Jared Cunningham Looks Legit, Makes Opening Night Roster

Preseason or not the kid looks legit. Poised, plays his ass off and outside of Griffin has been the most consistent player since the moment he started getting minutes.

He reminds me of young Wade or Maggette in the way that he attacks the rim with ZERO fear and just makes things happen in that regard.

Love his fire, love his effort, love his toughness. I'm almost sure he will be a rotation player for us this year.

This preseason was atrocious. 6 blowout losses, 2 close wins. The lone bright spot outside of Blake has been this kid who just may have a big impact on the coming season.

Oh and he got the final roster spot, it's already been decided. Doc just hasn't announced it yet.

I just want to say I've always been on the Jared Cunningham bandwagon since the day he started playing for Oregon State.

Also, I'm just going to leave this here:

And this:

And this:

I just hope he's a quick learner because he's still VERY green, but I love his attitude. Loads of heart and energy, not afraid to 'D' up aggressively even if his inexperience might end up embarrassing him...

Those traits kind of remind me of rookie Bledsoe.

How tall is he again? Can he take farmar's spot?

He's 6'4" 205 or something like that.

I'm trying my hardest to not make a comparison to a really raw version of Russell Westbrook.

But the kid is extremely explosive and quick and can get to the hole at will. He's also very dumb and selfish hence the raw Westbrook comparison.

Obviously he's not going to be even close to the player Russell is, but if he can be a poor mans version of him, sign me up.

He looks hungry. I've been dying for us to get a player like that added to our roster. Farmar is mediocre to me. I'd rather Cunningham back up Paul

I don't know about Cunningham. He seems to turn the ball over a lot and then there's this:

I don't know about Cunningham. He seems to turn the ball over a lot and then there's this:

Link

I agree, that was a pretty bad moment. Still, it's not like Cunningham is the first victim of Bledsoe's moves and athleticism.

Bledsoe can break a lot of ankles but JC was really trying. He has long arms which few of our guys do. I wish he were 6'6". He'll contribute by year's end. Paul won't let him be a Westbrook ball hog.

I agree he's inexperienced. But given a little more time along with his athletisism, he'll really come in handy when going up against other explosive gaurds such as: D. Rose, Westbrook, Lillard, etc...

Definitely not saying he'll keep them scoreless, but he has the size, speed and intensity to match those gaurds defensively and irritate them. No other guard on our team has those traits, CP3 has the intensity, but lacks size and the speed needed to keep up with players I mentioned.

Make no mistake about it by midseason (or sooner) Cunningham will have farmars job. Farmar was never a good player, but slightly above average, now he looks like crap. Not to mention old and slow.

I'd run Jared at pg but let Crawford bring the ball up court.

He's worth holding onto if only to give CP3 a few minutes break from defending the opponents' best guard. I'm also feeling the 3-guard lineup with CP3, Crawford and Jared for some stretches. Not a lot of size, but you've got ball-handling, shooting, slashing and drawing fouls for an early bonus, plus a pair of defensive pests on the perimeter.

The kid's already got the dribble penetration part down... if he learns how to throw a decent lob, Blake and DJ will be buying him dinner all year long!

I'm already way higher on Cunningham than I've ever been on Bullock.

How tall is he again? Can he take farmar's spot?

Yamon, Farmar plays like he's from a farm league. Give me Cunningham.

Much better as a secondary ball handler than primary. So he could work in a lineup with Jamal, though that might mean Jamal doing too much ball handling which gets him taking a few more poor shots than he should.

I've said since day 1 that his high level skill is getting to the basket and getting to the line, and his other attribute is athletic ability and the ability to defend, but he's not a PG. Weak vision and playmaking ability, a bit sloppy with advanced ball handling and not great ball protection, so everything else is mainly a work in progress. Would be great if he was between 6'6 and 6'7 in height with some long arms.

He was the 24th pick not too long ago himself. He's won me over through the games.

Early he just looked turnover prone, and he still is, but I can envision a role where he isn't asked to be the PG which will work. He's currently the next best defender at PG/SG outside of Paul.

He can carve himself a niche as a defensive / spot up 3PT shooting / slasher SG/PG.

I was actually thinking about this a lot.. I love his defensive intensity. He is also very athletic. If JJ goes down at any time I can see him stepping in at the starting spot.. He's not the shooter JJ is but he's a lot better defensively.. plus I like his athleticism. Does kind of remind me of a westbrook... but he doesn't have that long delayed jump as high as you can't and hover then shoot the ball jump shot.

Joe Ingles was waived. Cunningham made the team.

Joe Ingles was waived. Cunningham made the team.

is this confirmed?

is this confirmed?

