Clips Nation and Clipperblog are exchanging a series of thoughts about the Clippers in a cyber-dialogue. Clipperblog lobbed the first volley here. Steve Perrin’s rejoinder can be found at Clips Nation here. Below is the third installment:
To: Steve Perrin
From: Kevin Arnovitz
Date: June 7, 2009
Let’s talk “glue guy.” Normally, I try to avoid abstractions when it comes to hoops, and “glue guy,” like its brethren “energy guy,” is one of those formulations that’s hard to quantify…but quantifying abstractions is what we do here, so let’s take a stab.
The NBA game has changed a lot in the past few years. Ball movement, motion, and perimeter play — these are the things good teams employ to win basketball games. A lot of smart people ascribe this to a revision of hand-checking rules a a few years back. Whatever the case, skills like passing, knowing how to fill space, and ballhandling have become vital at every position on the court. The Lakers and Magic exemplify this. Guys like Gasol, Turkoglu, Odom, Lewis, Walton — and to a slightly lesser but still decent extent Ariza, Lee, and Pietrus — personify the versatility that can beat you any number of ways from multiple places on the floor (Bryant, obviously, belongs in a category of his own, but let’s not digress). And that’s just on the offensive end. Put any of these guys on the Clippers and they’d immediately become a defensive cog.
The Clippers, on the other hand, rely almost entirely on one-on-one players — prime examples include Thornton, Randolph, and Kaman. Even though I prefer Eric Gordon to Courtney Lee over the long haul, EJ could learn a lot from watching Lee move around the floor this postseason. Lee has the advantage of playing in a phenomenal system that maximizes each player’s individual skills. By resorting to one-on-one play, the Clippers encourage bad offensive habits, which is how you end up 30th in offensive efficiency even though there are supposedly nice offensive pieces at each position. Having guys who can jump out of the gym is nice. Having guys who know their way around the gym is better.
Ideal glue guys at the small forward? The list would include Turkoglu, Battier, Odom (still think he’s a wing), Prince, Batum, Kirilenko, Ariza, and even Walton. These are guys who can perform offensive tasks beyond scoring, and also defend. It might be counter-intuitive to say a team that has trouble putting points on the board should worry less about raw scoring, but in the Clippers’ case it’s true. At the risk of peddling basketball Tao, the Clippers can score more next season by focusing less on scoring.
11 Responses
With the amount of scorers the Clippers have, why could’t Mardy Collins be that guy. He’s not really quick and and can’t shoot that well, but he seems to play tough, fundamental defense similar to Mobley (who wasn’t quick) and he’s taller than Mobley. Mobley did good defensive work on top scorers such as Kobe and Dirk. Collins played great D against Pierce.
Collins has a fairly good handle and seems to make good decisions withe ball when he played point. He also can take it into the lane and make shots. Maybe his outside shot can improve with time. This would allow the Clips to run the ball through more of their top scorers and bring Thornton off the bench to light score and defend against weaker opponents.
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Posted on June 7th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
One guy not mentioned in the article who deserves indictment for our lack of offensive efficiency is one Mike Dunleavy. The man was awful as a coach last year. There is no two ways about it. And that’s not a determination made based solely on the record with which he finished. How many games did we collectively slap our foreheads at the moves he made, or didnt make. Our execution appeared to have absolutely no rhyme or reason to it. I remember in the now infamous blown loss to Cleveland, we were nursing a lead with just minutes to go, and he’s got Kaman and Randolph in with Camby on the bench. Only once we lose the lead does he then sub in Camby. I was incredulous. This is not hyperbole. His ineptitude last year was of historic proportions. It was like the antithesis of a legendary season or playoff run from Jordan’s Bulls or Larry’s Celtics. It was historic, but in a historically bad way. I am already kicking myself for accepting Dunleavy as the coach this year without putting up more of a fight, but if an acceptable level of success or improvement is not evident this year, the Clippers will seriously risk rebellion among their fans if Dunleavy again returns.
