James Harden has been a great leader of this team, but not tonight. He looked like he gained 5 lbs on his break and was working off a hangover and some late nights at the strip club. It’s like he literally forgot how to dribble. He threw this game away. Clips worked off some early rust to get a 5 pt lead twice, once in the 2nd qtr and once in the 3rd qtr. Both times his crappy ball handling changed the momentum and the Clips couldn’t survive it in Q3.

Really embarrassing performance by him that brought the whole team down.

The grade for T-Mann is rough, but he was shooting over 40% from 3 and over 45% from the field in his last 7 games and I do think he’s a better fit as a 5th starter than is Dunn. I think Dunn is just a lot more effective off the bench and as a defensive specialist.

I don’t believe Lue should ever commit to a 5th starter when Kawhi gets back. The core 4 are all star caliber at their positions and are true players at their positions. The 5th player should be the one the coaching staff thinks provides the best matchup or is simply playing the best with the other 4 at that time. It could be DJJ, Mann, Batum or Dunn depending on what is needed (size, perimeter defense, length, running the floor, 3PAs). It could even be Miller if he can handle a defensive assignment as a 5th starter. Him playing against the 4th or 5th best defender on the court and getting 1 v 1 matchups as defenses struggle to rotate off of Harden/Kawhi/Zu could mean a lot of easy buckets.

If Kawhi is Kawhi then we only need to make some tweak-type trade and/or buyout piece to make a run.

On the other hand if Kawhi is Kawhi the phone could start ringing with offers we cannot refuse (a cash dump and pick/s).

Not being able to tank this season for what is going to be a pretty deep draft sucks, So I guess it’s going to be either the aforementioned path A or B.

Bummed that Mann and DJJ are down because we were on track to pick up some wins while deciding which course to take. Hopefully the FO can navigate through the fog of winter accordingly.

Kinda wonder how James sees this situation and if he’s pulling for Bones to get more time and if he’s taken Bones under his wing as a mentor. I know Bones pulled a vanishing act last yr when he took over when Russ was out but I wouldn’t hold that against him. He’s still young (24) and has plenty of room to grow and improve.
If the clips do move on from Bones, hope a hope he lands in a spot where he can have a real chance.

James-Norm-Dunn-Kawhi-Zu
KPJ-Jordan-Amir-Nico-Mo

Is what I would guess, but we would just have to see.

Harden-KPJ-Bones. This has been an interesting saga already. The big thing about Harden for me is that he’s infinitely better than Paul George as the second best player behind oft-injured Kawhi Leonard. He makes other guys better (starting with Zu), he scores points and stays engaged, and he rebounds and makes his presence felt. Another item is that he’s so good that he raises the bar for the backup playmakers. The Kevin Porter Jr. experiment has been agonizing, there have been a few dividends and glimpses of genuine utility, but it has been hard to watch and has cost the Clippers competitiveness if not actual games (like his brief end of the half shift against HOU). Maybe he’s rounding into a player who can makes some plays in the playoffs, and in his glut of minutes and opportunities there has been some improvement and gain in confidence. The problem is that he doesn’t move the ball and pass and facilitate for other guys. If he can pick that up just a little bit more it will make a difference. And his failure to shoot 3s is a glaring problem, now that Bones has finally gots some meaningful minutes. KPJ should have lost his spot in the rotation after 10 games, but he’s done some work and put in a decent effort holding onto. Bones, regardless of his doghouse index, is at worst an important bit of Harden insurance. Would the Clippers look like a creditable and genuine NBA team if Harden goes down? We got the answer against Houston–they can be decent. It’s clear that Bones should get a better chance at some meaningful minutes–18 made 3s in 100 minutes speaks for itself. Perhaps we just have to wait longer, maybe it never happens, who knows.

Injury glut. Remember how it seemed there were too many wings, and with Norm, Dunn, & DJJ all starting how was it supposed to work? TMann was no good, Jordan Miller would never play, and Amir would be hard-pressed to hold his rotation spot. The first domino was TMann’s slow start, which created the opportunity for Dunn, who took some pressure off of James Harden. #2 was Norm’s injury, which the Clppers withstood quite well–amazing that Norm was so important so quickly–and that was the first major rotation shuffle, Amir starting and Jordan Miller joining in. It could have stopped there, but just as TMann started stepping up he went down for a month at least, and now DJJ is out for a couple weeks with Norm-like hamstring tightness. Amir misses a game with a shoulder tweak, and all of a sudden the Clips barely have enough players to hold on. All of these guys are good, and they will make the most out of their minutes, contribute, and allow the Clips to hang around. You like Kris Dunn, Jordan Miller, and Amir Coffey? With DJJ and TMann out they’re getting their chance to shine, to do more than plug holes.

Kawhi coming back. Is that the calvary bugle I hear? It seems like the Clippers will feature Kawhi sooner rather than later. Norm and Zu have established themselves to the degree that the Kawhi-Harden-Norm-Zu core four can compete with just about anybody, and Dunn, Miller, Coffey are ready. DJJ won’t be out for too long, and TMann should return right behind him. Keep taking them one at a time, but Kawhi is a factor that would completely change the equation. It will be interesting to see how it goes, and funny to see how people react.