LA Clippers: Doc Rivers is trying to unlock the beast in Boban Marjanovic

LA Clippers head coach Doc Rivers is a big believer in Boban Marjanovic, and has high hopes for his performance in 2019.

As the beginning of 2019 nears, the LA Clippers are situated in a solid fourth place in the Western Conference with a 21-15 record. Doc Rivers has done an overachieving job for the Clippers, experimenting with different lineups and finding the right adjustments to sustain this impressive record.

In recent games, Boban Marjanovic has started for the LA Clippers. Rivers believes this is the smart move moving forward, but has openly admitted it is a deter to the successful regime and bad coaching. Rivers said the following after the Clippers’ 122-111 loss to the Spurs on Saturday:

"“This is the most minutes he’s [Boban] ever played in his career, so he’s gonna keep learning. I kept him in for a while, which is probably bad coaching, but you know, he’s going to have to get used to that pace.”"

Marjanovic is playing extended minutes, at least more than he’s used to, which almost always leads to sloppiness and fatigue.

In all fairness, San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge was an extremely difficult match up for Marjanovic. Aldridge continued to do his quick mid-range pop against him all night long, and ended up scoring 38 points in 36 minutes. In the end, all of Boban’s weaknesses were exposed.

Not only was Marjanovic a burden defensively against the Spurs, but he only scored eight points offensively. Improvement will catalyze in the future games, Boban will start and in turn provide stability for the Clippers once he finds his permanent reigns.

It was a similar scene on Friday, when Marjanonvic was held to just four points. Rivers said the following of his performance:

"“Every time we threw the ball in the air, it was like the whole team converged on him. He’s gotta learn how to make that skip pass — which he can make. He’s gonna learn how to sustain minutes. It was not a well-played game, but it was a fast game for the first 24 minutes, and you could see after four minutes, Boban was done for a stretch.”"

I’m sure Clipper Nation agrees Boban will attain the title of a dominant big in time, but at what expense? Are the Clippers willing to lose a few games (which they have given up already) to pay for the Boban experiment? Rivers is set on improving Marjanovic through experience. We’ll have to set our eyes on future games and see what he can bring to the table for the Clippers as a starter.

Hopefully, one thing is for sure when the clock strikes 12 tonight: 2019 will be the year of Boban.