OFFICIAL LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS 2023-2024 SEASON THREAD

[lawdog1]

Was in the building for the W last night. Was honestly was impressed how live the crowed was for an early January game against the Sixers. DJ's constant barrage of dunks for sure helped. But it was a good time.

 

[shoeking2102]

Was in the building for the W last night. Was honestly was impressed how live the crowed was for an early January game against the Sixers. DJ's constant barrage of dunks for sure helped. But it was a good time.

Gotta stop by the silent auction table next time you fall through bro

 

[lawdog1]

Gotta stop by the silent auction table next time you fall through bro

Will do. Where's it at?

 

[shoeking2102]

 
LeBron James  ‏@KingJames   10m10 minutes ago

#NBAVote @CP3

All hail the king

 

[shoeking2102]

Always have trouble in Portland, but we're rolling a bit. I expect JJ to be JJ, and I do feel like this will be another W tonight.

Hopefully Memphis can do us a solid tonight as well.

 

[lawdog1]

Always have trouble in Portland, but we're rolling a bit. I expect JJ to be JJ, and I do feel like this will be another W tonight.

Hopefully Memphis can do us a solid tonight as well.

Yeah, Portland is always a tough place to play, but I feel this is a game we should win. The Blazers did not look good against Memphis the other night. Do a solid defensive job on Lillard and McCollum and we should be able to out score them fairly easily.

 

[shoeking2102]

Yeah, Portland is always a tough place to play, but I feel this is a game we should win. The Blazers did not look good against Memphis the other night. Do a solid defensive job on Lillard and McCollum and we should be able to out score them fairly easily.

Always love it when JJ gets to go up against undersized 2's. He normally gets some real clean looks and with him rolling the way he is, it's a recipe for him to have another dynamo night.

 

[shoeking2102]

View media item 1858401

Were gonna trade him watch

 

[certifiedflyboi23]

I thought Bullock was gonna be the goods

 

[lawdog1]

View media item 1858401

Were gonna trade him watch

Wouldn't at all surprise me, but for what? On paper, we really do have the pieces we need. Doc just hasn't fit them all together well yet. Yeah, you could say we still need to upgrade at the starting SF spot, but I don't think Wilcox is going to get us someone better than Wes or Lance.

Also, saw Dawson got sent back down to the D-league.

 

[shoeking2102]

Wouldn't at all surprise me, but for what? On paper, we really do have the pieces we need. Doc just hasn't fit them all together well yet. Yeah, you could say we still need to upgrade at the starting SF spot, but I don't think Wilcox is going to get us someone better than Wes or Lance.

Also, saw Dawson got sent back down to the D-league.

Yeah I agree. I actually do think we don't need an upgrade, we just need to hopefully manage rotations better. It'll be interesting to see how the rotations look once Blake gets back. Likely will push PP back to 2nd unit with Pablo being the odd man out, which I'm not to fond about, but we'll see.

I'm just tired of us drafting guys and trading them away for nothing 

 like, can we hold on to our young assets at least. Crawford / Reddick / Stephenson etc. won't be here forever. Would be nice to start developing and honing our young talent. 

 

[lawdog1]

I'm just tired of us drafting guys and trading them away for nothing   like, can we hold on to our young assets at least. Crawford / Reddick / Stephenson etc. won't be here forever. Would be nice to start developing and honing our young talent. 

Completely agree. Some of the trades we made of our young guys over the last few years were justifiable. Had to let Aminu go to get CP. We couldn't keep Bledsoe because he wasn't going to content being a back up. Bullock I didn't really care about because him and Wilcox were kind of redundant anyway. But at this point I think its time to keep Wilcox and Dawson and see if we can develop them.

 

[shoeking2102]

Not much to complain about in regards to the first half.

Austin on fire but more importantly, he's a very good defender man. Competes on that end of the floor.

First half really was an extention of the past six games. CP taking it to dame and co. Like he usually does

 

[lawdog1]

Welp, we may not get another easy W after all ...

 

[shoeking2102]

Can't even put into words how important J.J. is to our success. The Fact that we're 35-4 overall and undefeated when JJ scores 20 or more doesn't even do it justice. 

