West Conference Finals: (4) Clippers vs. Suns (2)

[NYRaider]

I also still can't believe how well Reggie Jackson has played for them in the postseason. I remember after he missed 2 3's at the end of, I believe game 1, of the Mavericks series, Lue got a ton of crap on here for having him in the game in clutch time. But man he has had some great games throughout the playoffs.

[TheRealMcCoy]

13 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

16 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

I knew I was over estimating you.

I read through it, Pat Beverly said they call Lue Bellicheck because of his ability to make adjustments. If they are able to come back from 0-2 again it'll be pretty damn impressive. But also kind of strange that they've allowed themselves to go down 0-2 three times in one playoffs before making the adjustments needed. 

That's all I asked lol. I know it was a lot though. Once I start the thought process on a topic/take that I'm passionate about I tend to go a little overboard, but that's kind of the purpose of this forum is for long form discussion you can't have elsewhere. 

Anyways, yeah I saw what Bev and them said about comparing him to Belichick cause of adjustments. It was in an article before game 3. Lue scoffed at it however. As he should.

I think he's arrived no matter what happens in this series and I said that already even when you were saying during game 3 he was on his way to getting swept. I had a feeling the Clippers would take game 3, because of Chris slowing down the pace. Payne going down only exacerbated the problem. I expect the Suns to respond in game 4 though. I know I just went to church over Lue, but Monty deserves all the praise as well. He's gone toe to toe with Lue and won his battles.

Anyways, the West is just a blood bath man.... it's not like our head coaches aren't pretty good in their own right too. Sucks what happened with both our teams injury wise, but will be interesting to see what we do in the offseason to reshape our teams. I'm hoping Vogel gets a better top assistant for offense now that it looks like Kidd got the Dallas job wrapped up. Phil Handy is amazing at player development, but I don't know if he's some great offensive mind (X's & O's) or not. 

[TheRealMcCoy]

26 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

Lue is basically the anti-Doc Rivers. He goes down then rallies the team, finds ways they can adjust, and then implements them so they can come back. While Doc goes up in series, makes zero adjustments, and then lets the other team exploit his teams weaknesses. 

The anti-Doc. I like that.

22 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

Will be interesting to see what adjustments Monty makes going into game 4. @TheRealMcCoy The Clippers have really been able to keep Booker from getting into a rhythm and also flustered CP3 all night as well. Was impressed by Zubac's performance tonight, he was huge on the glass and even though Ayton had a pretty good game, Zubac still made the most of his minutes as well. 

He probably wouldn't be getting these kinds of minutes if Ibaka was healthy, but yeah man. He's come a long way from the chubby Croatian 19 year old we drafted in 2016. That 2017 Vegas Summer League was fun. Someone named Donovan Mitchell was the leading scorer. I remember Dante Exum was on the Jazz team after being drafted in 2014. He was Cam Payne before Cam Payne in that way with the multiple seasons of SL experience lol. Lakers won the chip with Ball (won MVP for the league), Kuzma (won MVP for final game), Ingram, Zubac, Bryant (Thomas), Hart, Dozier, and Nwaba. Looking back they should've won with that lol. I was so pumped about the future of the young guys. Now, all I have left is Kuzma and he's likely a goner this off-season.

 Back to Zubac though.... he has definitely had his downs in these playoffs. Sometimes he's been played off the court, but he's kept his confidence in tact and stepped up big time last night. I'm really proud of him, Clarkson, and all the young Lakers. Unfortunately Randle couldn't do me proud against the Hawks lol. Maybe I'll see Zo and BI in the playoffs eventually with NO if Griff can get it together. 

[TheRealMcCoy]

4 hours ago, 11sanchez11 said:

4 hours ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

lol

You're right. Resigning PAYNE is obvi #1. Then Lowry

Somehow missed this post, but I legit was thinking during the game after Payne went down about asking you if you wanted to keep him. He's definitely earned himself a nice pay day. Hope he can come back for game 4 cause you need him. That isn't something I would have ever expected to say not too long ago. 

As far as Lowry...

[NYRaider]

3 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

Anyways, the West is just a blood bath man.... it's not like our head coaches aren't pretty good in their own right too. Sucks what happened with both our teams injury wise, but will be interesting to see what we do in the offseason to reshape our teams. I'm hoping Vogel gets a better top assistant for offense now that it looks like Kidd got the Dallas job wrapped up. Phil Handy is amazing at player development, but I don't know if he's some great offensive mind (X's & O's) or not. 

