But that’s less than half the team functioning the way (I personally) would like to see them function.

It’s a long season and I’m not damning anyone with 81 games left in the regular season. If anything I’m relieved A: we won even though we haven’t really put it together yet & B: If this team
has flaws let that be clear early so we can put it all together. Powell, what’s your identity on this team man? Let’s figure that shit out sooner than later.

I just sometimes wonder, really how deep are the Clippers? Reggie and Batum were guys bought out and sure have had a career resurgence, but not unfathomable they could turn back into a pumpkin. Morris is a career gunner, who doesn’t rebound and slowing down defensively. RoCo played an awesome 3 months for the Clippers, but was not great before that, and Norm is another microwave scorer but does little else. Obviously projecting like worse case scenario and just playing a bit of devil’s advocate in regards to the Clippers depth, but sometimes just feel like we are treating these guys like they have other superstars on the roster, when they’re just all just solid role players.

Sometimes I can’t help but think how loaded I thought the Clippers were when their bench was like Lou/Trez, JMyke, and Shamet. Lou was a borderline all-star the year prior and Trez was 6th/7th man of the year. That team was “loaded” going into the season as well. Retrospectively, Lou and Trez were just bad defensively and Doc relied way too much on them to close games. Shamet obviously has never been able to replicate his rookie year shooting. Maybe a few years down the road and we’ll look at the Clippers “depth” this season in a very different light as well.

My saving grace is the difference between the Clips depth in the past and this year is pretty significant:
1. Defense, Mann, Batum, RoCo, all plus defenders, which are way more complimentary when talking about building around offensive stars,
2. Length, Reggie, Lou, Shamet, Trez, all short for their positions. The versatile wing defense between Batum and Roco are where elite defenses are built.
3. and most importantly, Ty Lue. I was a Doc defender, but the lack of adjustments against Jokic in the 2020 series was just mind numbing. In one year of playoffs, Ty Lue probably made more adjustments than Doc did in his 7 years with the Clippers.

Still shocks me how much they rely on Lebron playing at like an MVP level to even be competitive in games. Lebron is amazing, but he can’t do that for 75+ games a year. Maybe that was the “idea” of bringing in Westbrook to “spell” Lebron, but if that’s the case, play Lebron like 25 minutes, and play Westbrook the other 23 minutes, because you’re not really helping preserve Lebron playing him 35 minutes a night, and having them out there together just doesn’t work.

I honestly think they’d be able to have a better record trading Lebron or AD for like 4 or 5 solid role players. They rely on Lebron so much it would be tougher to replace him, but given his age they’d be so much better off long term getting assets back for Lebron. Sadly with Jeanie in charge, that’s not going to happen. If you replaced AD with like Morris, Norm, Kennard, and Mann and got rid of all the minutes for like Matt Ryan, Lonnie Walker, JTA, I just feel like I would have them as a better team. Morris, Kennard, and Norm as shooters surrounding Lebron would just be scary.

Just a few concerns are:

1. the elephant in the room all offseason has been the backup C spot, and not bringing in another vet 7-footer for those nights where Zu picks up 2 early fouls, or godforbid, twists an ankle. Never thought they should force a minimum salaried center into the rotation over minutes for Batum/Roco/Mook, but can’t help but feel like they’re going to need someone besides Moses/Moussa over an 82 game season. Seeing JMyke play well for the W’s also made me feel like he was out there for anyone either to claim off waivers, or recruit hard after the buyout.
2. John Wall. He had solid flashes of what he can bring to this team in the preseason, but I’ll say there were still a lot of possession I didn’t like with him out there. Still so ball dominant, and had a lot of turnovers. At least he looked spry and has shown in the past that he can run a solid offense with him playing that style of ball. But still feels like I would like to see him out there for like under 20 minute a game, at least until he proves he can play team ball with Kawhi and PG.