Teams are getting wise to the Clippers, and you can tell just by the way they defend Eric Gordon. When Eric has the ball up top, the defense snaps to attention — not just EJ’s man, but the interior guys, too. They watch the rookie intently as he sizes up the court. On the Clippers first possession of the game, Gordon and Zach Randolph run a slip screen on the right side. How do the Raptors defend it? By trapping Gordon, even though he’s moving away from the basketball and Randolph, a prolific scorer, runs to one of his favorite spots on the right side of the floor — about 17 feet from the basket just off the baseline. Gordon swings a cross-court pass to Randolph, who drains the open jumper.
The Clippers run that set again the next trip down to the same effect, only this time it’s Baron and Randolph on the left side. After that, Baron commits three turnovers on the next three possessions, and the Clippers never find their footing offensively. Parker attaches himself to Gordon and rarely leaves him, not even to double Randolph down on the block. The Raptors make the same decision Detroit made on Friday — chase the Clippers’ shooters and make Mike Dunleavy’s squad beat you inside.
The Raptors also do something they’re not accustomed to doing — bludgeon their opponent on the glass. The Clippers get out-rebounded 57-34, including a 14-2 margin on the offensive boards. Of all the maladies that afflict the Clippers these days, bad rebounding might be the most acute, and they’re now 28th in rebounding rate. The Clippers’ wings continue to rank last in the league on the glass, and it’s costing the team possessions. Shawn Marion abuses Fred Jones all afternoon [i.e. 2nd, 5:58], and finishes with five offensive rebounds all his own. It’s not entirtely Jones’ fault. With Marion at the SF for Toronto, it’s a lousy day to start your 6′ 2″ backup guard at forward.
It’s a strange game all around. Despite some ugly-looking final numbers, Toronto has a very efficient first half, racking up a 105.9 offensive efficiency rating against another lousy defensive effort by the Clippers. Whether it’s because they haven’t played together, or because they’re slow, the Clippers have become one of those teams who can’t adequately defend the pick-and-roll [1st, 8:40; 1st, 0:08; 3rd, 5:01]. Let’s take a look at the set that effectively ends the game, at the 5:01 mark of the third quarter when the Raptors go up by 20 points — a lead that never narrows:
Shawn Marion’s stock has dropped precipitously since he left Phoenix over a year ago, but he’s still a guy I’d love to have at a reasonable price. He can defend four positions [which makes life so much easier defending the S/R], rebound like a fiend, and can move the rock around. Here, he’s the ball man on the S/R with Bosh out beyond the perimeter on the left side. Bosh is guarded by Kaman, Marion by Mardy Collins. Kaman anticipates a trap or a switch, so Bosh immediately breaks for the hoop.
Who’s supposed to rotate? I’d say it’s the guy guarding Jake Voskuhl away from the basket a couple steps off the lane, wouldn’t you? That guy would be Zach Randolph. And that guy literally watches Bosh breeze past him. Easy two.
This is exactly why you can’t really “hide” a guy defensively in the NBA. At some point, your opponent will exploit the soft spot in the defense, even if it’s not in a man-to-man situation. Though he’s assigned to an offensive nonentity like Jake Voskuhl, Zach is still a liability. This isn’t an isolated incident this afternoon for Randolph [1st, 2:16; 2nd, 3:20; 3rd, 6:19]. Let’s take a look at yet another, [2nd, 1:13]:
Again, it’s a high S/R, this time Jose Calderon/Joey Graham. As a rule, if the defense is going to trap the ball off the screen, someone needs to pick up the roll man as he dives to the hoop. Otherwise, if the pass is on the money, it’s a clean layup. Here, both Randolph and Novak are late, and Joey Graham gets an easy goal.
