The Clippers Remain The Clippers

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Feb 19, 2015
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#1
The Clippers Remain The Clippers

BY FTESWL
POSTED ON APRIL 30, 2017


It was all a dream.

Just 5 years ago, the Los Angeles Clippers were seemingly in prime position to take over the NBA. With a peaking Chris Paul, a budding star in Blake Griffin, and a monster rim-protector in Deandre Jordan, the arrow was pointing all the way up. Fast forward to today, the team has failed to pass the 2nd round of the western conference playoffs, and just lost to a lower-seeded Utah Jazz in the first round. With this loss, they are the 1st team in NBA history to blow a series lead in five consecutive post seasons.

Granted, they have been hit by the injury bug year after year, this excuse simply ran its course. Yes, Blake Griffin sustained an injury to his big toe in Game 3 at Utah, and yes, it kept him out for the remainder of the playoffs. But did that really make a difference? The Clippers were not going anywhere, either way. If anything, this was merely an excuse to keep the team together for one more year. Then point fingers at the injury, all while claiming it as the reason their potential never reached its ceiling.

Fact of the matter is, Doc Rivers is a terrible coach, and an even worse GM. If not for him riding the big three in Boston to a title, Rivers would have been out the league long ago. He has literally done worse in every year he has coached the Clippers, starting with 57 wins in 2014, to 56 in 2015, then 53 in 2016, and finally, all the way down to a mediocre 51 wins in 2017.

While Coach Rivers has failed to build on his early success with the team, GM Rivers has done even worse, by not building the roster or surrounding the big three with the proper talent needed to improve. Truth be told, if not for his reputation, Rivers would have been fired long ago. At the very least, he would have been replaced as the teams GM by someone with a proven track record. The guy simply has no clue what he is doing. I knew the Clippers would lose game 7 vs. the Jazz as soon as I saw him celebrating the game 6 victory like they had just won a championship. Embarrassing.

It pretty much seems like the Clippers had us fooled. They are who we remember them as, JV status. A team that came full circle and ended up right back where they started; headed nowhere…fast. The term “wasted potential”, which was once synonymous with the Clipper franchise, has subtly stuck with the cursed organization through all the promise.

In reality, they need to blow it up ASAP. With Blake Griffin and Chris Paul having a player option for 2017-2018, Deandre Jordan is the only player signed through next season. If the Clippers organization had any sense, they would have gotten something back in a trade for Blake Griffin and Chris Paul back when they still could. More than likely, one of the two players will be leaving this summer, and probably even both. Why stay on a team headed nowhere when your prime years are coming to an end?

If Chris Paul wants a chance at a ring, he would be wise to sign with a team like the Spurs, where he could replace the aging Tony Parker.

If Blake Griffin wants a chance to resurrect his career, he would be wise to go ANYWHERE ELSE.

The only issue here is that Blake Griffin and Chris Paul literally begged Deandre Jordan to stick around back when he had a verbal agreement to bolt to Dallas in the summer of 2015. They claimed “loyalty” as the reason he should stay in Los Angeles and help them contend for a title. They promised to get him more involved in the offense. It worked, and Deandre Jordan snubbed Dallas to stick with his teammates. What seemed like a feel good story of camaraderie at the time was probably nothing more than a broken promise in the making.

It was all good just yesterday. The Clippers were covering up Laker banners in Staples Center, contending in the western conference, claiming their stake as “the new team in Los Angeles”. Their fans came out of hiding, the seats started filling up, and Los Angeles had a team in which the contrarians could finally feel safe rooting for. And all that noise for what? Nothing! It’s now the Los Angeles Lakers who got their arrow pointing up, preparing to take back whats been rightfully theirs, and keep little brother, once again, at arms length.

As for the Clippers? Lord knows…

Maybe move back to San Diego? They could use you down there.
 
Jan 29, 2005
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PHX
#9
lol @ go back to San Diego. Leave the Staples Center and cut their franchise valuation in half by leaving the 2nd biggest media market and what's now the 2nd most celebrated venue in basketball behind MSG cause they lost in the playoffs. Makes sense right?

If you completely blow this team up they're back to a decade of rebuilding. Hire a real GM, keep at a minimum Chris Paul and Deandre Jordan, try to add a solid shooting guard who can hit 3's in free agency and they'll be solid. The problem with any team in the West though is nobody is getting past the Warriors for a long time unless the Warriors implode with season ending injuries to Curry and Durant at the same time right before the playoffs.
 
