OFFICIAL LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS 2024-2025 SEASON THREAD

[lawdog1]

^^^ Yeah, Beal balled for sure. He's nice. Wish the kid could stay healthy.

As for our team, Glenn getting tossed (again) was laughable. The refs weren't the reason we couldn't get a stop in the 4th.

 

[P C H]

View media item 2267511

wtf man

 

[lawdog1]

Awesome. Last year all over again.

 

[lawdog1]

^^^ But, if Blake can get through surgery and rehab this season without punching anyone and causing himself further injury, I guess it will be a step forward from last season.

 

[P C H]

Watched the 4th quarter and watched Blake again come up short

And it's gotten me to a realization:

JJ Redick, Doc, and to a way lesser extent CP have hindered Blake griffin'/ development. He should be further along as a 1v1 isolation player instead of being this pick and pop big who's barely an avg shooter.

He spends way too much time 18 feet away from the basket in DHO and Pick and Pop action when he really should be our horse. And that's partly not his fault. The team is constructed this way and they're very good at it but it makes sense why the best season of blake's career came on the heels of JJ and CP missing a ton of time. It forced him to be the guy we live with down the stretch and throughout the game.

He may never grow into that guy for us, but CP, Doc, JJ, etc. have basically built and enabled his style of play

 

[P C H]

Look at Blake in his career when he's forced to play without CP

2013-2014, Games 1&2 against houston in the playoffs,

He's way too good to be playing Pick and Pop action and DHO action with JJ Redick and Jamal Friggin Crawford down the stretch of games. We've kind of stalled his development I feel.

There's no way Blake Griffin should only touch the ball in Pick and Pop action down the stretch of games. He's not a selfish guy so he doesn't demand the ball but his talent demands that responsibility. It should be on him not on JJ Redick, Jamal's crawford or Chris Paul.

He's the guy. It's in him. And it's borderline criminal how good he still is despite the way the team is constructed

 

[lawdog1]

^^^ Agree with all of that. Blake himself has to shoulder some of the blame for his late game failings, but our system and plays we run in those situations do not help him at all.

I said this earlier in the year that the team is really not good about putting him in the best positions to succeed in those situations. Like you said, it's usually pick and pop or ISO post-ups, where he's only moderately effective, even with good match-ups.

 

[P C H]

Yeah the spacing is terrible and instead of him getting the ball on mismatches on the block, he's normally 16 to 18 feet from the basket either shooting or trying to back down with the entire defense in front of him.

I just think he's way too good for the way he is featured and operates within our offense and he's been consistently like this since Doc and JJ have come to town.

 

[lawdog1]

The team, as a whole, often looks confused and panicked on late game, offensive possessions. That has to be a function of coaching, at least in large part.

 

[pmatic]

I think DeAndre's presence on offense has been just as damaging. Ideally, Griffin would be the screen setter and roller instead of popping out for 20 footers.

 

[lawdog1]

I think DeAndre's presence on offense has been just as damaging. Ideally, Griffin would be the screen setter and roller instead of popping out for 20 footers.

Fair point. Good as Blake is at finding DJ for lobs, DJ being in there does eat up a lot of the space that Blake could potentially be using to better advantage.

 

[commonsense23]

^^ THIS!!!  I was just talking to my bro about when's the last time we've seen Blake set a screen and roll for a back door lob?  I truly believe we only goes as far as Blake's takes us but based on this current system, it seems like a 1st or 2nd round exit year in and year out.  Doc has been wearing thin with me over the last couple of years and his lack of making changes when necessary and sticking to his rotation etc, etc. gets me everytime.  Don't get me wrong, when it comes to drawing up plays out of time outs, he's one of the best but his stubbornness with his rotations and playing PP extended mins kills me everytime! 

 

[lawdog1]

^^ THIS!!!  I was just talking to my bro about when's the last time we've seen Blake set a screen and roll for a back door lob?  

Or spun back door out of a post up for a lob? Seriously don't think I've seen that since like 2013.

 

[P C H]

Even though the Clips are in 4th, 2nd seed still very much in play even with Blake being out.

Other than SAS thursday (which I still think we can and will win that) the next six weeks are EXTREMELY winnable. Perfect time for blake to be out if he's going to be out and 6 weeks puts him right at the end of January. Just a great spot for LAC to be at schedule wise w/blake having to miss time.

Rockets lose tonight to SAS, and We beat Denver, we're once again tied for 3rd and only 2 games back in loss side behind SAS with a game against them on Thursday.