Randolph has a tremendous offensive first half, but when you have a power forward who isn’t in the business of back line or help defense, you’re going to give up a lot points in the paint. There’s a reason the Clippers defended the interior so well during the Brand era, and why teams are gorging themselves underneath against the Clippers over the past few weeks. Randolph plays 18 minutes during the first half today. During the 11 Toronto possessions that Zach is not on the court, the Raptors score only 5 points [0.45 PPP] on 2-13 FGA. During the other 41 possessions, they score 49 points [1.20 PPP] on 20-39 FGA.
These observations of Randolph aren’t a product of any vendetta, fixation, or prejudice. In fact, they date back a couple of years. So until proven otherwise, I’ll continue to insist that a team cannot succeed defensively so long as Zach Randolph is getting heavy minutes. The power forward position in the NBA simply doesn’t work that way.
31 Responses
Kevin, please add POLL feature to this site. You can get it free from micropoll.com
First POLL should be:
VOTE: Jerry West as new Clippers GM & Sam Cassell as new Head Coach.
YES
NO
Let Clippernation decide.
Final result should be delivered to Sterling via FEDEX OVERNITE.
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Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I have a hard time imagining that Jerry West actually wants the job. Even if Sterling were to shell out the dough, which is highly doubtful considering what he’s paying Dunleavy, why would he want to work with an owner such as Sterling? Sterling has proven to be a boss who not only interferes with the management of the team (not trading Maggette when he could have) but also communicates poorly without any real long term vision (coming into Clips’ locker room, the only time his players have really seen him, to berate them and tell them they’re all expendable). I just don’t see it.
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Stian Reply:
March 22nd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Not that I think Jerry West is that much better a GM than Dunleavy at this point but I do think he’d have Sterling’s absolute respect on basketball matters. West has a track record of success with the Lakers – Dunleavy has never built anything from the ground up and made it successful.
But, the Clippers really need a new coach, not so much a new GM. The problem is that GM Dunleavy would likely hire a coach in his own mold or find someone he can control, kind of like Riley is always in charge in Miami whether he actually coaches or not.
Personally, I don’t think West is the answer, and I don’t see DTS forking over the kind of dough the Logo would command – on top of continuing to pay Dunleavy for 2 more years.
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Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
I agree with you that zach is a defensive liability, but should we start Brian Skinner?? It’s not zr’s fault, it’s the whole team. I HONESTLY CAN’T SINGLE OUT ONE PERSON WHEN I WATCH THIS ATROCITY THAT IS LABELED THE LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS. Everyone is stinking it up! How many time did their back up pg just stroll into the paint with no one even in close range of him. EVERYONE is lost, its sad and embarrassing.
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Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Where is Stian to defend this debacle?
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Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
More Z-Bo haterade from KA. What else is new?
Although Zach was far from perfect today he was a total stud compared to Baron Davis and Chris Kaman (or anyone else for that matter). Baron picked a really bad time to return to his selfish old self. How many times did this guy ignore WIDE OPEN team mates just so he could throw up a horrible brick? How many times did his man get by him and lay it in as if it were a layup drill? How many times did he get stripped and/or turn over the ball? BD needs to be traded. Period.
And Kaman…….. what can you say? Whoever said Kwame Brown had stone hands hasn’t seen Kaman play. This dude couldn’t catch a ball in motion if his life depended on it. If it wasn’t for basketball Kaman would be saying, “do you want fries with that?” Just…. WOW. CK needs to be traded. Period.
Sadly, Eric Gordon, the only real consistent Clipper bright spot this season, played down to the level of his team mates today and couldn’t get much going. Of course, it also doesn’t help when you continuously do not get the ball more than about 5 times all game long. I mean, let’s all please ignore our best shooter/scorer, shall we?
Can Sterling sue these losers and get his money back on the grounds of collective work refusal? Cause he does deserve his money back. And so does anybody that’s spent a dime of their money on the Clippers this year.
