Sentence/Ken
For example, back in 2019, the Los Angeles Clippers were idling for another year, all waiting for “that man”. Kawhi Leonard officially returns to the court in the warm-up game! In the 2021 playoffs, the Clippers entered the Western Championship for the first time in their history, but because Kawhi was injured in the second round, they finally missed the championship and were eliminated by the Suns 4-2. If…all members are healthy, will the Clippers be able to? What about winning the championship? Time cannot be reversed, but the new season after leaving the original team is an opportunity to test the hypothesis.
Important player changes
Signed: John Wall
Pick: Moussa Diabaté (two-way contract)
Significant Combat Loss: Isaiah Hartenstein (to Nick)
Returning from injury: Kawhi Leonard
The Clippers did not have many personnel changes in the off-season. They gave the only mid-level clause to John Wall, and then missed last season’s backup center Isaiah Hartenstein and let him go to the Knicks. At the same time, the team reached a contract renewal with Robert Covington and Amir Coffey, and the overall lineup Still similar to the past year, the biggest difference is that Kawhi is back.
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※The sea of front lines walking in the forefront of the times
When it comes to the style of play in the new season, Kawhi and Paul George both expressed their views on the media day, which may be used as a preliminary reference. Kawhi believes that the Clippers have a talented line of forwards, and each has the characteristics of dribbling, shooting and defending multiple positions, which is the skill set required by the modern NBA. Ability to switch to any offense with no obvious weaknesses, with a special emphasis on height, athleticism, and basketball IQ on the defensive end.
“The Sea of Frontiers” is undoubtedly the registered trademark of the Clippers in recent years. It has accumulated a large number of forward players with a height of 6-5 to 6-10. For example, former Heat coach and president Pat Riley predicted that five players with a height of 200-205 cm would be displayed. The players, regardless of position, are both offensive and defensive. In addition to the two superstars in the team, they have successively renewed their contracts with Amir Coffey and Robert Covington in the off-season. Together with the existing Nicolas Batum, Terance Mann, and Marcus Morris, there are as many as 7 forwards whose strength is above the “qualified rotation”. .
Although the skills of each player are slightly different, most of them have many elements such as perimeter, cutting, singles and defense, so that the comprehensive ability value of the five players on the speedboat court is quite high. If you have height, you can suppress offensive guards, and in the face of long people, you can use mobility to intercept passes, or quickly start double-teaming. In the current NBA offensive system that uses pick-and-roll and screening as a versatile starter, the Clippers striker Sea With the mobility and stature, it can make it “infinitely switch defense” unscrupulously without losing any advantage.
To evaluate the actual combat power of the speedboats, the data of the 2021-22 season is not worth referring to. The overall system is quite dependent on George, and there is even a disaster of poverty attack. After Kawhi’s return to the team, the best model is the 2020-21 season. Although Kawhi’s recovery is not certain, maybe his combat power will decline. However, there are two things in the optimistic expectation. We can expect the speedboat to maintain and do it. better.
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The first is the defensive efficiency value of 109.5 last season, ranking ninth in the league. Before the wave of injuries in the first half of the season, it was once in the top three. Many comeback shows were initiated by defense, whether it was attitude or actual combat power. , the Clippers will be a top defensive force in the league. After Kawhi returned to the team, the Clippers had more money to play small balls, set up a complete forward line, and avoid placing double guards who were easy to be RBI. Imagine George, who is 6-8, can play against the 2 when he returns to the 2nd position. How much pressure is caused by the defender with the ball.
The Clippers’ scoring firepower last season was completely incomparable to that of the 2020-21 season. Only the accuracy of three-point outsiders remained at 37.4%, ranking third in the league. Head coach Ty Lue emphasized the sense of space and conduction. The Clippers have always been very good at creating perimeter gaps. They also have Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard and Norman Powell with a lot of high-quality backcourt snipers. With the joining of Wall and the return of Kawhi, the shooter group has become more and more popular. Space will only increase and not decrease.
The speedboat has a very deep lineup depth and a sea of front lines that are in the trend of the times, allowing the speedboat to face a long lineup, to be able to play outside the line and maneuverability, and to face small balls. It is the biggest weapon of the speedboat.
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※ Will the ball devour the speedboat?
If you want to pick out the biggest weakness of striker Hai, it must be the center. The Clippers do not have the seniors who meet the needs of modern times. Ivica Zubac in the lineup is still a traditional center. In the past few years, Luka Dončić, who has faced the Lone Ranger, has been subjected to “military training”. . The lack of a modern center with perimeter ability and dislocation defensive ability makes the Clippers have to sacrifice their size and put up a short lineup of Morris, Batum and Covington, trying to make up for the lack of rebounding, rim protection and hand-to-hand combat with mobility. But can Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns Twin Towers, or the gold nugget Nikola Jokić stand up to the Grey Wolves?
Last season, Serge Ibaka was injured and was resold. The Clippers were lucky to pick up Isaiah Hartenstein in preseason. He is the best signing of the year. He has an excellent basketball IQ, can always make a good pass, and is full of energy to play at the top. Despite his physical limitations, Hartenstein is not the best answer for a center, but he is also a good substitute for 15 minutes. Now with Nick poaching Hartenstein, only Zubac is the only traditional center left in the Clippers’ official roster for the opening season. The depth of the team is the worst in recent years. The new season is the same for the Clippers. It must be forced to use the “small ball formation” from the beginning of the regular season. “.
