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Where to now for the Clippers?

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Roar Rookie
29th September, 2020
5

Doc Rivers is the first casualty of the Clippers’ latest playoff collapse, presiding over a period where they established themselves as a winning franchise that couldn’t put it together come playoff time.

Game 7 of the Denver series highlighted glaring issues that the next coach will need to address if they wish to achieve their championship ambitions.

It’s a make or miss league
Painfully obvious, nonetheless true. Despite all their flaws, the Clippers had plenty of chances to win Game 7.

Whether it was Jamychal Green missing an uncontested dunk, Lou Williams missing an open layup, or Paul George hitting the backboard on an open three-pointer, the Clippers missed everything during crunch time.

Teams can get away with poor shooting nights if they play good defence and get to the free-throw line but the LA side did neither and there’s only so much blame you can heap on Doc for that.

Too many chefs
Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Lou Williams and Marcus Morris shot a combined 14/55 from the field. These are players with high usage rates who aren’t known for their passing. At some point there are too many chefs in the kitchen and the Clippers didn’t have a true point guard to make sure the ball was moving.

The Clippers must decide whether they keep Montrezl Harrel and Williams. On the one hand, they keep the team competitive during the regular season on nights where Kawhi or PG13 are load managing. On the other hand, they are liabilities in defence and are limited offensively when the ball is in Kawhi or PG13’s hands.

Kawhi Leonard fends off Jae Crowder

Kawhi Leonard (Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

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Poor chemistry
“We are not a great team… We are a team that still needs to figure out to win night in and night out,” Harrel said during a blunt postgame interview back in January after being blown out by the Grizzlies on their home court.

He could’ve given an identical interview after Game 7.

The Clippers struggled to find consistency during the season, which shouldn’t be surprising given the flux in their starting lineup relative to other teams making the conference semi-finals.

To win an NBA championship you need to play consistently well for four consecutive playoffs series, and the Clippers struggled to play consistently well for four consecutive quarters during the Nuggets series.

Dating back to the ‘Lob City’ era, the Clippers under Rivers were too reliant on their talent to win games, which you can get away with when playing Charlotte on a back-to-back during the regular season, but not over a seven-game series when the talent gap starts to narrow and savvy coaches can scheme against you.

Where to now?
The next coach is in an unenviable position, inheriting a team in win-now mode that has few tradeable assets and a roster that was constructed without a clear vision of the supporting cast Kawhi and PG13 need to be successful.

The Lakers are going nowhere, so the Clippers may look to beef up their front line with a centre like Marc Gasol or even Jeramih Grant. Corey Joseph, TJ McConnell or the Aussie GOAT Matthew Dellavedova are pass-first guards who could be acquired in the offseason, but those names are unlikely to keep LeBron James up at night.

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Whoever the Clippers hire to hold the clipboard, they must be a modern NBA coach. Doc Rivers has similarities with Mark Jackson, another old-school coach who never adjusted his philosophy for a new NBA where the removal of the illegal defence rule revolutionised defensive schemes.

The Warriors were only able to take the next step after they replaced Mark Jackson with Steve Kerr, the Clippers will need to find their Steve Kerr if they want blue banners hanging in the Staples Centre.

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