OFFICIAL LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS 2023-2024 SEASON THREAD

[shoeking2102]

As bad as the Clippers are playing right now, they should turn the corner with the soft spot in the schedule coming up.

Right now we're 8th in the conference but we can without a doubt overtake everyone in front of us minus GSW. The blessing in us being 8th is that the teams in front of us are teams that will plateau and start to lose eventually and once we get it together, the wins will come.

 

[lawdog1]

^^^ I like the optimism, but I'm just not seeing any signs of the team turning things around. The defense has gotten worse, the shooting is still cold and the rotations are still a total mystery. No quick fixes there:

 

[shoeking2102]

^^^ I like the optimism, but I'm just not seeing any signs of the team turning things around. The defense has gotten worse, the shooting is still cold and the rotations are still a total mystery. No quick fixes there:

I wasn't even trying to be optimistic, the reality is that 3 of the top 6 teams are the suns, jazz, and the mavericks. They will inevitably start to lose at some point, and we wont be this bad for much longer. Law of averages in conjunction with our schedule suggest that.

However, the turnaround into looking like a bonafide championship contender? Yeah that won't be an overnight fix and I have a hard time seeing that happen this season. Few things are going to have to literally break our way in the name of injuries or something for that to happen. 

The Clippers haven't done much this season thus far to make me think the outcome of this season for them will be any different than I projected it to be. By season's end, they'll be elite / very good, and be able to compete with anyone in the conference. The issue is, almost every conference final in the past five seasons had the #1 and #2 seed. Unless something crazy happens, we're not grabbing a top two seed, making the conference final very unlikely. 

 

[shoeking2102]

 Wesley Johnson is 8-14 (57.1%) on corner three's this season. The rest of the Clippers are 15 of 52 (28%) on corner three's.

Below Average. 

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Post in NBA thread 

 

[shoeking2102]

Below average getting the start tonight Boom shakalaka 

 

[lawdog1]

Below average getting the start tonight Boom shakalaka 

And making the most of it.

 

[HIM]

Man, I love Wes so far.


We REALLY need to make a trade in regards to the bench. Not even anything major. Just a real PG would be a huge help. Would love an Andre Miller/Calderon for this team. Move Austin to the 2. We just someone to run the offense.


Anyway, I'm gonna head out to the grocery store and carch up on the 2nd half via dvr. Hope we can finally run away with one.



Wavy, I'm loving Mudiay's game! If he can get a decent shot he's gonna be a PROBLEM.

 

[lawdog1]

Good game. Hope Doc keeps Wes in the starting line-up. Worked perfectly. And the bench didn't suck balls. Yazz tomorrow.

 

[Nipsey3000]

whenever new pieces are added to any team, you're gonna get the bumps and the bruises. outside of our starting five and JC we everyone else is pretty much new. that in addition with a change in defensive philosophy is going to cause some early frustrations and lack of consistency.

once these things work themselves out, i believe we will be top 2 in the conference. i dont believe that GSW will win 67 again even though they're 16-0. their schedule has been really favorable as well. outside of beating the clips 2x in games we should have won, the raptors and the grizz are they only teams to play decent ball to this point. and they have had their ups and downs as well. pistons are playing ok too. and most of those games were at home.

even the spurs have had some growing pains with aldrige and co. added to that team.

 

[shoeking2102]

Starting Wes Johnson is just the obvious move. There's actual empirical evidence that shows that wesley johnson is an elite shooter when open, especially from the corners. We really don't even need him to be elite, if he hits 3's at a 35%, 36% clip, then starting him at the 3 is worthwhile seeing as he's going to get a plethora of open looks from playing with the starters. 

Starting Wes Johnson is the first step. Finishing with wes johnson instead of Crawford is the next. 

 

[Nipsey3000]

the only thing that worries me about the clippers is the same thing that has always worried me about the clippers...we just arent Gs, we have proved time and time again that we are a collection of busters. there is no killer instinct whatsoever. i dont know if/when we can or will develop it. we have the talent to beat any and everyone. spurs and GSW included.

 

[lawdog1]

the only thing that worries me about the clippers is the same thing that has always worried me about the clippers...we just arent Gs, we have proved time and time again that we are a collection of busters. there is no killer instinct whatsoever. i dont know if/when we can or will develop it. we have the talent to beat any and everyone. spurs and GSW included.

This. I thought we had finally found some real mental fortitude with the playoff win over the Spurs last season, but that notion was completely erased by the Rockets choke job.

 

[shoeking2102]

Will have to respectfully disagree with you guys a bit on that.

For me, It's a basketball thing. You can't measure a team's "G-ness" or "Mental Fortitude." That's a romanticized way of looking at sports, not just basketball. It really doesn't play out like that, In my opinion at least. Those terms are great for TV, great for people to come to grips with whats happening, but its a lazy and often times innaccurate assesment of what's going on. We as fans aren't psychologist, and you can't tell what mental state a player is in just from watching him for a period of time on TV for the most part. For instance the Clips won game 4 in SAS, Won game 6 in SAS, then won Game 7. Then without CP they almost take the first two games in Houston. How can they have mental fortitude then, but all of a sudden not have it in games 5-7? I just don't know how to assess "mental Fortitude."