Quinn inherited a dumpster fire and has done an excellent job of developing guys but his lack of adjustments have killed us in the playoffs the last two years. Not having Bogdanovic in round 1 last year and no Conley in round 2 this year definitely played a big part in our melt downs but we have to get creative with some acquisitions since we're pretty cash strapped and only have the 30th pick. We essentially have to run it back with the same group and just try to add more defensive versatility into our rotation. 

I'm assuming Memphis will decline Justise Winslow's $13M option and he needs some career rehab. Winslow was a rookie with Miami during Wade's final year with the team so there's a connection there and I'd love to sell him on the idea of taking a 1 yr minimum deal as a guy who could earn himself a lot of money in 2022 if he can help us get over the hump. Not a great shooter but he's a versatile defender with some playmaking ability. I'd also go after Kris Dunn with the same pitch so we finally have a backup PG on the roster. Joe Ingles and Mike Conley should both be on load management throughout the season so both guys would be able to get pretty consistent minutes throughout the season. 

Using our MLE I'd go after Nic Batum, who's close to Rudy as they'll be playing for France together on the national team in the Olympics, although not sure he'll leave LA. If he's not an option then I'd put the full court press on Otto Porter Jr, a guy we were previously very interested in, to replace Georges Niang in our rotation. 

I'd also try to trade Derrick Favors + #30 to acquire Nerlens Noel via S&T but I doubt that happens. At #30 if we keep the pick I'd go after Trey Murphy III, Aaron Henry, Herb Jones, or Amar Sylla. 

[TheRealMcCoy]

2 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

Quinn inherited a dumpster fire and has done an excellent job of developing guys but his lack of adjustments have killed us in the playoffs the last two years. Not having Bogdanovic in round 1 last year and no Conley in round 2 this year definitely played a big part in our melt downs but we have to get creative with some acquisitions since we're pretty cash strapped and only have the 30th pick. We essentially have to run it back with the same group and just try to add more defensive versatility into our rotation. 

Gotcha. Yeah, I'm not gonna pretend like I've followed Snyder's tenure super close. Have always believed him to be a good coach, but I did think Lue out adjusted him in that series.

Good to hear your perspective when you aren't in troll mode/emotional.

I can't believe I saw some Jazz fans on Twitter suggest he should be gone. If he keeps doing it in the playoffs and can't get you to a Finals in the next 2 to 3 years, then it might be time to pull the plug, but obviously he's earned a good deal of leash. At the end of the day he's still not as frustrating or slow to adjust as Bud.

But, yeah that's why I kinda compared us and said I'm looking forward to what both our GMs can do, because of that lack of resources to retool. You have more possibly players to trade if you want though. We both need our point guards to re-sign whether they get S&T'd or not. Letting them leave in FA is just a bad business move with our cap situations. 

You've put in a lot of thought into this offseason already though. Kris Dunn was actually a guy I kinda wanted the Lakers to sign last offseason for the cheap, but not sure how playable he would be for us cause we need shooters in the worst way. Not defense. You're in the opposite boat with all the shooting but in need of perimeter defense, so I could see it.

[NYRaider]

5 hours ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

Gotcha. Yeah, I'm not gonna pretend like I've followed Snyder's tenure super close. Have always believed him to be a good coach, but I did think Lue out adjusted him in that series.

Good to hear your perspective when you aren't in troll mode/emotional.

I can't believe I saw some Jazz fans on Twitter suggest he should be gone. If he keeps doing it in the playoffs and can't get you to a Finals in the next 2 to 3 years, then it might be time to pull the plug, but obviously he's earned a good deal of leash. At the end of the day he's still not as frustrating or slow to adjust as Bud.

Snyder definitely is a very good coach but he has his flaws. His failures to adjust were the main reasons we collapsed with a 3-1 lead last year and a 2-0 lead this year despite unreal play from Mitchell. And Lue definitely out adjusted him in that series, they did the same thing 4 games in a row and we changed absolutely nothing. 

Rumor has it that our new owner wants to clean house in the front office and bring in his own guys. Danny Ainge and Shane Battier are supposedly going to team up in some capacity to lead the new front office with Wade having a say in things as well. 

And absolutely not, this is his probably his last chance, especially if our new owner brings in his own front office. It's either finals or bust for Quinn next year, if we come up short or collapse in the playoffs, he's gone. The new front office will bring their own guy and look to retool the roster around Mitchell quickly so we can go for it before he's due for a 3rd contract and can potentially walk.

Edited June 25, 2021 by NYRaider

[Leader]

17 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

Look to retool the roster around Mitchell quickly so we can go for it before he's due for a 3rd contract and can potentially walk.

