Comments on: New look Clippers hold off Warriors behind offensive surge

By: Dave Rosa

Dave Rosa — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 15:29:27 +0000

Please no Westbrick. The Clips just beat the Warriors and Suns with the new additions. Why screw that up by bringing in Westbrick? Hasn’t anyone learned a lesson from the Wall experiment? From the moment the Clips signed Wall it was a constant drumbeat as to who would be the starting point. Reggie was never the same player.

Bringing in Westbrick will be a complete turnoff for Bones and Gordon. Players make awful GMs. PG and KL need to stay out of this. We already have witnessed the error in trading SGA. It screws up on-court chemistry.

Why hasn’t anyone written up the Suns game?

By: osamu6238

osamu6238 — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 21:10:43 +0000

Yea played off the court is a bit of an overstatement, but if he is going to be playing 20-25 minutes a night, he HAS to take more than 4 shots. That was always the problem with him on the Clippers. I think Clips could’ve been better about running more stuff for him, or looking for him more, but he definitely seems like he only shoots when he’s WIDE open. I don’t recall him passing up any like blatantly open shots with the Clippers, but certainly not even trying to get stuff up through any sort of contest. Probably how he protects his league leading 3pt%, by just only taking wide open shots.

If you like got Marcus and Luke to blend into like one guy in regards to shot selection, you’d probably end up with a very good player.

By: jbugs

jbugs — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 18:27:11 +0000

I like these takes. In regards to a #4, it would be cool if we could sign kevin love. He has a lot of the pros you mention here and almost none of the cons that come with Love.

The best argument for Russ over Love is that he might be able to push PG back up to being an elite player. I honestly have no idea tho.

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 17:51:41 +0000

Per Shams, the Clippers have begun discussions with Russell Westbrook. It seems to me that Russ really wants to play for the Clippers. I think the better career move for him is Utah. He has 3 mobile bigs there and shooters like Clarkson. He can easily propel them to the play in and that would revitalize his career. I think one of the worst things about being on the Lakers for him is that people did not give him any credit for his very good play on the 2nd unit that caused the Lakers to rise in the standings. I think Utah is a place where people will get a clearer appreciation for what he still does on the court. Assuming that Russ to LAC is inevitable, what is the positive case for him?

Energy and rebounding. I hate our first unit's energy. T-Mann has to carry the load to wake these guys up and tell them that there's an actual basketball game to be played and that there's a 7 ft big who is statistically pretty efficient at the rim so we should, you know, run our plays through him? On top of that, Marcus Morris' rebounding is substandard and I really do believe that the difference between winning and losing the west will come down to improved defensive rebounding. Russ gets 7 rebounds per game since he went to the LAL second unit and has always been an excellent player in terms of tracking down loose balls and pushing it up the floor. We need both the energy and rebounding.
He shuts PG/Kawhi/Morris up. PG's body language just hasn't been good b/c he keeps clamoring for attention to get Russ. His target audience is Ballmer and it looks like his pressure campaign is working. Getting Russ forces him to shut up and play and that's worth a lot. Russell won't defer to PG if he has a clean shot at the rim, and we're always talking about rim pressure for this jump shot heavy team. Russ does bring that to the Clips.
Russ being on the roster provides an opportunity for Lue (not that he'll take it) to move Marcus Morris to the 2nd unit and play Batum/Roco in his spot, or even go with Mann or Gordon as an additional wing, with Mann probably playing the #4 on defense and grabbing loose balls. The loss of 2-3 inches of height is made up for by strength and athleticism. It's not a perfect solution (I'd rather slot Kevin Love into the starting #4 spot) but it is better than having Morris getting 3 rebounds a game in 30 minutes as the starting #4.
I also like Russ playing with Bones, Plumlee, Norm, and Batum/Roco/Morris. That's a lot of speed and energy with a safety valve in Plumlee to get things organized. PnR with Plumlee will also be effective.
Russ is not Wall. While both players have similar games, Wall isn't an NBA level player. Russ is. I do think the Russ experience will be better than what Wall provided us. If we end up with a better net rebounding rating and more paint touches in the first unit, that will pay dividends.

I'd much rather fill that last roster spot with a #4 as I think we're still a bit imbalanced in the front court, but if Russ is going to come to LAC, he can add value if he's used appropriately and if he's also willing to be a role player who might not play all the time (especially if Kawhi gets mad at him for throwing passes into the 3rd row)

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 16:00:04 +0000

Kevin Love is averaging 75% more rebounds than Marcus Morris (7 vs 4) with about 10 mins less per game played. That alone justifies signing Love and starting him.

By: CrossRoads

CrossRoads — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 15:43:31 +0000

RoCo over Morris!!
So much more pair of eyes way better / clearer than the two of Lue.

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 13:56:52 +0000

I don’t think he’ll get played off the court in Memphis.

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 13:56:08 +0000

I’l take Kevin Love. Excellent 3 pt shooter and a great rebounder. He’ll fit in well and can give us 10 mins. Every time I’ve seen him play for Cleveland he shoots lights out.

By: dhpat

dhpat — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:46:38 +0000

True, we’ll see how our “new” team plays in the next 2 months. There are going to be ups and downs.
But, considering how disappointing this season has been, it is nice when the team doesn’t “poop the bed.”

By: chogokin

chogokin — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:26:04 +0000

Kevin Love buyout incoming. Am I just overreacting by saying I’d rather have him than MM? Honestly at this point they probably aren’t that far apart in terms of defense (MM is slightly better), but Love is still a much better rebounder and at least just as good of a shooter.

…I’m probably overreacting. I’d settle for Ty just reducing MM’s minutes. Batum and RoCo should get more minutes than MM.