Moving or buying out Tucker seems to be the linchpin. I feel bad for B. Boston, who has had terrible injury timing. He might look better with other rotation players, but it seems unlikely. And Jordan Miller seems to want to take his spot.

I think that Russ would be the primary fill-in if one of the wings goes down. That’s not ideal, of course, but he’s proving his worth, he makes plays, and can play more than 12-15 minutes, it seems. It would be kind of interesting to see Bones in this rotation, and he might thrive playing with Russ or Harden. Getting Kobe Brown a good patch of minutes earlier had great value, only requiring some patience from Amir, and getting him some more minutes over the next 20-30 games would be helpful. I also want to see Theis at the 4 when Zu comes back, just because. The timing of the injuries (Plumlee, then Zu) has been not terrible, and picking up Theis was extremely fortunate. He’s a solid rotation player, plays hard, and earns minutes.

There’s a lot to be said for guys who just rebound and defend. I wouldn’t even mind seeing Moussa in Tucker’s spot. The part that bores me is spending so much time looking around at other players and talking about faint options, especially with (by far) the deepest team in the league that has gone 22-2, or whatever it is, with Kawhi playing, and has 9 or 10 guys perfectly suited for their roles.

In theory, Bones is a good option as the 3rd PG, but he needs to be locked in more than we saw vs Boston.
Theis is definitely trustworthy as the 3rd C.

But if one of the 5 rotation wings (Paul, Kawhi, Terance, Norm, Amir) got hurt, next in line to get rotation minutes would be Boston, Tucker, or Brown. Sure, the Clippers could trim the rotation to 8 and play more James + Russ together, or even try Theis at PF in spots. But it would be really nice to have a higher-floor 10th man forward. It doesn’t have to be a sexy trade to get a new starter or even an upgrade over Amir, just something along the edges (maybe even just a buyout) to get competent depth.

Amidst so many positives (TMann upsurge is a big one, solid play by Coffey in plenty of minutes another, along a much better game from PlumTheis than in Toronto), it may seem like nitpicking, but the bottom of the roster is a genuine weakness and they really should be playing better and hitting some shots. The Clippers are going to find themselves in a good number of games with 20 point leads in the 4th quarter, and it’s important for the 3rd string to hold those leads and keep the starters resting and off the floor. It will make the Clippers a better, stronger team.

When a 20 point lead (let along 30+ points) goes down to 15 or 10 or 11 when there’s still 3 or 4 minutes left you’re just asking for trouble. It doesn’t have to happen, and having the 3rd string execute on offense and defense and play serious basketball is another component of being a top seed and contender. There are positive ripple effects.

I understand that Bones Hyland has been dealt a tricky hand this season. Brandon Boston has had prolonged injury woes. The trade deadline should have an impact on this situation, so it’s perhaps a bit premature to bring it up, but the Clips have games against both WAS and DET coming up. All these guys, and perhaps Kobe Brown especially, need to make more out of the scrub minutes that come their way.

Still, Alex Caruso remains at the very top of my list if we were to go all-in and throw assets at other teams. He’s good enough that I don’t give a damn about not being a big, I’d feel extremely confident about our top9 rotation and our 5 or 6 best lineups even in difficult matchups in the playoffs – and that’s what really matters.

My choice would be Deni Avdija but it looks like it will be quite hard to get it done.

He could be a long term investment and I am positive he could help now in a diminished or more subtantial role.

By the way, I heard people criticizing his defense, I think he’s quite good on that front.

High basketball IQ, he could be the long term anti-Batum if his shot stays as it is at the moment.

I think listening to other team’s commentators is always a little cringe, because it’s hard to listen to the game from their point of view. I try and be unbiased, but I think it’s impossible to not be a little biased towards your guys and broadcast you’re used to.

I wanted to listen to Gorman given his legendary status, and upcoming retirement, but was just taken aback to how little he talked. Usually I can kind of follow a game without watching every second of action, time, score, possession, etc. Couldn’t do that at all last night.

While ideally a trade of PJ + filler can bring in someone, PJ’s contract is probably a net negative at this point. That means probably attaching the 2030 FRP for anyone of value. That I would be hesitant to do for anyone other than a near starting level PF which is probably not possible at that $11M range. The maybe more interesting thing would be if they were still willing to trade Norm in a deal, like PJ + Norm + picks for Jerami Grant. Norm has almost been too good to trade away, but feels like Grant is a little more well rounded and plays more of a position of need. At the start of the season, I felt like Bones was really ready to fill in the scorer off the bench role if they did trade Norm. But with the team rolling the way they are, doubt they would make this kind of deal.