LA Clippers Mailbag Question #2
Why have the Clippers settled for hero ball in clutch minutes? Repeatedly only to lose those games!
As little fun as it is to hear, this feels like an issue that is by design at the moment for the LA Clippers. Ty Lue and those around him have said that he likes to run his offense for the first 3.5 quarters or so of the game, then let the stars handle things at the end of the game.
I know that it’s an easy thing to jump on as a bad idea, and it hasn’t led to the most success in the clutch so far this season, but think of what we’re seeing right now as practice reps. In the playoffs, teams are going to have a lot of opportunity to gameplan against Lue’s system.
If it’s clutch minutes in Game 7 of the Conference Finals, say, that means that the team we’re facing has two rounds of playoff tape and 6 head to head matchups to go off of. At that point, the LA Clippers probably don’t have a play to run that the defense isn’t somewhat familiar with.
In that scenario, it’s likely going to come down to an iso situation with Kawhi Leonard or Paul George handling the ball, and the more reps they have playing “hero ball,” the better the chances of that turning out for them.
To add some numbers to it, in 2018-19, Kawhi Leonard had the sixth most field goal attempts in isolation in the regular season, and his effective field goal percentage was only around 48%. But that built comfort and familiarity being the iso guy when he needed to be, and Philadelphia went home because of it.
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Let’s get a quick hitter from Its Clippers Time on Twitter:
LA Clippers Mailbag Question #3
What do you think of Cedi Osman?
Cedi is a guy that I wouldn’t hate on the LA Clippers. The numbers don’t look great for him with Cleveland, but I don’t think his shooting is as bad as he’s shown this year.
Do I like Cedi as a 25 minutes a game guy on a team like the Cavaliers? No. But I’m intrigued about his potential as a 10-15 minutes a game guy coming off the bench for the LA Clippers. If he could get back to the 38% mark from deep that he showed last year, that’s tempting.
Another wing who could hit open shots and grab a few rebounds, while giving Kawhi or PG a break would be great, and I see his role being a regular season minutes eater. In the playoffs, maybe we wouldn’t see much of Osman at all, but he could take a few minutes a game off of the bodies of our stars.
The difficulty is, of course, his contract. He’s making $8.8 Million, which is a really tricky number for the LA Clippers to match. The problem is that so many of our guys are on friendly contracts, so if we reach $9 Million in matching salaries we’re probably giving up more than Cedi is worth.
How do you feel about Lou and Oturu? Cleveland probably doesn’t like that, since Lou likely wouldn’t play a second for them. Reggie, Fi and Luke? That’s a lot to give up. So I like the idea of Cedi on the LA Clippers, but I’m not sure it’s realistic to get him.
Let’s hit our last question, from MeccaG on Twitter: