NBA: Clippers in bad luck: Can we save the season?

Patrick Beverley’s season out is a (other) bitter setback for the clippers. The positive mood at the start of the season is over, and Milos Teodosic’s return is also not in sight. Is the season still to be saved – or does the franchise come from L. A.? the rip cord?

It could have been such a good plan.

After Chris Paul left for Houston, the Clippers managed to turn the momentary paralysis into optimism. In addition to Blake Griffin’s contract extension, this had a lot to do with the newly formed Backcourt: noble rookie Milos Teodosic and Patrick Beverley were to start together and quickly forget CP3. As I said, a good plan – and the pre-season already showed that they complemented each other perfectly. So the season could come.

One and a half games later it was over with the idea of Coach Doc Rivers. Teo injured himself at the heel, his plantar fasciitis caused so much trouble that he could no longer walk without a walking boat. This hasn’t changed at all, a comeback of the Serbian can’t be foreseen.

Since then, Beverley – originally planned as a shooting guard – took over large parts of the playmaking. And it worked: The clips started with 4-0, the 29-year-old played almost never before in his career. With him on the field, they defeated their opponents with 4.5 points per 100 Possessions, without him they lost 6.2. The role played by Rivers was correspondingly large.

But even Beverley did not prevent the clips from crashing into a hole – now also slowed down by the injury of Danilo Gallinaris. Nine games in a row were lost, this never happened with Paul or in the era of Rivers. Within a few weeks, L. A. fell. from the place in the sun to the tabular insignificance of the West. After all, the Hawks recently suffered a minor liberation blow.

However, the news about Beverley’s season was clouded over by the news “We received terrible news today. That makes me all the more proud of the boys for staying focused,”said Rivers. Beverley’s meniscus had to be operated on, ESPN says he’s out for up to nine months. This means that the clips have finally run out of point guards.

Finally, Rivers found the solution to let his son Austin start on the one and to promote Lou Williams to the Starting Five as well. As a result, there are a lot of points missing from the bank, which, with people like Sam Dekker, Jawun Evans or Sindarius Thornwell, doesn’t exactly scare the opponent.

The Clippers now have to make up for the lack of playmaking by changing their system. The times with a (moderate) dominant guard like CP3 are finally over, the ball should run fast and isolations should be avoided. Griffin’s playmaker skills are extremely valuable in this respect – against the Hawks he created a triple double with 10 assists and played even more often than usual from the key. All in all, L. A. got 30 submissions (Season-High), which pleased the coach:”We talked about it: Without Point Guard you have to move the ball. That’s exactly what we did.”

But it was just a victory against the Hawks, who are the worst team in the league after the Bulls. In the hard west, these matchups won’t be around very often and the clippers have to decide where they want to go this season – considering the latest developments.

In principle, there are two possibilities. Option number one: You keep trying to get as many victories out of the Griffin/DeAndre Jordan duo as possible and keep up the playoff-streak of seven consecutive participations.

This is what Doc Rivers and his winning mentality speak for themselves: he has never given away individual games, let alone an entire season, in order to implement plans for the future. The fact that there are competitors with grizzlies (Conley), nuggets (Millsap) or jazz (Gobert) who have similar injury problems also speaks for the department Attack and Win-now.

The clou with Rivers: He was partially deprived of power in the summer. He is no longer Head Coach and President of Basketball Operations. The latter role is played by Lawrence Frank, and advisor Jerry West also has some influence. On the other hand, Rivers may be troubled at the moment, but he’s still highly regarded and is one of only six current head coaches to have won a championship.

However, it is unclear which goals owner Steve Ballmer pursues. However, his energetic and emotional behavior around the clippers games, where he regularly (in a positive way) freaks out, suggests that he is not someone who simply accepts a lot of defeats without forcing change. And that leads to option number 2: the rip cord.

Should the Front Office come to the conclusion that the season leads nowhere, bigger moves are conceivable. The 29-year-old center has a player option beyond the next summer (24 million dollars), but since players and franchise could not agree on an early renewal, it could well turn into an unrestricted free agent.

That makes him a trade candidate. Rumours have been smouldering in this regard for a long time, and even though the current abundance of strong (modern) centers in the league restricts the market for DJs, you could still get a good package for him. Even more so, when Lou Williams is (again) sent along, as he has an expiring contract.

It is difficult to predict whether Jordan’s acute playmaker problem will be solved in a possible trade or whether the course will be set for a rebuild. The fact is that the clippers want to take advantage of Griffin’s prime position in the best possible way, the goal remains a championship. However, the Power Forward is already 28, so there is no eternal time for a new beginning via draft. Especially since the Clippers first-round pick 2019 – as you might have guessed – belongs to Celtics.

In the upcoming games, Clippers will play against the Kings, Jazz, Lakers or Mavericks. Such a nice schedule is the best chance to get going again. Currently a. 50-balance sheet is sufficient for the playoffs in the west, of which the clippers are one run away (6-11). If there is no such run in the near future, nobody will be surprised about a big move.