OFFICIAL LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS 2023-2024 SEASON THREAD

[shoeking2102]

Everything that I thought Wesley would bring to LAC this year has happened thus far.

"Below Average" is shooting 60% on corner 3's and is probably our best wing defender. Doc please start him man.

 

[lawdog1]

What team is Jamal playing for tonight? Its kind of hard to tell. That was an absolutely pathetic end to the 3rd quarter.

 

[shoeking2102]

BELOW AVERAGE 

 

[lawdog1]

Our 4th quarter no movement, no confidence offense is back. Sweet.

 

[shoeking2102]

Man Rubio was in the act of shooting b. There's really no need to foul when you're up 3. Just defend for a good 8 seconds. Fouling keeps the pressure on us to inbound the ball and make free throws. But whatever.

Wesley Johnson is everything 

I'll take the win. 6 of 8 now for us

 

[lawdog1]

Man Rubio was in the act of shooting b. There's really no need to foul when you're up 3. Just defend for a good 8 seconds. Fouling keeps the pressure on us to inbound the ball and make free throws. But whatever.

Wesley Johnson is everything 

I'll take the win. 6 of 8 now for us

I'll take the win, but that strategy was so stupid. Could easily envision a scenario where a T-Wolve got fouled down 3, made the 1st FT, intentionally missed the 2nd and it bounced out for a player for a game winning 3. JUST PLAY ******* DEFENSE!!!!!

But a win is a win, I guess.

 

[HIM]

Yea, should have been 3 for Rubio but then agin they never give CP3 those calls when he's clearly shooting while someone is trying to foul him. Nba refs scared to make that call.

rubio is damn good player. Time to justgive up on him ever developing a jumpshot but even without it he's great.

KG dunking on Blake had me hype I used to trade KG to the Clippers in NBA shootout back in the day.


I wanna complain about th sloppy play but beggars can't be choosers. Take em anyway we can right now.

 

[shoeking2102]

@SpearsNBAYahoo   10m10 minutes ago

Yahoo sources: LAC gauged trade interest in Lance Stephenson & Josh Smith. NBA execs talk about projected interest. http://yhoo.it/1SKSrqO 

Breh,

Lance and Josh Smith have not been the problems for us, especially Lance who is shooting 41% from 3 while being one of the best rebounders on the team. Josh Smith has actually been our best rim protector this year.

Wes Johnson shooting the **** out of the ball and defending, and yet Luc is starting for him for literally no reason.

*Sigh*

 

[shoeking2102]

PP played 6 minutes tonight and key'd a run for Minnesota in the 2nd quarter. I'm dead serious. 

He's legit unplayable. AT ALL. 

 

[lawdog1]

 



Breh,





Lance and Josh Smith have not been the problems for us, especially Lance who is shooting 41% from 3 while being one of the best rebounders on the team. Josh Smith has actually been our best rim protector this year.





Wes Johnson shooting the **** out of the ball and defending, and yet Luc is starting for him for literally no reason.





*Sigh*

I'm saying. Why bother making a trade for different personnel that Doc will mismanage? Just correctly use the assets we have. It shouldn't even be hard. This guy Doc really needs to turn off his brain sometimes.

 

[shoeking2102]

I'm saying. Why bother making a trade for different personnel that Doc will mismanage? Just correctly use the assets we have. It shouldn't even be hard. This guy Doc really needs to turn off his brain sometimes.

THIS

He's overcoaching so much this year and he's really making an *** of himself because of it.

Like, Wes is doing more than fine on Defense, no need to go offense defense with him and Luc. Just play wes. No need to foul up 3 with 8 seconds left, no need to....

(sigh) Coach Doc,

 

[shoeking2102]

By the way, I think Doc should consider playing Lance as the backup one rather than Austin or Jamal. He's the best decision maker and ball handler out of those two and is great in the P&R.

 

[xtianp]

By the way, I think Doc should consider playing Lance as the backup one rather than Austin or Jamal. He's the best decision maker and ball handler out of those two and is great in the P&R.

THIS. i cringe whenever Austin is making decisions on the second unit. Let that boy Lance cook.

 

[HIM]

From what I've read the Trade discussions were from early November. Not sure why that reporter felt the need to bring up now but I guess we've oficially entered the part of the season where we'll start hearing random reports of teammtes not liking each other, players hating coaches, doc eanting to trade players, Ballmer not being happy with Doc etc.


It's coming, fellas.

 

[shoeking2102]

THIS. i cringe whenever Austin is making decisions on the second unit. Let that boy Lance cook.

Move Austin to the 2, Crawford to the 3, and let lance be the primary decision maker for that unit. 

And if Austin's shooting doesn't come around, let my man CJ Wilcox get some bump at the 2 to give that unit some much needed shooting. 

 

[shoeking2102]

From what I've read the Trade discussions were from early November. Not sure why that reporter felt the need to bring up now but I guess we've oficially entered the part of the season where we'll start hearing random reports of teammtes not liking each other, players hating coaches, doc eanting to trade players, Ballmer not being happy with Doc etc.


It's coming, fellas.

Yup. It's par for the course when you're supposed to be elite and aren't winning like you're supposed to.

 

[lawdog1]

Yup. It's par for the course when you're supposed to be elite and aren't winning like you're supposed to.

Except, like you pointed out, nobody really is outside of the Warriors and Spurs. Besides those two teams, all the other squads currently in playoff position have between 7 and 11 losses. So, while the Clippers have been disappointing, they haven't been that disappointing relative to the rest of the league.

