• Aaron Gordon is still a problem. He’s picking up where he left off last season with improved range and confidence. He’s going to be a top 10-15 player this year. He’s probably the 2nd best PF in the league behind Giannis.
• John Collins showed a lot of promise. He stayed with Gordon on a few drives and was able to use his length to make the shots difficult, including a block. Gordon did get his, but again, I think we’re looking at an all-star year for him. He can also guard Gordon out on the perimeter. He can make shots; he’s aggressive looking for his shot; his ball handling is above average for a forward and he’s a reasonably good passer. Thoughtful player. Saves a lot of soft or errant passes.
• Collins v DJJ as Starter – the online/twitter Clipper folks seem to think DJJ should start. I disagree. To the extent DJJ looked better than Collins it’s because of his experience in the system. I did not see an improved 3 pt shot or range, and I don’t see any way he could guard someone like Gordon b/c of his lack of size. I hope Collins starts because I want Kawhi at the 3. I want to play with size. Collins is also just a better, more skilled basketball player.
• Zu – looks great. Pass to him more, please.
• Harden – He’s mostly in form. Had 10 assists but I thought he threw a number of soft or bad passes. I also think he needs to get rid of the ball more quickly and stop trying to beat pressure and chew up the clock.
• Kawhi – looks great physically. Had a fantastic stretch to close Q2 on that run that got LAC the lead. He needs to be a better/quicker passer. As soon as he draws 2 or the best defender on the other team (e.g., Gordon) that ball needs to go. He did it one time and LAC got a bucket. On a second opportunity, he was a little late with the pass and we got FTs when we should’ve had a dunk.
• Brook Lopez – played an entertaining game. Those deep 3s got the crowd going and he’s such an obvious upgrade over what we had at the backup #5. Needs to set screens better, but he’s such a competitor that he’s going to give the team a lift.
• CP3 – Lue screwed him over by playing him with James. The whole point of bringing Cp3 in is to let him have the rock and let James sit. I guess Tinkering Ty is ok in pre-season, but we saw this when Russ was here. Use CP3 the right way, please.
• Defense – a lot of bad decisions trying to double guys who were already covered, which left open a cutter. That’s what Denver feeds on. Also, the weak side defenders were almost always late rotating to the 3 pt line when Denver would reverse the ball. You gotta let guys guard 1 v 1 on an island. Doubling has to be smart in today’s NBA. If you double off the wrong guy, you’re going to get punished. We left way too many open 3s available for Denver. That stuff will kill you in the real games.
• Offense – I saw a stat at halftime where we were 17/20 in the paint, which is a stunning number. That said, with a stat like that we should’ve been up +10. Part of it was bad defense, but I think offensively we did not move the ball to get paint touches on every possession. There was too much dribbling or dribble hand off plays around the perimeter. If we’re going to play DJJ, we can’t get stuck in that kind of game because teams will play for him to be the shooter.

I think Denver is going to be really good. They have a lot more depth. They’ve replaced MPJ with Cam Johnson, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. Watson will improve. Braun looks like a very solid 2 way contributor.

For the Clippers, their issue will be dealing with ball pressure. Denver played up and aggressive on them, as will OKC. They have to commit to moving the ball quickly and doing less with the dribble. They need to play through Zu. If they do, they’ll be at 55 wins or better.