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Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Why couldn’t the Clippers have played like this and lost to Washington to get a better chance at a higher lottery pick? And sorry Kevin, I disagree that the Clippers lack of playing together a lot is the reason they are sucking this much, pick and roll included. They’ve been to practices together and seen each other play all year, there is no communication and that is something the coach should fix and change, but he’s too stupid. Also, look at Boston last year with a whole new team, they jelled quickly (obviously Garnett and Allen are better than adding Randolph, Davis, Camby and Gordon, but still).
Also, the Clippers are the worst 3rd quarter team, as long as dunleavy has been with the team they seem to be outscored by a lot every third quarter, it is a stat i’d love to see. It goes to show how bad of a coach he is because he can’t make half-time adjustments. Hearing that rumor about him staying on as head coach and not as GM scares me that much more. Gordon looked really depressed during today’s game… hopefully Dunleavy doesn’t kill his hope too much.
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Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 8:06 pm
There was another key play in the 1st quarter. The ball is kicked in low to Randolf on the low right post. Gordon drifts to that side and is wide open at the 3 point line, but Zach continues to dribble, looking for his own shot. Finally, a double team comes over. Gordon is still wide open. Zach picks up his dribble and holds the ball for two seconds. The defense on Gordon recovers and Zach throws the ball out long over Gordon’s head. Gordon no longer has a shot. He collects it and throws it back in to Zach… Who misses. Not only is Zach a liability on defense (probably the worst starting defender in the league at that position) but he’s also a terrible passer.
Baron, Zach and Kaman all need to go… Dunleavy too… Time to start a new five year plan like Portland did a few years ago, by getting rid of Zach, or like the Knicks did this year, by getting rid of Zach… I’m just wondering who could be dumb enough to take him… Maybe if we get rid of Dunleavy, he’ll land somewhere else and want him back.
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Beard The Curse Reply:
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:46 pm
In the process of getting Zach we got rid of two of the most USELESS & HORRIBLE contracts in the league. Mobley & Tim Thomas. We consolidated our garbage. If you have 2 tons of trash and someone comes along and trades you there ton for it. Yeah you still got a ton of trash but at least it’s only 1 ton now.
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Dj Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:05 am
I wouldn’t say Mobley was “useless”. He was probably our best defender, a good veteran presence, and a nice influence on Eric Gordon. Of course, we didn’t know about his unfortunate condition until after the trade took place. That is all beside the point however.
Thomas and Mobley’s contracts expire next year. Zach’s locked up until 2012. What that means is Kaman, Randolph and Baron account for roughly two thirds of our total team salary until 2012, essentially giving us minimal to no room to make any free agent moves for the next 3 years. If we didn’t trade for Randolph, we would have had two extremely valuable expiring contracts in Thomas and Mobley which we could have parlayed into draft picks or a valuable piece for the future. Even if Dunleavy decided to just let Thomas and Mobley’s deals expire, it would have cleared up enough room to offer someone a max deal. As it stands right now, there are only about 10 teams with the capabilities to do that.
The Randolph trade was basically Dunleavy going “all in”. I’m in no way saying this years record is on Zach Randolph’s shoulders, but the fact of the matter is we’re 17-53. How much is Randolph helping us? Is going 17-53 worth ruining your cap flexibility for the next 3 years?
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bongstradamus Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:57 am
We need legitimacy to sign real talent. Cap flexibility sometimes isnt the best for us as a franchise right now. To be honest, I think the Zach deal was pretty smart overall. I thought the Mobely and Thomas deals were terrible for us, so we exchanged them for Zachs bad deal, but it actually works out for us because HES STUCK HERE AND CANT LEAVE FOR 3 YEARS. Cuz honestly, thats the only way we can retain bonafide talent. Our talent retention and acquisition program breaks down to basically two options: We either match someone elses deal, or we trade for a long term contract. Otherwise its bad deals for mediocre players like Kaman, Thomas, Mobely, Ricky Davis, Kerry Kittles, etc. Even with salary cap flexibility, we’d only be competing for MLE guys with the other craptastic franchises in the league, the real FA’s would be getting offers from teams they actually want to play for and would put us at the absolute bottom of the list.
