2023-06-23 06:21:32
Before the draft, the Los Angeles Clippers broke through a three-way deal with the Wizards and Celtics, and missed the opportunity to acquire point guard Malcolm Brogdon, but they also retained the 30th pick. In addition to the 48th pick in the second round, the Clippers chose The two 23-year-old rookies, Kobe Brown and Jordan Miller, focus on mature immediate combat power, but in terms of the current situation of the team…is it too late?
Before the draft, the Los Angeles Clippers broke through a three-party deal with the Wizards and Celtics, and missed the opportunity to acquire point guard Malcolm Brogdon, but they also retained the 30th pick in the first round, plus the 48th pick in the second round. Choose two 23-year-old rookies Kobe Brown and Jordan Miller, focusing on mature combat power that doesn’t need much polishing, but in terms of the team’s current situation… is it too late?
PS: This article is not so much about this year’s rookies, but rather about the Clippers’ development of players in recent years.
In the past two years, the Clippers team has a deep bench and a low pick. The draft has focused more on talent. For example, Moussa Diabate and Brandon Boston Jr. have focused on future plasticity and talent. The same is true for Keon Johnson, who joined for a short time. The two rookies this year are just the opposite. Kobe and Jordan will both be 24 years old next season. Looking at the 2023 draft, the core themes of the Clippers revolve around keywords such as “instant combat power, range and defensive potential”.
With the 30th pick in the first round, the Clippers chose Kobe Brown from the University of Missouri. Not only is his name eye-catching, but his back number is also No. 24, so the Clippers finally have “KB24”. He is a 6-8 height with a 7-1 wingspan and a weight of 250 pounds. He can also serve as a No. 3-5 all-around forward. He has a diverse offensive skill set and can make good use of his size to create dislocation advantages. He can also play off the ball. He was last in college. The greatly improved outside ability in one year has improved the three-point line from about 24% to 45.3%, which has driven the draft market.
The disadvantage is that the shooting mechanism has been questioned. Is it a stable fixed-point shooter in the NBA? Still need to observe and confirm. In addition, facing faster defenders, the defensive end will appear to be difficult.
As for the 48th pick, it is Jordan Miller, a swingman shooter from the University of Miami. His name includes two Hall of Fame stars at once. He has above-average physical fitness and golf quotient. He has a height of 6-7 and a wingspan of 7 feet. He lacks the ability to handle singles , is a team-type shooter with a low standard limit. As long as the defensive awareness can keep up with the NBA-level offensive and defensive rhythm, and show stable outside shooting, there is a good chance to win a place.
After the draft, general manager Lawrence Frank naturally touted a wave of the two. When it comes to Kobe Brown, the Clippers think he is a strong, experienced power forward with such a body but very flexible, and mentions that Kobe has a high basketball IQ and can create some beautiful passes. Jordan Miller has been described as a tough front line defender, a crafty scorer, a sharp edge, a connector, and a glue player who can do what the team needs.
The ideal development path template for the two is Terance Mann, who also joined the Clippers as a second-round rookie at the age of 23. He has been a blockbuster since the beginning of the summer league. The former coach Doc Rivers, who does not like to use rookies, has allocated a lot of playing time. , allowing him to squeeze out first-round pick Mfiondu Kabengele on the same ladder. In the second year, he gradually became a core rotation, with an average playing time of 18.9 minutes, and broke through more than 20 minutes in the past two seasons. He is the forward tool that the Clippers rely on.
Can Kobe and Jordan go so smoothly? Sadly, Mann was probably the Clippers’ only success story in years. Jerome Robinson in the lottery, Kabengele at the end of the first round, and Daniel Oturu in the early part of the second round all failed. Except for Mann, the last time the Clippers had a rookie with a stable playing time and played for at least 2 seasons, it has been traced back to the No. 1 pick Blake Griffin in 2009, or DeAndre Jordan and Eric Gordon the year before.
Even if the timeline is pulled back to recent years, Amir Coffey, who was finally dug out from the Development League, has recently been reduced to a trade package. Last season, the Clippers had such a lack of strikers that neither he nor Boston, who was king in the G League, were able to get stuck. In the NBA, not to mention Moussa Diabaté and Jason Preston who are waiting to be honed, they almost disappeared from the NBA stage in the second half of the season, focusing on the development league.
In view of the pressure of the Clippers to win immediately and the degradation of many veteran strikers, the Clippers will indeed have opportunities for Kobe and Jordan to perform at the 4th position. The Clippers have a little more vitality on the front line, and initially aimed at pure 3D players. The problem is that the two existing skill levels may not be able to transfer to the NBA painlessly. Secondly, Boston and Coffey (if not traded) are still at the top. Coupled with the competition of veterans and the crowded backcourt, Kobe and Jordan want It may be extremely difficult to succeed in the first year. Counting the four players Boston and Coffey, as long as one of them can play 10 minutes steadily, it will be a bumper harvest for the season.
The real test of the Clippers is the rookie development plan. Can a mechanism be created to allow young players who have performed well in the development league and garbage time to gradually replace the veterans on the team within 1-2 seasons, and then play the rookie bonus? Advantage? It may be unrealistic to expect Kobe and Jordan to become the core starters. If a fixed rotation is used, it is a goal that can be worked hard. As long as one of them is a successful case, it can continue the Paul George and Kawhi Leonard era.
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