Comments on: Clippers vs. Pacers Preview: Day of the Trade Deadline

By: John Maclean

John Maclean — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:22:59 +0000

What stings is that we had that Cinderella momentum cooking and had gotten over the schedule hump only to lose game after game we were calculated to win. Prior to this last road trip many of us expected to be ten games over .500 at this juncture and we imploded instead. We’ve heard all of our analyses so no need to repeat them now. Kawhi has shown flashes of his old peak self. If he can fully return to form, Bogi can too, Harden, Zu and Norm maintain their level of play we could still have some fun as a spoiler. But we have to turn the corner NOW.

Bummer that Bogi can’t play immediately because he’s going to need reps to find his rhythm with this team

By: sjake

sjake — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 06:46:36 +0000

It’s always about the turnovers with this team. 19 to 7 is ridiculous. Can the get it down to 12 to 7 or 10 to 7. If they do, they will the vast majority of their games because Harden and Leonard are flat out bettter basketball players than almost everyone else. If they can’t, your giving up an extra 20 unnecessary points and that is just too much to overcome. If Ty Lue had balls he would go old school and force these guys to pass it 3 times before anyone shoots to make sure everyone touches the ball and he would sit Harden’s ass down at the first sign that he’s getting sloppy.

By: sjake

sjake — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 06:39:47 +0000

I also think the ebbs and flows of the schedule have outsize affect. The Clips schedule is going to start to ease and that will lead to more wins. Would be great for Clips to stay in the top 6, but probably a coin flip at this point.

By: sjake

sjake — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 06:32:59 +0000

A bit down on this team with the last two games and it was disheartening to see other LA team snag Luka. That said, I can still see this team making a playoff run. Harden is the key unfortunately and he does not have the best playoff track record, but ya never know. It’s all going to come down as always to health and matchup. If Simmons gets on this team I think he’s going to be really good of keeping the ball moving and setting guys up. Too bad he’s scared of shooting. Go Clips!

By: federer70

federer70 — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 05:41:15 +0000

Honestly think I am done til the playoffs and will get interested if we can somehow win a first rd series just hard to care about vet guys that have absolutely no hustle

By: John Maclean

John Maclean — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 04:38:46 +0000

Yeah I finally brought myself to watch some recent film on him and you’re right. I do think he has some pretty strong utility as a backup 5. He’s able to do Hartenstein type things or even better with his passing.

As far as the doomsday defense lineup goes, that would be in a situation, for example, where we are up 1 and the other team has the ball with ten seconds left and we need to totally shut them down. One defensive stand. I still have nightmares of Trez not only getting cooked on D against Denver but him also flailing away hopelessly unable to snag defensive boards. Simmons is long and can still really move and create havoc.

By: mlslaw1

mlslaw1 — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 02:44:37 +0000

Other than Zu (who actually can shoot a bit) I don’t think the team should play any non shooters—surely they knew Dunn was a non shooter????

By: chogokin

chogokin — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 01:09:26 +0000

My issue w/ Simmons is we can’t have any other non-shooters on the court w/ him (i.e. Eubanks, Zu, Dunn, etc), so he has to be fully committed to being a backup C.

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 23:29:35 +0000

Lue loves playing big name guys who are near or past their sell by date. Ben’s skill set certainly matches what the Clippers need, but his availability, maturity and consistency are the issue. That said, his play over the last 2 months where he’s averaged 8 pts/7 asts/and close to 5 rebs per game has been consistent. I think starting Dunn, moving DJJ to the 2nd unit and letting Ben run the 2nd unit would give the team more consistent ball handling across 48 mins.

I don’t think they would’ve lost that Indiana game if Ben Simmons had been a 2nd or 3rd ballhandler.

By: John Maclean

John Maclean — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 22:14:12 +0000

Evidently Simmons is still giving us consideration even after that abysmal performance last night. He would probably play a lot of minutes here I guess so that’s worth something. Maybe Patty will persuade his mate to join up.