Play Jordan Miller. And Kobe.

TMann must shoot the ball.

We have a much smaller margin of error, last year’s teams are better now, we are worse.

Assuming that we do not improve and lose our 1st round pick (not that the Clippers draft well, but it would be a good trade chip) and that KL’s return is unknown, we need to get the most out of what we have — play the younger guys now.

The old folks (Harden and Batum) cannot carry the load for us.

We’re going to need T. Mann to be a more aggressive shooter. Don’t know how to through to him. Just let it fly true!

• First unit: I’d put the original starting 5 back in, and tell Mann to both space the floor by going to the wing off the initial screen, shoot and work to get Norm/Zu better looks.
• 2nd unit: Dunn, Jordan Miller, Coffey, Kobe Brown + Batum/Jones/Bamba.
• Harden should not play more than 6 consecutive minutes in the first 3 Qs. He can be extended a bit in Q4. Lue has him out there for 12 min stretches, which seems ill advised to me.
• No KPJ.
• Staggered lineups of Zu/Mann/Norm with 2nd unit as needed. Staggered lineups with Harden should be minimized. The Clips will benefit with a balanced mix of Harden on/off ball and a change of pace.

I think Mann is the best guard defender on the team. He has been taking a lot of reps against scoring, ball dominant guards which has hid Norm/Harden on defense. With Mann on the court, the team tends to limit opposing 3PAs, which forces them to play into our length and rim protection. That’s when the Clips have the advantage. It has been very apparent in the 2 games vs Houston. When he’s on, the Clips got the better of the exchanges. When he’s been off, the starting unit’s defense has suffered. He also is a very good connector. Obviously, he’s passing up too many shots and can slow down the offense when he’s not a willing shooter. However, Terance is very coachable (to a fault) and will do what the coaches tell him. Tell him to shoot and keep playin’ that D and pushing the pace.

Jordan Miller gives the Clips a great half court option for the 2nd unit. You can run sets for him and he’ll get to the rim. That puts a lot of pressure on defenses. Kobe Brown is very active, strong and wins a lot of loose balls/rebounds. Coffey is a shooter. Dunn can be a great table setter, scorer, wing defender. Throw in a big or another guard and you’ve got a unit that can cook.

• Houston got off another 44 3PAs. They’ve hunted that shot and the Clips do too much cheating in the passing lanes and attempted traps. Houston did a nice job of shifting the defense and throwing it out to the 3pt line.
• Harden, Zu and Norm were bad for the 2nd game in a row. I don’t think Terance Mann in the starting lineup was the issue. It’s more about Harden and his style of play.
• Kris Dunn had a statistically good game but was ineffective. Wasn’t able to be the engine of the first unit the way he has been on the 2nd unit. Also didn’t really like his defense. Houston took advantage of his aggressiveness in the passing lanes to get a lot of 3s off.
• Terance Mann had an excellent first stint on defense. From the time he came in during Q1 until the Clips got the deficit down to -1, Houston did not shoot a single 3 pointer. That was because Mann was staying attached to the shooters, like FVV, and driving them off the line. Where Mann hurt the team in his first stint was passing up 2 or 3 shots. It just can’t happen. He has to be impactful at both ends. Looked much more aggressive in his 2nd stint before Lue threw in the towel.
• KPJ was abominable. John Wall redux.
• Kai Jones was actually a nice add for a short stint b/c he provided athleticism that we lacked against Houston.
• Jordan Miller looks exceptionally skilled. He has a remarkable ability to get deep into the paint on every drive, forcing defenses to foul.
• Kobe Brown is very strong and active on the glass and is a pretty good finisher from 10 ft in. Not a good 3 pt shooter.

We saw in these last two games what’s at stake because it’s now clear we’re losing our pick to OKC. How the front office could sit on their hands and not do something to improve this roster if for no other purpose than that is beyond my imagination. This is also where not developing young talent comes back to bite you in the ass when guys like Coffey and now Miller have been/are languishing on the bench because of this lazy 10 game sample size approach.

Gambling on 213 was a great move and anyone would have done that 10 times out of 10. But failing to have a contingency plan in place is malpractice. Look at how the Warriors and Lakers smartly retool again and again every year. Even when the Lakers looked like they had totally imploded they resurrected themselves with shrewd signings and other moves by Pelinka.

Ty doesn’t ask for anything so Frank does nothing and here we are. We can’t wait until mid December to try to fix some of these flaws. We won’t see Kawhi until 2025 if then.

Houston also exposed the fact that we don’t have enough competent 3-pt shooting. They were guarding Mann, DJJ, and Dunn the same way teams guarded Russ last year – as in they weren’t. They packed the paint whenever any of those guys had the ball and dared them to shoot, and they mostly couldn’t make them pay for it.

Gonna be a long year, and losing our draft pick is gonna suuuuuuck.