“Speedboats play small balls” is a misunderstanding. This team does have endless hoarding desires for forwards, but they never intend to give up the size advantage, and the small-ball lineup with Batum at center is an accident. In the first round of the 2021 playoffs, Ibaka was injured again, and then Zubac was constantly being managed by Luka Dončić. The ace lineup that was not figured out until around Game 4 was rarely used before the playoffs. Even last season, Ty Lue was quite insistent The elders have even tried the twin towers of Zubac and Ibaka.
Personal guess, the ideal lineup of the Clippers management is not the Clippers that entered the Western Championship in 2021, but the Clippers that started the 2020-21 season, with a healthy Ibaka at that time, allowing the Clippers to have both 3+B in the center position (outside line). The combination of skills with hot pot) not only maintains the sense of offensive space that Ty Lue wants, but also has the height and defensive ability not to lag behind other teams in the penalty area. However, in the new season, in the case of insufficient seniors, the speedboats are bound to start playing small balls in advance. Will it cause physical load? And can the rebounds be filled with double stars? All need attention.
※Backfield commander John Wall reports
Compared with the lack of a long-term center, the Clippers have extravagant troubles at the point guard, but they are somewhat contradictory. The core reinforcement this summer is a mini-middle class, John Wall, who signed a buyout contract with the Rockets, has only played 40 games in the past 3 seasons. Wall maintains an excellent posture”, which is still to be slowly verified in the regular season for a long time. If fortunately, Wall’s body does not decline too seriously, what elements can it bring to the speedboat?
The Clippers tried to introduce the traditional ball-handling Rajon Rondo as early as 2021. Kawhi and George did not take the ball, and neither of them rejected playing without the ball. It was a pleasure to work with Rondo for a time, but unfortunately in the playoffs due to factors such as defense and perimeter , ended up on ice on the bench. Later, the Clippers sent Rondo in exchange for Eric Bledsoe. Director Lawrence Frank once emphasized that the Clippers did not seek traditional ball control, but divided players into “engines, finishers, and connectors”, trying to replace the ball with the versatility of the striker. The role of , now embracing Wall again, is undoubtedly adding interesting variables to the team’s play.
Ty Lue clearly stated that he will try to make Wall and Reggie Jackson compete for the starting spot in the warm-up stage. Judging from the current lineup at the beginning of the training camp, the former is still mainly practiced with the bench and serves as the commander on the bench. , able to liberate the off-ball destructive power of Kennard and Mann, coupled with the other strikers with shooting ability, as well as Zubac and Brown who can eat cakes, even if Wall does not adapt well with the starting main force, no matter how bad it is, he will be a ball player. Substitute Commander.
It can also be expected that Wall will bring a stronger cutting ability, which is an offensive element that the Clippers lacked in the past, and a skill that Rondo, who is not good at attacking, cannot provide. Players, which happened to be Wall’s strength in the past, once entered the penalty area to tear the defense, the perimeter shooter on standby in the corner will have more chances to shoot. Kennard, in particular, had a 44.9 percent 3-point accuracy last season, and the Clippers intended him to be an off-ball scoring machine. The combination with Wall will bring more firepower to the second unit.
Ideally, we would like to see Wall team up with the superstars of Kawhi and George. Not only does he need to improve his perimeter stability, how does Ty Lue distribute the ball? Will give the Clippers a very different offensive style.
How to find the best lineup for speedboats?
Although the Clippers have left most of the main force in the past two years, the situation is somewhat different. Batum and Morris are two years older and slowly entering the end of their careers. Kawhi will have the possibility of regular rest if he does not return to the team from injury, and even his physical condition can hardly be said to be able to return to 100% state. At the same time, there are also some new players to look forward to, such as Mann getting stronger and more accurate outside, Kennard becoming the league’s leading shooter, and even practicing Coffey. As they come and go, the speedboats will also face the handover of the old and the new, and the speedboats will have to find the strongest lineup once again.
Ty Lue is not a rigid coach. Instead, he schedules and changes formations very frequently, but… he has also played iron plate. In 2021, he was lucky to find the death five and made it all the way to the Western Championship. In 2022, he also lost to the small-ball lineup. , In the play-offs, the three backs of Reggie Jackson, Norman Powell and Terance Mann, who have not used a minute in the season, were reversed by 10 points in two consecutive games, all because they could not defend and attack at critical moments. Although the speedboat has a large number of troops, will Ty Lue occasionally put the cart before the horse when he schedules too intensely and frequently? Don’t forget, even in the 2021 playoffs, the Clippers’ first two rounds were thrilling, and they only started to reverse after 0-2, which is not a strong team with ease.
In addition, the management has made amazing transactions in recent years. There is an obvious gap in the center this season. There are rumors in the market that the Clippers want to strengthen. Although it has been clarified that they do not want to sell Kennard, the talents in the team are too hoarded in No. 2 and No. 3. The problem of , indeed, has not yet been solved, so that Kennard, who has a certain selling image, is constantly being discussed on the stage. Last year’s rookies Jason Preston and BJ Boston will not be able to become a real force to win the championship in the short term, and the Clippers may have trade rumors for a whole season.
Key Factor: Health.As long as you are injured, everything is empty talk. The only key to the Clippers winning the championship is health. In the past two years, the road to the championship has been completely suspended due to injuries. Even if Kawhi can be expected to have a certain degree of rest and maintenance, every time he plays, it is a risk. No matter how to protect it off the court, in the end luck. Looking at the Clippers’ nearly 10-year playoff journey, there are major injuries almost every year. No matter how complete the lineup is, as long as a key player falls, whether it is Kawhi and Paul George, or even Zubac, the season is almost doomed to collapse directly. In the window of hope, only the gaps that ants can get through. Now that he has done his best, it all depends on whether the gods can spare this team.
Conclusion: It’s a failure to not make the Western Conference championship.
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