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Dj Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:09 am
I agree with you that we need legitimacy to sign real talent. However, I think that this upcoming offseason is so flooded with talent and so low on teams with the cap space to actually do anything that if we threw enough money at a guy he’d sign with us.
http://veganfishtacos.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/2010-off-season-primer/
http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9031
Those two sites are where I’m getting most my information from, and both are good reads. I’ll summarize:
Around half the league should have cap space for 2010. I counted 16 teams based on everything how it is RIGHT NOW. Granted not all have enough room for a max guy, but a good portion do. I’m sure tons of things will change once that offseason rolls around, but right now here is the list.
ATL, CHA, CLE, DET, HOU, MEM, MIA, MIN, NJ, NY, OKC, PHX, POR, SAC, SA, TOR
Right off the bat, Charlotte, Memphis, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Sacramento and Toronto pop off the page. These are bad teams in less than desirable places to play. I’d say we’re right there with those teams, and maybe even have an advantage due to the Los Angeles factor.
So that leaves ATL, CLE, DET, HOU, MIA, NJ, NY, PHX, POR, SA. 10 teams. A few of these teams could very well sign guys in 2009, eliminating their cap room for 2010. But let’s pretend no one does that, and it stays right around 10 teams. Here are the top 10 2010 free agents:
Lebron
Wade
Bosh
Amare
Dirk
Yao
Pierce
J. Johnson
R. Hamilton
J. Howard
At least the top 6 are FRANCHISE type players. Some teams will covet a Josh Howard more than a Yao, or a Rip more than a Dirk due to positional needs.
Factor in that teams are reluctant to break the bank for a player with a long term deal, and it’s very possible we could have nabbed a great player. I know Lebron, Wade, and probably Bosh would never come here in a million years. But throw big money at Amare or Dirk with only 1 or 2 other teams in the mix? It’s possible.
Even if we struck out and got absolutely no one, which would take beyond Clipperesque poor management, there are plenty of good veterans like Stephen Jackson out there. Sign a guy like him on a cheap, short deal and add some desperately needed depth to the bench and you start to build something.
What you really have to ask yourself is this: Do you really think that this group of guys can even get anywhere near an NBA finals? Or even the playoffs?
I think that’s how you have to evaluate the trade – It sacrificed a shot at a brighter future for minimal current results.
Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I hope you guys were tivo-ing the Clipper game and watching NCAA.
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Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 10:07 pm
This whole Jerry West thing is genius. With the contracts we have the roster is pretty much set for next season. Jerry West is a name which will help sell tickets for next year and mask the fact that he won’t be able to squat about 85% of the team….Unless he comes to hire a coach
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Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I cant wait to draft rubio and have him decide to stay in Europe like sofo did. Maybe lil’ ricky rubio will put on 150 pounds of fat and go into depression after being selected by the clippers like sofo did. Hell if I got drafted by the clippers i’d start eating bon bons and playing russian roulette too!
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Dj Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 am
Sadly, I too can see Rubio refusing to be a Clipper and staying in Europe. He’s already a huge star over there and makes a nice amount of money. I’m sure he wants to play in the NBA, but he’s in no rush.
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Posted on March 22nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
It’s never a good sign when after the game you’re googling “Lowest team offensive rebounds record in a single game”. If you’re curious, the answer is zero by Utah in 2002.
Getting killed on the glass like that is a direct result of a lack of effort. Consider that the immortal Jake Voshkul and Pops Mensah-Bansu are the ones doing the damage, and it becomes even worse.
Our bigs are supposed to be the strength of the team, but those numbers tell it all. 28th in the team rebounding department? That’s pathetic.
