Post by mistwell on May 2, 2019 9:49:18 GMT -8
Taking a brief look back on the 2018-2019 season, and concluding with "what could have been".
This was the most fun I've had watching the Clippers ever, since I became a fan in the 90s with the drafting of Danny Manning. It was a superb season. I loved it. I do not regret it for a moment.
Looking back, we started the season with Bradley, Harris, and Gortat in the starting lineup. Milos was still on the roster. The team started well, but started to falter not too longer after. The offensive struggles of Gortat and Bradley combining for zero points sometimes was brutal.
November 5 was SGA's first start due to Bradley's ankle injury. Which was a huge blessing for this team...no offense to Avery. SGA's confidence grew at a good pace, and he never was really benched again, though Bradley continued to get minutes.
November to December, we lost 7 of 9 at the beginning of December and people were calling for Doc's head on a platter. We recovered and won 7 of the next 10, but then in early January we had a skid of 5 losses in a row, which had us worrying about the playoffs. We recovered again, and then we hit the trade deadline.
That's when everything changed. We traded out Harris, Boban, Scott, and Bradley; we cut Milos and Gortat. We got Chandler, Shamet, Temple, Green, and Zubac.
We were 30 and 26 at the deadline. 6 in 10 in the games leading up to that deadline. We were slated to win 33 games by Vegas at that time. The media thought we'd tank. I thought we were in a "soft tank" mode. We went 18 and 8 the rest of the season, ending with 48 wins (should have been 49 with that Lakers loss).
We were not tanking. Doc said so, and it was hard to believe him, but he was serious. The whole team was serious. 28 point come back against Boston proved it, with Shamet proving we were ready to compete. By March, we went 11 and 2, and it was incredible. April was rougher of course. The lowest point of April was the loss to the South Bay Lakers. But still we finished overall great with 48 wins.
Reviewing that trade deadline:
Shamet was the most important acquisition in my opinion, long term. He shot 42% on 3s. He's a much better defender than I expected him to be. He handles the ball pretty well too (he used to be a point guard). He stretches the floor for us. He's already a competent starter. I think he's a cornerstone for us. I hope we don't trade him.
Zubac and Green were both important.
Green in particular was more surprising to me. He wants to return to the team (don't know if we can afford him). He had some nights where he'd shoot 9 of 10, hit 8 in a row. He had a 6 for 7 night too. He worked well with the team almost from day one. He just fit. I hope we retain him. Is he a $10M/yr for 3 years type guy? I don't know.
Zubac was a big upgrade over Gortat. He's not great, but he showed some solid development. He then broke two fingers, and that hurt his development a bit. He was not great in the playoffs, though part of that was matchups. He's still raw, he needs to work on his defense and hands, his communication is a bit off, but overall I think he's got huge potential, he did what we needed him to do for the most part, and I hope we sign him. I think we will. He's restricted, and I doubt he gets big offers, so I bet we keep him at a reasonable price.
Chandler and Temple are probably gone. Temple has a bit of value as a defender and had a couple of decent offensive games too, so I'd be OK with him at the vet minimum. Chandler played much better with his prior team, but for us he never really showed up. I'd like him cut.
We're set up so well for the future. It was a fantastic season. We're looking at hopefully a superb off-season as well (and we already kept most of our front office, which looked like it was going to be poached, so that's a good start already).
I do want to think about for a moment "What could have been" to have made this an even better year however.
So the question is, how many losses did we have because we overplayed Bradley and, possibly, Gortat?
If we had started SGA earlier, started Beverley earlier, and given more minutes to the Williams and Harrell duo to cut into Gortat's and Bradley's minutes more, what would our record have been to end the regular season? And also, if we had won that stupid Lakers game near the end of the year as well.
So what do you guys think? What could our record have been this past year, if we had made some tweeks earlier?
This was the most fun I've had watching the Clippers ever, since I became a fan in the 90s with the drafting of Danny Manning. It was a superb season. I loved it. I do not regret it for a moment.
Looking back, we started the season with Bradley, Harris, and Gortat in the starting lineup. Milos was still on the roster. The team started well, but started to falter not too longer after. The offensive struggles of Gortat and Bradley combining for zero points sometimes was brutal.
November 5 was SGA's first start due to Bradley's ankle injury. Which was a huge blessing for this team...no offense to Avery. SGA's confidence grew at a good pace, and he never was really benched again, though Bradley continued to get minutes.
November to December, we lost 7 of 9 at the beginning of December and people were calling for Doc's head on a platter. We recovered and won 7 of the next 10, but then in early January we had a skid of 5 losses in a row, which had us worrying about the playoffs. We recovered again, and then we hit the trade deadline.
That's when everything changed. We traded out Harris, Boban, Scott, and Bradley; we cut Milos and Gortat. We got Chandler, Shamet, Temple, Green, and Zubac.
We were 30 and 26 at the deadline. 6 in 10 in the games leading up to that deadline. We were slated to win 33 games by Vegas at that time. The media thought we'd tank. I thought we were in a "soft tank" mode. We went 18 and 8 the rest of the season, ending with 48 wins (should have been 49 with that Lakers loss).
We were not tanking. Doc said so, and it was hard to believe him, but he was serious. The whole team was serious. 28 point come back against Boston proved it, with Shamet proving we were ready to compete. By March, we went 11 and 2, and it was incredible. April was rougher of course. The lowest point of April was the loss to the South Bay Lakers. But still we finished overall great with 48 wins.
Reviewing that trade deadline:
Shamet was the most important acquisition in my opinion, long term. He shot 42% on 3s. He's a much better defender than I expected him to be. He handles the ball pretty well too (he used to be a point guard). He stretches the floor for us. He's already a competent starter. I think he's a cornerstone for us. I hope we don't trade him.
Zubac and Green were both important.
Green in particular was more surprising to me. He wants to return to the team (don't know if we can afford him). He had some nights where he'd shoot 9 of 10, hit 8 in a row. He had a 6 for 7 night too. He worked well with the team almost from day one. He just fit. I hope we retain him. Is he a $10M/yr for 3 years type guy? I don't know.
Zubac was a big upgrade over Gortat. He's not great, but he showed some solid development. He then broke two fingers, and that hurt his development a bit. He was not great in the playoffs, though part of that was matchups. He's still raw, he needs to work on his defense and hands, his communication is a bit off, but overall I think he's got huge potential, he did what we needed him to do for the most part, and I hope we sign him. I think we will. He's restricted, and I doubt he gets big offers, so I bet we keep him at a reasonable price.
Chandler and Temple are probably gone. Temple has a bit of value as a defender and had a couple of decent offensive games too, so I'd be OK with him at the vet minimum. Chandler played much better with his prior team, but for us he never really showed up. I'd like him cut.
We're set up so well for the future. It was a fantastic season. We're looking at hopefully a superb off-season as well (and we already kept most of our front office, which looked like it was going to be poached, so that's a good start already).
I do want to think about for a moment "What could have been" to have made this an even better year however.
So the question is, how many losses did we have because we overplayed Bradley and, possibly, Gortat?
If we had started SGA earlier, started Beverley earlier, and given more minutes to the Williams and Harrell duo to cut into Gortat's and Bradley's minutes more, what would our record have been to end the regular season? And also, if we had won that stupid Lakers game near the end of the year as well.
So what do you guys think? What could our record have been this past year, if we had made some tweeks earlier?
