Post #19 » by **mattd13** » Tue Jul 5, 2016 12:51 pm

I agree

LACtdom · Post #20 » by **LACtdom** » Tue Jul 5, 2016 9:26 pm

DLaren wrote:
og15 wrote: We all know we're possibly the second or third best team in the West, which is not a bad position, but...

LACtdom wrote:We are a top team no doubt about it but...

No buts...we're a top-team with a chance to win a title next season; we're better off than 90% of the league right now.

In 2017 CP3 & Blake will re-sign and if Durant was "blown away" by Ballmer's vision then it's safe to assume that we'll be able to attract quality free-agents going forward.

I'm not at all worried about this teams future -- I'm just patiently waiting for our moment in the sun.

Please explain how our roster is a chance to win a title next season and how KD being 'blown away', but ultimately saying we weren't in his top 3 considerations when it came down to the wire, makes it 'safe to assume' we can attract quality FAs. I'll be the first to admit that besides CP (who was forced here), we haven't exactly been known for attracting stars.