I feel like a win streak is coming and I'm going to go out on a limb and say we'll be no more than a half game out of 2nd when blake comes back if he's gone the full 6 weeks.

- In another news, it looks like it'll be a revolving door of who starts between Pierce / Rivers, depending on size. There's never a scenario IMO where pierce should play, and we are undefeated when Austin Starts so we shall see.

 

[lawdog1]

Hearing Pierce is getting the start tonight, to which I say "ugh." As I did on Twitter.

^^^ And I wish I could be as optimistic about a long streak coming, but we just haven't been playing that well lately, even in wins. The defensive slippage has been pretty dramatic. I read that in our last 10 games or so, we've only been like 18 in the league in total defensive rating. Can't quite figure the reason for the regression. Team still seems to be playing hard, just making a lot more defensive mistakes.

 

[P C H]

Hearing Pierce is getting the start tonight, to which I say "ugh." As I did on Twitter.

^^^ And I wish I could be as optimistic about a long streak coming, but we just haven't been playing that well lately, even in wins. The defensive slippage has been pretty dramatic. I read that in our last 10 games or so, we've only been like 18 in the league in total defensive rating. Can't quite figure the reason for the regression. Team still seems to be playing hard, just making a lot more defensive mistakes.

Oh the defense has been awful. Blake has been really bad (and maybe it had to do with his knee) and the team in general is just giving up a ton of 3's. They've also been turning the ball over more which is also a precursor to bad defense. I don't think CP has been good on that end as of late either.

But my optimism comes from the level of competition rather than how good we are currently. We've won what, 4 of 5 I think? And in all those games we had sizeable leads, but let teams back into the game. Hell we were up 102-95 late in Washington and let them back in. Got up by as many as 16 late in Miami. Think this team is better than what they're showing as of late, and the schedule being what it is will allow us to flourish over the next couple of weeks.

At least I hope.

 

[lawdog1]

When is the last time the 2nd unit actually extended a lead?

 

[HIM]

When is the last time the 2nd unit actually extended a lead?

Let me ask you this. Shoeking too..

When is the last time y'all expected us to win? The first month of the season I honestly expected to win every single game. I was getting to that point again until Sunday. I would not be surprised if we lost tonight.

They got us again, man

 

[P C H]

Let me ask you this. Shoeking too..

When is the last time y'all expected us to win? The first month of the season I honestly expected to win every single game. I was getting to that point again until Sunday. I would not be surprised if we lost tonight.

They got us again, man

Honestly? With the exception of the dubs I've had us winning every game this season

Even without Blake I still do. There's just not too many teams realistically that I'm like "oh man we can't beat them" even w/o Blake :\

This team is good man. Tonight is like the fourth time in five games in which we've led by double figures. Off the top of my head, half of our losses we've been up by double figures or something like that. They've just been bad at holding leads and closing games which hopefully they get better at.

In any event, Wilson Redick is [emoji]128293[/emoji][emoji]128293[/emoji][emoji]128293[/emoji]right now

 

[P C H]

DJ and CP really built a great foundation as a tandem last year. Off the charts chemstry between those two

 

[lawdog1]

Let me ask you this. Shoeking too..

When is the last time y'all expected us to win? The first month of the season I honestly expected to win every single game. I was getting to that point again until Sunday. I would not be surprised if we lost tonight.

They got us again, man

I haven't been super-confident about a W since probably the Nets loss. Since then, there's been games I expected us to lose (Cavs, GSW) and games I thought "we should win this, but I won't be shocked if we lose."

 

[P C H]

Looks like we're gonna win this one

That'll be 7 of our last 10 and of those 3 losses, only gsw we didn't have a double digit lead in.

I'm telling y'all fam, a win streak is on the horizon. I feel it coming like weeknd say

 

[lawdog1]

^^^ If we win on Thursday, we're going to hear the "better without Blake" talk with the quickness.

 

[P C H]

^^^ If we win on Thursday, we're going to hear the "better without Blake" talk with the quickness.

Hell yeah !

I'm anticipating it. Hell national media pundits are already throwing trade Blake stuff out there, will only be magnified if we're really successful without him which I think we will be

 

[lawdog1]

Hell national media pundits are already throwing trade Blake stuff out there, will only be magnified if we're really successful without him which I think we will be

Right. I'm sure teams will be beating down our doors to trade us another star quality player for a guy coming off surgery, who will be an UFA in the offseason and will be looking for a max deal. Lot's of plausible trade scenarios under those circumstances.