The frustrating part for me is that I think that, as the team is currently constructed, we have the personnel to be elite. We're just not using them correctly.

And, honestly, if Doc ends up trading either Josh or Lance, its just going to make him look like even more of a clown. Doc in September "This is our deepest, most talented team ever." Doc in December - "We needed to shake things up"(?). Kind of ridiculous sequences of events when you're the one picking and coaching the players on the team.

 

[shoeking2102]

Except, like you pointed out, nobody really is outside of the Warriors and Spurs. Besides those two teams, all the other squads currently in playoff position have between 7 and 11 losses. So, while the Clippers have been disappointing, they haven't been that disappointing relative to the rest of the league.

The frustrating part for me is that I think that, as the team is currently constructed, we have the personnel to be elite. We're just not using them correctly.

And, honestly, if Doc ends up trading either Josh or Lance, its just going to make him look like even more of a clown. Doc in September "This is our deepest, most talented team ever." Doc in December - "We needed to shake things up"(?). Kind of ridiculous sequences of events when you're the one picking and coaching the players on the team.

If Doc really was looking at trading those two, then I just feel like he's being an emotional, unstable ***. Srs.

No reason for those two to be the ones you single out when you're enabling Jamal's horrid play for most of this season and continue to trout out PP and not extend Wesley Johnson's minutes. Absurd ****.

BUT,

All in all you are right. We're currently fifth in the conference and game out of 3rd with 9 losses so while we may be "struggling," relatively speaking we are in solid position. A great roadtrip and I think we're in 3rd by the end of this roadtrip. I'm still believe that we'll be right there, elite by the end of the season and we're getting better. Things will work themselves out. The last two years we've been much better in the 2nd half of the season than the first so if the west continues to be merky, we may be able to get out of the pack 2nd half of the year. 

 

[paidnfull23]

Doc does a HORRIBLE job of intergrating new personnel (except for JJ). He thinks he can just roll the ball out and everything will take care of itself.

MF is so fraudlent I swear

 

[shoeking2102]

Doc does a HORRIBLE job of intergrating new personnel (except for JJ). He thinks he can just roll the ball out and everything will take care of itself.

MF is so fraudlent I swear

Rotations and Lineups have been abysmal this year. 

 

[shoeking2102]

 Wesley Johnson is 17-of-29 (58.6%) on corner threes this year. And he's 14-of-16 from inside 8 feet.

BELOW AVERAGE

 

[shoeking2102]

The Clippers fancy themselves as title contenders, and you are not winning the title with Luc Richard Mbah a Moute as your starting small forward. The Clips have put up Warriors-level scoring margins with either Wesley Johnson or Lance Stephenson alongside the core four starters. They need to invest regular-season time in those lineups. You can almost understand Doc Rivers's hesitancy. Johnson is limited, and Stephenson is irritating. They are risky, and Mbah a Moute is a warm blanket vet -- a safe, known commodity.

But unseating the Warriors and Spurs will require risk. The Clippers need to reach their absolute ceiling, and that can only happen if they get the highest-reward lineups going. If they've followed Charlotte in souring on Stephenson a month into the season, as Yahoo! reported Monday, they need a better back up plan than giving Luc 15 charity minutes per game

For the most part I agree with Zach lowe here. However I think thus far this season, Lance, and especially wes johnson have been a bit more stable than he gave them credit for. Both are shooting 40plus from 3.

But the rest I agree with. I think if we're going to win it all this year it'll have to be with wes johnson. To Doc's credit, he's been closing with Wes the last couple of games which is good. I do think eventually we'll settle with Wes as the permanent starter at some point this year.

 

[HIM]

I do not expect Lance to keep shooting 40% from 3. Or even above 35%. But I love that he isn't just throwing up 3'a like Josh Smith. He knows his limitations and his strengths. I don't think I've seen him really settle on a 3. Most of the time he's wide open for a 3 and it's a shot we need him to take. I love rhat he atracks the rim, and like I've said numerous times in here, I'll live with the occasional turnovers if they come with the energy, attacking, defense, rebounding.


Zach Lowe is 100% right in regards to Lance and Wes. Im gonna cut Jamal some slacknfor now cuz he balled out twice when we absolutely needed him (detroit, Orlando). I will keep my opinions to myself for for the next couple games.

 

[lawdog1]

Doc does a HORRIBLE job of intergrating new personnel (except for JJ). He thinks he can just roll the ball out and everything will take care of itself.

MF is so fraudlent I swear

The worst part is that HE's the one bringing the new personnel in! You would think that means he gave some thought about how to integrate them into the team, but it doesn't look like it after the games start. Then he gives up on guys very quickly. So frustrating to watch.

 

[HIM]

WEDNESDAY, 7:56am: Rivers denies that he’s reached out to anyone about Stephenson and Smith. The coach/executive addressed the issue in an appearance on “The Fred Roggin Show” on The Beast 980 radio in Los Angeles.

“Not true,” Rivers said of the initial report. “It’s amazing how silly this stuff is. I don’t comment on it much obviously but I can tell you, I think I’m the president of basketball and I’ve yet to have a conversation with any team about anyone right now. These reports come out and there’s nothing you can do about it.

An NBA executive told Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times that the Clippers indeed placed calls about Stephenson and Smith but that they were exploratory and routine for this time of year (Twitter link).

Don't let th truth get in the way of a good story...