It's flat out basketball man. You win and lose with your role players. When Matt Barnes is giving you 20 points in a game 7, and Austin Rivers is going off for 16 on the road in SAS, things like that you win. When they don't, you lose. The difference in the play of the role / support players from games 1-4 to games 5-7 is largely why we lost that series. Blake and CP do have to be better in the 4th quarter, but they have to be better at basketball things, not something mythologized like "Mental Fortitude." Staying discipline and running your sets to get good shots in the 4th, Doc Rivers rotations in the 4th, whether or not you play Pierce and Crawford together in the 4th, these are things that they need to get better at and to me that isn't "G-ness" it's simply basketball.

 

[lawdog1]

Will have to respectfully disagree with you guys a bit on that.

For me, It's a basketball thing. You can't measure a team's "G-ness" or "Mental Fortitude." That's a romanticized way of looking at sports, not just basketball. It really doesn't play out like that, In my opinion at least. Those terms are great for TV, great for people to come to grips with whats happening, but its a lazy and often times innaccurate assesment of what's going on. We as fans aren't psychologist, and you can't tell what mental state a player is in just from watching him for a period of time on TV for the most part. For instance the Clips won game 4 in SAS, Won game 6 in SAS, then won Game 7. Then without CP they almost take the first two games in Houston. How can they have mental fortitude then, but all of a sudden not have it in games 5-7? I just don't know how to assess "mental Fortitude."

It's flat out basketball man. You win and lose with your role players. When Matt Barnes is giving you 20 points in a game 7, and Austin Rivers is going off for 16 on the road in SAS, things like that you win. When they don't, you lose. The difference in the play of the role / support players from games 1-4 to games 5-7 is largely why we lost that series. Blake and CP do have to be better in the 4th quarter, but they have to be better at basketball things, not something mythologized like "Mental Fortitude." Staying discipline and running your sets to get good shots in the 4th, Doc Rivers rotations in the 4th, whether or not you play Pierce and Crawford together in the 4th, these are things that they need to get better at and to me that isn't "G-ness" it's simply basketball.

I see what you're saying, but isn't executing and doing the right basketball things, particularly when the pressure is at its highest, what mental fortitude is all about? Yeah, you can say they just need to play better basketball in critical situations, but it begs the question of why they repeatedly haven't when the stakes are the highest. Look at when we blew game 5 against the Thunder two years ago. CP had an abysmal last few minutes of that game. He was playing like he was scared and it caused him to make a bunch of uncharacteristic bad plays. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. And game 6 against the Rockets last year. Blake was terrible in 4th quarter and CP wasn't much better. They both looked like the pressure was too much for them. That needs to change and I think it goes beyond just needing to be better at basketball things.

 

[shoeking2102]

I see what you're saying, but isn't executing and doing the right basketball things, particularly when the pressure is at its highest, what mental fortitude is all about? Yeah, you can say they just need to play better basketball in critical situations, but it begs the question of why they repeatedly haven't when the stakes are the highest. Look at when we blew game 5 against the Thunder two years ago. CP had an abysmal last few minutes of that game. He was playing like he was scared and it caused him to make a bunch of uncharacteristic bad plays. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. And game 6 against the Rockets last year. Blake was terrible in 4th quarter and CP wasn't much better. They both looked like the pressure was too much for them. That needs to change and I think it goes beyond just needing to be better at basketball things.

So the pressure was too much for CP against the Thunder in game 5 even though the game before he orchistrated a fantastic comeback that stopped them from going down 3-1? 

Or the pressure was too much for CP in game 5 against OKC but he posted like a 25 15ast game or something like that in game 7 against GSW the round before?

Or was the pressure too much for CP when he's scoring 26 and the game winner in a game 7 against the Spurs? Or scoring like 16 in the second half of a closeout game in game 6 against the spurs?

The pressure was too much for Blake Griffin against Houston even though the round before he had a Triple Double in game 7?

Selection Bias is at hand here to me. There's instances where people come through, there's instances when people don't. That's basketball. I find it a reach to say that "Mental Fortitude" comes and goes.

 

[shoeking2102]

To me, You can't pick and choose when these guys have Mental Fortitude.

 

[shoeking2102]

 Austin Rivers is the Iceberg to an opponent's Titanic. This is his defensive shot chart.

This is why I can tolerate Austin Rivers. He's a plus defender every single night and has been our best wing defender thus far this season.

 

[lawdog1]

I have no issues with Austin at all. He does what he's supposed to do for the most part. Yeah, he could be shooting better, but that's a problem across the board, so I won't criticize him for that.

 

[lawdog1]

To me, You can't pick and choose when these guys have Mental Fortitude.

But there's a reason they keep falling short in pressure situations and I think chalking it up do, they just didn't make the right plays, is too simplistic.

In the end, I guess it's just semantics anyway. We agree they're not getting it done when they need too. The label you use to describe why doesn't matter much in the end.

 

[HIM]

In case Im not onlie last night, Happy Thanksgiving to the Clipper fam. Let's get this W.

 

[lawdog1]

^^^ . Happy Turkey Day Clipper Nation.

 

[lawdog1]

Everyone except Blake and CP has been basically useless this game.

 

[lawdog1]

Hey, another terrible 4th quarter. Weird.

What a waste of a fantastic game by Blake.

 

[xtianp]

:x