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Andy Reply:
June 8th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I was at that game and was shouting with 3 minutes left to get Camby back in…Kaman was horrible and had no business playing the ~30 minutes that he did.
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Posted on June 7th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Isn’t Ricky D the “glue” guy? Oh wait, my bad. You didn’t mean the guy sniffing glue, did you?
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Posted on June 8th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Something has been eating at me for a long time. Gnawing at my guy like a termite inside a 2×4. The question that has puzzeled scholars throughout the course of time.
“WHY WOULD ANYONE BE A CLIPPER FAN?”
Don’t roll your eyes and act like you don’t understand the question. I know for certain that you’ve all asked yourselves this question either silently or aloud…or both. I know I have and never more than the past season. I honestly can’t explain it in a word, so lets take a quick second to break it down once and for all.
LOCATION. Lets face it there isn’t a lack of other teams in the general vicinity to root for ie. LAKERS, WARRIORS, KINGS and even BLAZERS and SUNS. If we agree that to be a Clipper fan you must first and foremost begin as a Laker-hater, this still leaves plenty of solid teams and great players and organizations to root for.
HISTORY. This is easy. The Clippers have none. Zero. Wait, I take that back. They do have history…as the undisputed WORST organization in sports history. Not just modern or basketball history, in the entire annuls of recorded competition they are unanimously regarded as the bottom of the barrel.
OWNERSHIP. Donald Sterling. Need I say more? This cat makes Marge Schott look like Mother Tereasa. He’s reputed to be a womanizer, slum landlord with seemingly open racial bias for anyone who isn’t rich, white and pees standing up.
COACH. Though Mike Dunleavy began his tenure with the Clippers as a fairly decent and somewhat respected leader, he’s completely dropped the ball while he’s been head man for the red, white and blue. Attend any game at Staples and it’s more likely the shouts of, “FIRE MIKE!” will easily drown out any cheering for the team.
PLAYERS. Since most every decent player the Clippers ever stumbled across has opening expressed their desire to leave as soon as possible it’s hard to really warm up to any of them. The few we’ve that we actually thought wanted to be here stabbed us in the back (Elton Brand) the first real chance they got.
Summing up, we the CLIPPER NATION, find ourselves spending our hard earned money and living and dying for a team with absolutely NO redeeming value. Therefore, I can only come to one logical conclusion, one painfully obvious and indisputable reason that anyone would become a Clipper fan…WE’RE ALL FUCKING INSANE!
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Andy Reply:
June 8th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
WE’RE ALL FUCKING INSANE does have a nicer ring to it than PLAY LOUD…
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yep Reply:
June 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am
but isn’t it extremely satisfying when they play well?
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Posted on June 8th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
My grammar stinks but you get the idea.
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Posted on June 8th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Trading Z-Bo is always gonna be concern #1, but Kaman to the Bobcats for Gerald Wallace should be the move. He’s a glue guy who also’ll benefit from an uptempo style that the Clips SHOULD be running with Baron, Gordon, & Griffin. Thornton comes off the bench.
And, then Dunleavy falls back to just play the GM role & the Clips hire Mark Jackson to coach.
But, then again, that’s just optimism talking.
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John Reply:
June 9th, 2009 at 10:34 am
although I posted yesterday sticking up for Chris I’m also a big fan of Gerald Wallace…have him on your fantasy team once or twice and you’ll be a fan for life…I would love to see this prospective trade happen.
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bongstradamus Reply:
June 9th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Wallace is kind of a catch-22 with his multiple head injuries. I tend to like Wallace for how physical he is, but you dont want to have him continually be doing that given his history. Hes not known for his shot, the guy shoots 29% from the arc, so really you are getting him to be a physical 3.
Basically, hes a risk. Hes already been told by doctors to chill out lest he causes more serious damage. I would be hesitant about that as a GM and would be less likely to trade for him.
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Posted on June 8th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
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