Comments on: Clippers 2024-2025 Player Preview: Kawhi Leonard

By: JCplusULTRA

JCplusULTRA — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 20:51:48 +0000

There is reason to tank, and no reason not to try. Literally what I said at the start of the thread.

By: jbugs

jbugs — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:27:04 +0000

He’s just saying it’s early and he doesn’t have a feel for the team. I imagine he doesn’t want to call out anyone to the exclusion of anybody else on the team. I don’t think there’s anything we should be reading into his comments. It was a little bit of an awkward question from the reporter and Kawhi gave a non-answer. I’d be surprised if anyone was offended by his answer.

By: jbugs

jbugs — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:25:02 +0000

I’m not worried about the pick swap. I’m just saying that because there is a pick swap, there’s also literally no reason to tank, unless we’re just trying to help the Thunder (who is in our conference and still has additional pick swaps down the line that would hurt us to the extent the Thunder are still a top team).

The reason to not tank is simply to be a good team and try to win a championship. We can definitely make the playoffs this year. While i wouldn’t favor us to go far, there’s no reason not to try.

By: ClipperKen

ClipperKen — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 03:39:47 +0000

I stay logged in for a couple weeks at a time and don’t have any problem. That’s on my computer and not my phone though.

By: JCplusULTRA

JCplusULTRA — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 02:48:14 +0000

Yeah, that’s tanking. You give them minutes, try hard, and lose. Players will play hard for their own good. They don’t TRY to lose.

There’s literally no reason to worry about the pick swap. Clippers are picking 28 to 30. The only way for that not to happen is the Clippers beat the Thunder in record AND the Thunder be in the lottery.

By: mlslaw1

mlslaw1 — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 22:42:27 +0000

Always love your comments JBugs. BTW, what’s your take on KLs comments to the effect that none of the new additions have “stood out.” Was he dissing the new guys?

By: jbugs

jbugs — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 19:21:06 +0000

It just doesn’t make sense to tank when OKC has the pick swap. Getting young players minutes is not a reason to tank. Give them minutes to development them, but try to win games at the same time.

By: JCplusULTRA

JCplusULTRA — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 17:45:05 +0000

I literally gave reasons to tank and that OKC will swap picks barring some disaster.

By: jbugs

jbugs — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 16:17:23 +0000

I’m pretty optimistic for this season (or at least compared to most). We’re only 8 months removed from the best looking clippers team of all time. That team was centered around Harden, who took Zu to a completely new level offensively. Yes, we’ve lost PG since then, but PG was never a perfect fit next to Leonard and his defense was starting to drop off a bit last year. We’ve replaced him with DJJ, who is a great defender and who I’m optimistic can turn into an ok shooter playing with Harden, and Batum, who is an awesome connector, a good shooter, and hopefully a solid defender (at his ripe age). Batum should be an awesome fit next to Harden as someone who can make an extra pass and open up a ton of angles for the team (which should also help DJJ’s shooting). I’m also really optimistic that Mann will thrive on this team being forced to take on more offensive responsibility without PG and being able to play off of Harden and Batum’s great passing.

Of course, the ceiling for this team will be set by Kawhi’s health, but that was ALWAYS the case, and if Kawhi is healthy, I don’t think the ceiling for this team is really that much lower that the ceiling for last year’s team and last year, we were looking like a top 3 team for a nice stretch of the season. Give us a little more health, a little more chemistry, and some player development and we can be just as good as we were last year.

Last point: logging into this website really sucks. It took be a full minute. It’s really almost not worth trying on most days. Would appreciate if you could make it so that we stay logged in or at least make it easier to log in with fewer captchas.

By: Sweet Lou

Sweet Lou — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 13:32:57 +0000

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5824592/2024/10/08/kawhi-leonard-clippers-changes/

Hate it or love it about Kawhi he’s always been brutally honest.

Hard to be optimistic about this interview but it is what it is.

I don’t understand why they gave him that contract knowing that his availability will be probably the worst for a guy that makes kind of money and then let PG go and not moving off them last year or even after. Unless they won’t do a meaningful trade I can’t see a situation this team does anything serious till he plays out his contract so better just to trade him for draft pieces and the next SGA.