Word on the street is he's done.....that he's gonna pull a Harden, refuse to report and hit the Strip Joints and chicken wings till it happens. Oh well. You had a good run

[NYRaider]

2 minutes ago, Leader said:

Word on the street is he's done.....that he's gonna pull a Harden, refuse to report and hit the Strip Joints and chicken wings till it happens. Oh well. You had a good run

ADad Bod and LeBald are washed.

[NYRaider]

7 hours ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

The anti-Doc. I like that.

He probably wouldn't be getting these kinds of minutes if Ibaka was healthy, but yeah man. He's come a long way from the chubby Croatian 19 year old we drafted in 2016. That 2017 Vegas Summer League was fun. Someone named Donovan Mitchell was the leading scorer. I remember Dante Exum was on the Jazz team after being drafted in 2014. He was Cam Payne before Cam Payne in that way with the multiple seasons of SL experience lol. Lakers won the chip with Ball (won MVP for the league), Kuzma (won MVP for final game), Ingram, Zubac, Bryant (Thomas), Hart, Dozier, and Nwaba. Looking back they should've won with that lol. I was so pumped about the future of the young guys. Now, all I have left is Kuzma and he's likely a goner this off-season.

 Back to Zubac though.... he has definitely had his downs in these playoffs. Sometimes he's been played off the court, but he's kept his confidence in tact and stepped up big time last night. I'm really proud of him, Clarkson, and all the young Lakers. Unfortunately Randle couldn't do me proud against the Hawks lol. Maybe I'll see Zo and BI in the playoffs eventually with NO if Griff can get it together. 

He really is the anti-Doc Rivers. Doc's teams have consistently collapsed in the playoffs after being good regular season teams and he has always had multiple All-Stars. Obviously talent wins games but one thing I do say that I respect about Lue is that as a head coach he has never lost to a team that he wasn't supposed too. The only two series he has lost in his 4 postseasons as a coach were to the Super Warriors. Lue also kind of benefited from Doc's failures last season. Coming into last year the Clippers were viewed as the favorite to win the title by most and after their collapse no one really took them that seriously this year so they kind of flew under the radar. 

The Clippers ball movement has been so much better this year and IIRC they set the record for the highest 3PM in terms of percentage in NBA history. He has done a good job of adjusting his rotations to exploit flaws in other teams rosters and his move to start Reggie Jackson, who hardly played last year in the playoffs, has been an x-factor for them. The Clippers were the one team that I really didn't want to matchup with in the playoffs because of all their size, length, shooting and versatility. 

Dante Exum, what a man, what a man. I'll never forgive ESPN or Chad Ford for saying on draft night that he was the closest thing to a young Kobe they had ever seen. I remember when we drafted him there were rumors that he didn't want to come to Utah and preferred the Lakers. So Jazz fans were worried that he'd develop into a star and then bolt for LA at his first opportunity. 

[Joe_is_the_best]

Clippers should be up 2-1 in this series, but PG choked. The Suns are looking pretty beatable right now. 

[NYRaider]

3 minutes ago, Joe_is_the_best said:

Clippers should be up 2-1 in this series, but PG choked. The Suns are looking pretty beatable right now. 

Yeah those PG FT misses are looking pretty terrible right now. But agreed, the Clippers are locking Booker down and CP3 is a known choker in big moments. The media anointed Booker the young Kobe and Ayton said their draft class was the best ever, going down hill now, lol.

[NYRaider]

Playoff Reggie is built different.

[Mox]

Every round keeps showing how good Luka is. He took these Clippers to the brink by himself when they were healthy. The Jazz were beat up but also couldn't hang even when Kawhi was out. Now Phoenix, missing the inferior star, has been outscored through 3 games and realistically should be up 2-1. It's a bummer that Dallas could realistically have been playing to be in the Finals with a little luck.

[NYRaider]

1 minute ago, Bullet Club said:

Every round keeps showing how good Luka is. He took these Clippers to the brink by himself when they were healthy. The Jazz were beat up but also couldn't hang even when Kawhi was out. Now Phoenix, missing the inferior star, has been outscored through 3 games and realistically should be up 2-1. It's a bummer that Dallas could realistically have been playing to be in the Finals with a little luck.

We would've beat the Clippers if Conley didn't miss the entire series and Don wasn't playing on one leg, lol. When Luka gets out of round 1, let us know. Luka puts up great individual stats but Mitchell scored just as well as he did while he was injured. 

Edited June 25, 2021 by NYRaider