I don’t think it’s an outrageous comparison in terms of what each player provides as a second unit on-ball hub while being limited as a complementary player in stronger lineups with stars/starters. The big difference is in approach: Russ is a score-first mindset guy who finds a lot of assists because he draws defenders going downhill. Ben is a more pure pass-first player with better vision and passing accuracy, but weaker driving/scoring chops. Comparing Russ’ 1.5 Clipper seasons with Ben’s 35 games in Brooklyn this year: Russ took 21.1 FGA/100 and had 10.1 assists/100, Ben took 10.3 FGA/100 and had 13.9 assists/100. Russ also had over 3x the FTA/100poss. That’s a shooting/passing tradeoff I’ll take, considering how badly Russ struggled with efficiency on that high volume of shot attempts. The other big difference is of course the size–while Russ was absolutely a high-impact on-ball defender as a Clipper, Ben has more positional versatility defensively and is going to be better off-ball than Russ was, which is potentially a great fit on a team that now has Dunn and DJJ.

I also think something relevant in this Russ-Ben comparison is where it can go wrong. The biggest downside of Russ’ time with the Clippers wasn’t the flaws with his individual play, which we all know were egregious at times but never absurdly so for a backup on a cheap deal. Rather, it was how big his role became, where his skill profile (good on ball, bad off ball) and minutes load led to way too many possessions being built around a player who wasn’t efficient enough with them. We have yet to see how Ben meshes in lineups with James and/or Zu. I feel pretty comfortable saying that Ben in a 12-16 minute role has a skillset this team needs for when James is resting. While I think it was obviously the right move vs Utah–Ben was playing amazingly, and Zu had an awful game, so Ty rode the hot hand–if we find ourselves in patterns where Ben is bringing in more mixed results and taking up too many possessions/lineups/minutes, it could bite us.

I wanna see more of this team.

The only ?s in my mind for this team going forward

1. Will Kawhi’s health hold up
2. Will Bogi start draining 3s (bet he’s shooting right now)
3. Will Ty’s coaching fail us

The club O in me says yes to 1 and 2 and hope not to 3

I feel the Fo played PG perfectly. Offer him the same as Kawhi which was a tradeable contract. But PG’s ego and amplified opinion of himself had him walking.

I’m satisfied that PG got his cash and I’m happy that he is Philadelphia’s problem now.

The Clippers now have enough shooting and scoring to go along with their stellar defense.

I like this team even more than I did which is saying something.

That being said, the FO absolutely *did not* know George was this washed – I don’t think even his biggest haters could’ve predicted *this* level of washedness. Hell, the FO actually offered George Kawhi’s deal, but he got greedy and demanded a no-trade-clause and/or more money on top of that. If anything, the FO (and all of us) got lucky that he got so full of himself and that Daryl Morey was dumb enough to give him what he wanted. Good fucking riddance. This season’s Sixers have been an amazing hate watch for me (I do feel bad for Maxey though). This may be harsh because his departure is still fresh, but for me, George is right there w/ Andre Miller for former Clippers who I dislike the most.

It’s almost as if someone had this planned all along and Simmons was intentionally playing crappy so he would be untradeable and get bought out to come here.

I don’t expect him to make free throws like he did last night nor suddenly unveil some expanded offensive bag. But he looked every bit of only 28 years old, terrifying defender, rebounder and elite playmaker that I believe is durable.

The fact that he can’t shoot isn’t that much of a liability when he impacts the rest of the game at such an elite level. He’s like having a 6’10” Russ with a high IQ who can defend all 5 spots.

The other pluses are many:

Can soak up usage so aging Harden and Kawhi can sustain their peak powers throughout the rest of the season and playoffs.

A master small ball 5—which Ty will always lean into longer than he should so we can all breathe a little easier when he does.

And most of all to me is a guy who can make life miserable for any stretch big or even a guy like Aaron Gordon or Naz Reid if they start rolling. Playing him alongside Zu is not ideal, but if necessary against, for example, Edey/JJJ or Joker/MPJ/AG that arrow will be in the quiver.

Bogi is already a net gain over Mann/KPJ in terms of court awareness and confidence and if his three ball comes back to the mean our offense could be come as scary as our defense.

The FO has put us in a position to have an even more magical run than the 2018/2019 squad which was the most fun I’ve had as a Clippers fan.