CP 21 and 19. Boomin'

Austin Rivers won't continue to shoot this well but we need that aggression from him and him being aggressive allows him to play in the 4th on that end of the floor.

PP shooting well. Hopefully when he's in the 2nd unit instead of the first unit this shooting can continue.

7 in a row. Lit. Momentum is tangible. 

 

[HIM]

Austin Rivers > Steph Curry. I need to see him shoot some pull up 35 footers next game. Shoeking must be watching games with a single tear rolling down his cheek like a father at his son's wedding.


Mike Smith might be a homer but he usually uses semi-advanced stats to back up his claims. This is why I'm so perplexed as to why he continues to praise Luc's defense ans defend his role as a starter. Is there any data that supports this idea that he is a better defender than Wes or Lance? I see him grab the occasional big board but with him and DJ on the court we're playing 3v5 on offense against the other team's starters.


My man Paul Pierce went to the bicycle shop right before christmas. His 3pt shooting has gone up each up. Shot 36% from 3 in December and is shooting 58% in his last 5. I think 2014-2015 Wiz Pierce is showing up


Side note, I couldn't sleep the other night and I got into one of those youtube rabbit holes which eventually led me to watching old Bill Walton/Ralph lawler Clipper broadcasts. I didn't have cable growing up (except for when we had the black box for a couple years) so the only Clippers games I could watch were the Channel 5 and Channel 13 games. I gotta tell you, I vaguely remember Bill Walton calling games. I hate the fact that I wasn't able to enjoy that pairing on a consistent basis at an age where I could appreciate their ridiculousness

 

[shoeking2102]

Austin Rivers > Steph Curry. I need to see him shoot some pull up 35 footers next game. Shoeking must be watching games with a single tear rolling down his cheek like a father at his son's wedding.


Mike Smith might be a homer but he usually uses semi-advanced stats to back up his claims. This is why I'm so perplexed as to why he continues to praise Luc's defense ans defend his role as a starter. Is there any data that supports this idea that he is a better defender than Wes or Lance? I see him grab the occasional big board but with him and DJ on the court we're playing 3v5 on offense against the other team's starters.


My man Paul Pierce went to the bicycle shop right before christmas. His 3pt shooting has gone up each up. Shot 36% from 3 in December and is shooting 58% in his last 5. I think 2014-2015 Wiz Pierce is showing up

-Thug Tears bro, Thug tears. Playoff Austin Byke. Consistency though is everything. I just want a 10 piece every night from him tbh

- I'm biased but I don't think Ralph and Mike are that much of homers. Plus their banter is lowkey hilarious. They're silly as hell 

- As far as Advanced Stats go, among lineups that have played at least 150 minutes together, the Core 4 plus luc have a 99.8 Defensive Rating. (204 Minutes) Their total net rating is an 11.6. That isn't bad, but the lineup of the core 4 plus lance still is our best lineup BY FAR. We're at a 95 Net Rating defensively with that lineup, and are a +20 overall with that lineup. I still don't believe that our recent success is tied to Luc in any way shape or form, and when we play the elite starting Luc may end up hurting us in the long run. But we kind of can't mess with anything now, have the longest streak in the league haha

- Overall though, Luc hasn't been a bad defender for us. Players this season are shooting 39% on Luc, which is down about 6% from their normal average. However, over the course of 82 games, variance obviously occurs. When you're in the postseason and you're facing the elite every night, I don't know if those defensive numbers can hold. If they do though, then I can tolerate Luc starting.

- And finally, PP has definitely been shooting lights out for us but what worries me is he's playing much more with the starters right now. When blake comes back and he goes back to playing with Crawford, (our worst lineups this season by far are when both Crawford and Pierce are together) Austin, etc. will we some some regression? I hope not.

 

[shoeking2102]

The Clippers are now 5th in Offensive Rating and 12th in defensive rating. A lot of things have occurred to make the latter happen schedule wise, but regardless it's nice to see that we're essentially a top 10 defense now and if we can keep this up for the remainder of the year, our chances come postseason become infinitely better.

The thing with this team is that of the top four, we were the only one who IMO were not and still not a finished product. We're getting better.