Dan Woike announced it on his twitter.

He is going to have problems with turnovers, but so far like many of you I like what I saw. His best attributes are his propensity to make a play by attacking the hoop (makes the team more balanced since so many guys like to shoot 3's), and on defense he uses his long arms and quickness well to stay in front of his man. He can be learn to cough it up less to compliment the rare athleticism and length as a combo guard. Definitely reminds me of a thinner Russell Westbrook/taller Eric Bledsoe like some of you guys mentioned.

Remember, he will learn ball handling from CP3. Can he play SF if we plat small?

I'm glad we kept Cunningham. I liked Ingles too, hopefully we can keep him in the mix and trade somebody like Bullock away then sign Ingles.

That said, Cunningham has Westbrook size and some great intangibles that I think we are missing from the point guard and shooting guard spots. However, he's not nearly as athletic or explosive as Westbrook. Westbrook might be the most athletic in the league.

I hope we send Ingles to our D-League team, I really think he has potential, just has to adapt to the NBA game. I agree with Benny I don't think Reggie is going to pan out, and the Clips shouldn't totally forget about Joe

I agree with cliffpaul and Benny, Reggie is a cool dude but it just seems like he'll never really get how to play in the nba. Is this possible to trade bullock and sign joe? Because you can tell Ingles can ball he has great floor vision, he just needs to get used to nba ball which I don't think will be hard playing alongside Blake and Chris

I don't see Joe having anything resembling the sort of athleticism this team in particular needs from their sf on defense. He's way too slow and in many ways he's exactly like Turk. I wish him the best, and I'm sure he'll return to Europe where he'll make a few times more then an NBA minimum contract.

That's true too. He is a lot like hedo.

Jared made a spot for himself, and like Cleepers said he reminds of young Bledsoe. He has the athleticism and effort to be a good defender. I don't mind him getting faked out of his shoes every once in a while as long as there are more good defensive plays than that. I think he might be the missing defensive guard that we have been needing and can fill a nice role.

If we didn't have Hedo, Baby, or Udoh then I could see Ingles making the team, and though he looks like a good prospect he isn't what we where missing. An athletic perimeter defender is what we were missing. As much as I like CDR he hasn't shown any glimpses of being able to be that, and Cunningham has; Ingles wasn't even close to that, he looks like a young Hedo (and old Hedo isn't even playing half bad).

Guess I was wrong about Jared's chances of making the team. See there is a chance, lol.

Good luck to him and hope he play's well when given the time.

The best way to develop this kid is to continue to force him into big minutes. He's such a worker and his defense alone makes him unlike anyone else on our team. We want a younger Tony Allen? Let Doc+CP3 mentor him while he masters our system and gets used to teammates. He has such quickness/athleticism and toughness that he should be very malleable.

Worst thing Doc can do now is barely play the kid this year. Throw him in often and let him play through his mistakes some. Can't teach the things he gives. I'd honestly not be shocked if he stole starting SG spot purely for his D if he can shoot the 3 consistently and keep getting less raw.

Coaches should pound 3 point shooting into him. Because 3+D would be amazing to have. Then can move Redick or Crawford for a legit 3 if need be.

Would have liked to keep Ingles. Couldn't they have just sent him to the D-league? I think he's quite good, even if a less than ideal fit. Worth a longer look imo. As for Cunningham... it's going to be a love-hate relationship with him, I can tell you that right now.

I doubt if Ingles would want to play in the D-League for $20,000 a year versus going overseas for a few million...

As good as Cunningham is, he doesn't bring the constant movement or consistent three point shooting that Redick does right now.

I think Redick stays as starting SG, but as you were saying, he does have some potential to be a younger Tony Allen. Tony Allen's only 6'4" himself, and that hasn't stopped him from playing SF, although that's probably more because he has a 6'9" wingspan (whereas Cunningham has a 6'6.5" wingspan.

Hope Doc plays him tons of minutes though. That's the only way we'll know what he can (and can't) be.

I'm a little confused. A lot of users here are talking about cunningham like he's going to be an integral part of this team. He was the LAST spot filled. he's not even in the top 10 on our depth chart... why are people acting like he is going to be a difference maker? Dude will probably barely see the court and people are talking about him guarding Westbrook and other starters. I love the enthusiasm and positivity (i don't think JQuick has been on this thread yet) but i think we may be building him up a bit

I'm a little confused. A lot of users here are talking about cunningham like he's going to be an integral part of this team. He was the LAST spot filled. he's not even in the top 10 on our depth chart... why are people acting like he is going to be a difference maker? Dude will probably barely see the court and people are talking about him guarding Westbrook and other starters. I love the enthusiasm and positivity (i don't think JQuick has been on this thread yet) but i think we may be building him up a bit

I see your point but with our lack of, well... anything good at SF, I can see us running a 3-guard lineup fairly often with Jamal running at the 3-spot. If Farmar continues to play his no-defense chucker game... well, we already have somebody much more successful at doing that in Jamal.