Props: :ab: and :ab:

Mr G

Drunk Pot-Head
Apr 4, 2007
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#10
Lol.

Nobody's going no where.
29 teams fall short of the goal every year, you can bash rivers as a gm but cant state the actual missteps. Like instead of re-signing pierce they have should have signed: X. Nope no one was out thete to provide mental leadership at a veterans minimum. Etc etc... both articles are well write dude but aint Saying shit...
 

:ab:

blunt_hogg559
Jul 6, 2005
8,149
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#15
Lol.

Nobody's going no where.
29 teams fall short of the goal every year, you can bash rivers as a gm but cant state the actual missteps. Like instead of re-signing pierce they have should have signed: X. Nope no one was out thete to provide mental leadership at a veterans minimum. Etc etc... both articles are well write dude but aint Saying shit...
missteps: doc signing his son (who could arguably have been out of the league before he went to the clips) and paying him more than crawford. creates alot of resentment

ballmer making doc the coach, must less the fckin gm was a huge mistake. doc was a sub par coach whose professional life was saved when ainge got the big three in Boston. doc has been riding those years of success thru sheer dumb luck of being the coach at the right time. he's not worthy of being called a good coach and def not worthy of being a gm.

doc hasn't been able to maximize cp3 either but that can't be blamed all on coaching. cp3 is a media darling for his numbers and advanced stats but he doesn't make anyone around him better and dominates the ball too long into the shot clock. he's been an underachiever his entire career, playoff wise. spurs and popovich would be his best bet, or lebron. that's it

clips have potential to be great, they just need a good coach and a real gm
 

Mr G

Drunk Pot-Head
Apr 4, 2007
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#17
GM

Austin shows up in the playoffs and is young enough to give good two way minutes
Crawford goes mia in the spring and can quickly shoot you out of games with out looking for a pass, you know that lol.

Clippers had been praised for the deepest best bench by pundits and he has alot of league respect, alot of CORRECT deals with appropriate people like m'bah, big baby Davis, Felton, Wes Johnson and others.

As a coach I'll say the development of DJ has been good if you pay attention. Old school big man stats, perennial DPOY candidate. Raw talent correctly harnessed.

Blake has developed a jump shot to expand his game when can't bully n elevate in the paint. (Being injury prone that's a good focus to keep him engaged)

Reddicks nice averages come off good coaching plays (designed screens)

He lets cp3 do him as he should. He's only OVER-judged for not advancing past the second round when it's a team game. He's fuckin dope bro.
 
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Mr G

Drunk Pot-Head
Apr 4, 2007
2,695
3,947
113
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Las Vegas
#18
And real good adjustments to take two awesome game 7s against super teams like the warriors and then the spurs he next year.

Before you mention the rockets meltdown, the players have to own that shit. They went up 3-1 and had big leads in two close out games. The players executed on the court like pure shit
 
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Feb 19, 2015
1,253
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#19
GM

Austin shows up in the playoffs and is young enough to give good two way minutes
Crawford goes mia in the spring and can quickly shoot you out of games with out looking for a pass, you know that lol.

Clippers had been praised for the deepest best bench by pundits and he has alot of league respect, alot of CORRECT deals with appropriate people like m'bah, big baby Davis, Felton, Wes Johnson and others.

As a coach I'll say the development of DJ has been good if you pay attention. Old school big man stats, perennial DPOY candidate. Raw talent correctly harnessed.

Blake has developed a jump shot to expand his game when can't bully n elevate in the paint. (Being injury prone that's a good focus to keep him engaged)

Reddicks nice averages come off good coaching plays (designed screens)

He lets cp3 do him as he should. He's only OVER-judged for not advancing past the second round when it's a team game. He's fuckin dope bro.
the deepest bench in the league? lolwtf??

the clippers literally run the same two plays every time.. cp3 dribbles for 20 seconds looking for a pick and roll or a high screen for the open three. no ball movement whatsoever, it's terrible.

blake griffin digressed. he was 3rd in mvp voting a couple years ago .. right now, he's not even a top player in the league.

as for his work as a gm, he has failed to add any real talent around the big three .. all the good players were already there before he got there.

honestly, if he didn't win a ring in boston riding the cotails of that HOF squad, he would be out of a job right now. his team underachieved every year and continues getting worse. he should just go to orlando before that option is taken off the table.