 

[lawdog1]

^^^ I'm somewhat concerned that our hot shooting from 3, especially from guys like PP and Austin is not sustainable, but we'll see. If the defense continues to improve, we can withstand a bit of a drop off in that regard.

Also, the team is in a pretty good rhythm right now in terms of rotations and role development/execution. There's definitely going to be some adjustment -- and possibly regression for a little while - when Blake comes back.

 

[HIM]

^ What I'm most optimistic about is that our second unit actually has an offense ans an identity now. Almost everything is coming off the Pablo/Cole PnR. Cole has surprised me with his decision making. He usually makes the righ call whether to drive or kick out to a corner 3.

In regards to the 3pt shooting. Pierce is usually getting wide open looks. That has a lot to do wirh playing the 4 while CP is running point but I think he will continue to get wide open looks when Blake comes back. Pablo/PnR with Jamal/Wes/Pierce at the 3pt line and Austin slashing. Most importantly, the Cole/Pablo PnR limits Jamal's hero ball. He still takes some stupid shots but they have gone way down during this stretch based off my eye test. I think the numbers would support it doe



Good looks on the advanced stats, shoe. I figured Lance we were a better team with Lance over Luc but I'm surpised to see we're pretty good with Luc. Like you said, though, it might be in spite of in and not because of him.

 

[shoeking2102]

^ What I'm most optimistic about is that our second unit actually has an offense ans an identity now. Almost everything is coming off the Pablo/Cole PnR. Cole has surprised me with his decision making. He usually makes the righ call whether to drive or kick out to a corner 3.

In regards to the 3pt shooting. Pierce is usually getting wide open looks. That has a lot to do wirh playing the 4 while CP is running point but I think he will continue to get wide open looks when Blake comes back. Pablo/PnR with Jamal/Wes/Pierce at the 3pt line and Austin slashing. Most importantly, the Cole/Pablo PnR limits Jamal's hero ball. He still takes some stupid shots but they have gone way down during this stretch based off my eye test. I think the numbers would support it doe



Good looks on the advanced stats, shoe. I figured Lance we were a better team with Lance over Luc but I'm surpised to see we're pretty good with Luc. Like you said, though, it might be in spite of in and not because of him.

But, here's the issue here.

I 100% agree with you that our 2nd unit now has an identity. The Chemistry between Cole / Pablo has stabalized everything in the 2nd unit. The issue is that when Blake comes back, that bumps PP to the 2nd unit, and likely Pablo back to the end of the bench. (Jamal won't be benched, Austin is playing too well to bench him,)

So a 2nd unit lineup of Austin / jamal / Wes / PP / Cole is what we're looking at and i'm not too happy about this at all. Not only will we not see pablo, but the combo of Jamal and PP has been awful this entire season.

So we'll see, but I'm worried about how things are going to play out once blake returns.

 

[HIM]

I was thinking (or hoping i guess ) that Austin would be benched in favor of Wes.


Pablo
Jamal
Wes
PP
Cole

Austin every now and then at PG or SG.

But I think your scenario is much more likely.


Like I said a couple weeks ago. The best thing that could happen for us is for Luc to get injured. I know it's an ******* thing to say but it would fix the rotations imo. Start wes, and now you can Pablo, Austin, Jamal, PP, Cole off the bench.

 

[Nipsey3000]

hate to pat myself on the back for saying we would get it together around xmas/jan but hey...

even though we are at an easy part of the schedule.

curious to see if we will carry this momentum into big games and when BG comes back.

i'm just happy to see the clips winning the games they should win right now.


vs. miami
@cle
vs.hou
@ind
@atl

some bigger games coming up. hope the clips can hold their own.

 

[shoeking2102]

hate to pat myself on the back for saying we would get it together around xmas/jan but hey...

even though we are at an easy part of the schedule.

curious to see if we will carry this momentum into big games and when BG comes back.

i'm just happy to see the clips winning the games they should win right now.


vs. miami
@cle
vs.hou
@ind
@atl

some bigger games coming up. hope the clips can hold their own.

Call it a hunch but I think they win all of them except the @indiana game. Have no idea why I feel this way I just do

 

[lawdog1]

JJ off to a hot start again....