With how pitiful our defense has been in pre-season, I could see the kid getting some burn just for his intensity.

i just don't think we should build him up to be amazing or even a rotation player before he does anything. Most likely he's going to go in and make mistakes and in a few weeks everyones going to be torn on him and half the board is going to be wishing we kept Ingles.

I was all for Jingles, and no doubt he would have frustrated me too, but with only one spot, only one backup PG and Farmar playing like trash, I think Doc made the right call. Not that Cunningham should be running point in the strictest sense, but he and Jamal between them could handle "guard" duties if need be.

If Farmar goes back to being a passable NBA guard, obviously he gets the minutes, but if he keeps chucking with alarming regularity, at a disturbing success rate and with utter disregard that there are four other guys around him wearing jerseys with the same name on their chests... well then I'd rather see somebody in his spot who at least tries on defense.

Besides, it feels good to root for an energetic young kid with potential... almost like the old days.

C'mon, man... don't be the JQuick at the picnic

I was at the game saturday and the second unit was not doing much,they gave the ball to hedu.. that is it..

then cunningham came in and started attacking the rim..

there was a point where he was called for an offensive foul... ( did not think so)

he took over the game...

his hustle and offense was very refreshing on the second unit..

he definitely has a spot on the second unit..

with practice and time...he could even spend some time with the starters..

he has potential..

more than the other 2 rookies..

and with practicing with paul ..he will only get better..

now we only need a robounding beast...

Would have liked to have gotten a better look at Ingles but I think we made the right choice.Cunningham is raw but I think can be molded into a really good defensive guard.Also with CP3 and Farmar's injury history I think we needed another guard who can play the 1.

Sad to see the aussie go but jared did well in the minutes given.

mentioned when we signed him that thought it would be good to have a defensive pg to wear down the opposing pg while Paul was sitting.... after reading the above posts, reminds me a bit of when Keyon Dooling, before his injury, came on board and flat out lit chit up in the fourth quarter as our reserve pg.... super fun to watch and could Dooling take it to the hole.... the more Lob City the better !!

Jared I understand your point. Great thing about high motor+defense is it doesn't disappear usually. Offense comes and goes. But a player who is all hustle/defense doesn't really have bad games typically. So while nobody should expect Cunningham to score at will like he's been lately, I doubt he will suddenly drop off on his toughness, heart, hustle, defense.

Those are the intangibles I saw in Bledsoe well before most Clippers fans that told me he would be a good player. I don't care how Cunningham is on Offense if he's drawing fouls, playing D and adding that athleticism dimension we lack on the wing.

I'd be happy with 5 ppg as a backup guard as long as he keeps improving on D and learning the system. As I said... A young, lesser Tony Allen would be just fine with me.

Last I checked the Utah Jazz weren't a D-League team.

I don't know if anybody might agree with me but J Cunningham reminds sort of Avery Bradley from Boston. Doc loved his defense just like how Cunningham has and remember doc doesn't really play rookies but he gave Bradley a lot of opportunities and he shined I hope Cunningham can become at least Avery Bradley type of defender.

Last I checked the Utah Jazz weren't in Europe...

Bradley doesn't have Jared's slashing ablity and Jared is not as good a defender. Not sure I see it, but it it reasonable.

Cunningham obviously unless he makes a little more strides in his ball protection and really outplays Farmar will be a spot minute guy to start. He's the 3rd PG and SG.

College Junior:

5.5 fta / 2.7 apg / 2.8 tpg / 45% FG / 33.8% 3PT

D-League 13-14:

6.7 fta / 5.0 apg / 3.8 tpg / 39.4 FG / 33.0% 3PT

Pre-season:

5.2 fta / 1.0 apg / 2.0 tpg / 37.5% FG / 42.9% 3PT

Still working on the ball security / ball protection aspect for anyone to start trusting him as a PG or primary ball handler. The ability to get to the FT line though is nice, but his low NBA (his other random 106 minutes he shot 34% FG) and D-League FG% probably suggests some issues finishing at the basket, maybe due to strength. If he can settle into a defensive / slashing combo guard role and reduce his turnovers he gives himself a better chance of sticking.

http://www.nba.com/jazz/news/jazz-claim-hamilton-and-ingles-waivers

Jazz did pick up Ingles

Last I checked the Utah Jazz weren't in Europe...

Another person who either didn't read the posts above or didn't understand the context of my original post lol