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Posted on March 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 am
What really strikes me about this team is that they can’t possibly be having fun playing with each other. Anyone that plays pickup basketball knows the pains of playing with these three guys:
You’ve got your token chucker who is under the impression that because he is the most talented player on the team, he deserves the most shots. Being completely covered is not of concern to him. Ball movement is a myth. If he’s under the impression he’s not playing with a talented enough team, he’ll shoot strictly contested threes, just cause. He makes you hate yourself for running up the court. He’s really just buying time until he picks up a new squad.
Then you’ve got your out of shape fat guy. He’s got some nice skills, but he lumbers up and down the court and plays little to no defense. The ball goes in to him in the post and it never comes out. Triple team be damned, he’s getting his. Nothing has ever been his fault. Ever.
Then there is your horribly uncoordinated big guy. You feel almost inclined to give him the ball, because he’s much larger than the guy covering him. Usually he makes you regret this decision. He drops passes left and right, travels, steps out of bounds and throws the ball to the other team. He’s prone to at least one double face-palm enducing play a game.
That’s Baron, Randolph and Kaman. The 40 million dollar core. Toss in a relatively clueless Al Thornton, sprinkle in some Ricky Davis and… PRESTO!
You’ve got yourself a bad pickup team that hates playing with each other.
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Sam Mays Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 am
Outstanding…
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eastie Rich Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 am
wow, you make the guys I used play with in Venice like NBA All Stars compared to this group. Well, we did play harder for sure.
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BoomDizzleisaCipp Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:23 am
that analysis is almost too perfect…right on the money Dj
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Section 113 Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Absolutely brillaint….just add in a leader (COACH DUNCE) who everyone hates and noone will listen to.
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Posted on March 23rd, 2009 at 1:11 am
omg Dj thats one of the best posts ever
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Posted on March 23rd, 2009 at 2:00 am
[...] ClipperBlog.com » Toronto 100, Clippers 76 [...]
Posted on March 23rd, 2009 at 7:57 am
The Clippers path to success is an obvious one; one they almost pulled off in the very early 90’s. You stink and draft high and well for a couple years. Build through youth that is stuck here for 5 years… Portland is a perfect example… If you get the right players you have a window where you can become a good or very good team… OKC is doing that now.
In the Manning/Charles Smith/ era, they were a team on the rise. Grabbed Ron Harper for Danny Ferry in a steal. Brought in a veteran point guard at the end of his career who came cheaply, Doc Rivers and Mark Jackson to make it all work… Bad luck (Manning and Harper getting hurt) and stupidity (trading for Stanley Roberts) ruined it, but the model exists… And it’s the only one the Clippers can make work.
Quick fixes with stat-building losers is no answer… And, if you build a little something with young players, you can get a key free agent piece to come here… Hey, most of us though Baron Davis was a stroke of genius… Until we actually saw him play regularly instead of just in the highlights.
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Posted on March 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 am
I was never convinced on Davis. I never liked his game but it was obvious he was a huge step up for us. But he sure has sucked this year, most people in my section groan when he throws up a shot – not to mention how lazy he is with the ball.
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Posted on March 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 am
I never thought of Davis as a great player and the mention of him anywhere near the superstar catagory was ridiculous… But I must say, after watching him for a whole season, I’ve grown to hate him… If I were the Clippers, I would gladly tear up his contract and let him become a free agent again. I’d do the same with Randolf… As much as I thought Kaman would eventually find his footing and become a real player, I’d do the same with him.
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Posted on March 23rd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Crap, my Jazz are doomed.
Carlos Boozer may be even worse than Randolph on the defensive end, AND when you compound that with having Okur as your starting center…
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Sam Mays Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Yes, but they have Sloan to coach and Williams as their PG… A great PG can make the game a lot easier. Maybe someday we’ll have one.
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Posted on March 23rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
[...] ClipperBlog.com » Toronto 100, Clippers 76 – [...]
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Posted on April 20th, 2009 at 2:57 am
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