Melo's Trade Rumor Has Taken Its Toll.

You can not have a rumor like Melo, coming to play along side Paul, Jordan and Blake and then expect our big 3 to play to there max potential and motivation when it didn't happen, its almost like you thought your getting a new championship ring for christmas but you instead got a Austin Rivers.

When you give birth to a child its simply the most amazing feeling a human can feel, the joy that your child brings you is unmeasurable, you right away sacrifice and do whatever you can for that child happiness.

So when your child is playing so bad and was about to join the D league for the rest of his career, as a parent you start to panic, so what you do is you convince a new owner that your the messiah of basketball, and you pretend to know what your doing to the point that you become the PRESIDENT, GENERAL MANAGER AND COACH OF AN NBA TEAM (this still amazes me)!

Austin Rivers and Jamal Crawford for Carmelo Anthony is, and forever will be on CP3 Blake DJ minds. And the biggest blunder in Clipper history

You can draw up as many x's and o's, do a hundred player only meetings the sheer thought that this could've happen and didn't will haunt our big 3 for the rest of the season

Imagine, finally! we get the forward we always desperately needed with this generation of CP3 clips and we didn't get it cause " THE COACH SIMPLY WOULDN'T TRADE HIS SON"

That was not the reason.

We're currently losing because of lack of defense. Melo's worn out old legs wouldn't be of any help with that. Even when he was younger and faster he was a poor defender, now he's downright horrible. His length may have given us a little boost on the boards but his shortcomings on defense would have greatly reduced any benefits gained with his shooting. He may have been able to help us improve a little in a couple of areas but his overall impact would have most likely been negligible at best. He's definitely not the piece that would put us over the top.

If not Melo the team needed some type of boost or some type of addition to the team. Nothing happening over the trade deadline had to be demoralizing. I think they would've loved to have Melo on the team. Scoring wise it would've took a huge burden off CP3 and Blake's shoulders. Cause this team right now looks finished

Even if we are the best defender if we can't hit the hoop it won't matter, the score decide the game you have more score you win, JJ is unreliable now, Jamal is inconsistent CP3 doesn't want to shoot he just want to set up somebody to shoot. Blake just want to pile up an assist and now trying to be a 3 point shooter, tell me who is a consistent scorer. This team a realiable scorer, JJ is not in fact he can't score if nobody set him up.

Steve Balmer (probably) could have told Doc to trade Austin in Steve so chose. I'm sure he gave his OK to the deal and if Steve were uncomfortable I'm sure he could have not re signed Austin. While Steve B can't control what goes on on the court he controls off court things.

Technically, both of you raise some valid points. Above all, our defense is the area we need to improve on. Among the entire league the clippers give up 105.1 PPG, which places them at about 15th best in the league...right exactly where I predicted they would be. This is one area where I have for the past two years debated many members on this site to no avail. Defens is what has hampered us, but the narrative here is otherwise. In fact, the use of stats by members here has made it seem like we were always an elite or good defense, but this is one of the many reasons why I mistrust the use of stats and the conclusions made by their use.

Our offense on the other hand is still decent albeit it has declined from previous years. When it comes to offense we put up around 107.7, which places us around 7th best in the league. The more pressing issue is to fix defense, but as you noted Paul wants to set his teammates up rather than shoot, JJ's PPG and three point percentage have declined slightly, and the other players, well you mentioned the problems already. The thing that kept this team in the top three in the west some years ago was an adequate defense (we never had a good defense really), and an offense that was just amazing. Over the years we never added defense, and time has taken its toll on our current players, so we can't even out shoot teams. Again Clipfan63 has the major area of weakness identified, but you are also raising another great point...that our offense is beginning to cool down.

Exactly this. I think Melo would've gotten CP3 very happy, and CP3 gotten Melo ecstatic! Would that mean Melo would be a Tony Allen 2.0? No, as we all know Melo - even at his best - was not a defensive piece. But he'd be a hell of a lot better than what we are seeing in NY, and a helluva lot better for what many on this board are giving him credit for.

Believe me, he would be a MAJOR net gain/positive over Luc Mbah Moute.

Also moving Luc to the bench would strengthen it a bit.

Anyways... no use in talking about the coulda/shoulda/woulda.

I disagree with the OP, most of the facts are wrong and opinions based on those misrepresented facts I don't agree with. But the overall message that the Clips needed to make a move AND didn't, let the team down - I agree with.

melo is not the ideal piece for this team. However, we had an opportunity to change the roster, an opportunity to at least add another starting player to this roster. I don't know if melo would have been enough to get us past GSW or Houston, but it was worth a gamble. Provided we didn't give up more draft picks I would have been content for a Rivers and Crawford based package for melo. I think melo may have been enough to get us back into the top three in the west, so it should have been done. Obviously the current pace shows what we have just isn't enough. We look like a 5th seeded team on its way out in the first round

This team usually loses more because of defense than offense. I know the temptation to think more offensive talent would solve the previous loses, and it could help, but depends on what else you lose (eg: lose more defense), how the players fit, how the coach sets the rotations, etc. Also depends on the specific offensive talent. Look at New Orleans. People saw them add Cousins and just thought "you're adding a 27 PPG scorer to another 27+ PPG scorer, they will be better on offense". At the least people expected they would play 500 ball the rest of the season. They are 4-7 since adding Cousins and their offense is 11 pts/100 possessions WORSE with him on the court. With Cousins on the court they have been worse than Philly on offense. Will that remain? It shouldn't, but it reminds us that unless the players are ones that we see as a seamless fir, it might not turn out exactly as people think for in season trades at least not quickly. For example Pau to the Lakers looked seamless as soon as it happened based on fit. Celtics big three all looked like great fits based on how they played. So Clippers and defense. The only season they had what we can call a very good defense for the majority of the season was last season. They won so many games last season on defense. It was great to watch, they didn't just rely on out offensing the opponent, and this was with Pierce at PF. Some of the games they lost this season 14-15 they were below average, 13-14 they were above average. Those first two years with Doc they were hurt by the more volatile nature of hedge and recover defense and the fact that it is a defense most....

Never said he was the ideal piece, I just said he would make the team better. Which is exactly what you said, and I obviously agree with. Which is exactly what I have been saying since the trade buzz started.

then we are of one mind. The ideal comment wasn't directed at you, it was more of a disclaimer. If you don't preface it with that, people assume you are on board with Carmelo and everything that he is. Under normal circumstances i would never want a guy like Carmelo on my team...one way finesse players frustrate me, whatever they score they give right back. However, the clippers are in a desperate position...when you are on the brink of losing you have to throw a hail Mary...that's what Carmelo was, a last ditch effort. Now what do we do? This is frustrating.

We don't need to start Johnson, And the other rookies, but I would at least want them to get five minutes a game to begin brining some youth in this team. This season was over the minute that our big free agent acquisitions were maresse speights and Raymond Felton while our competitors got the cream of the crop.

"Hitting the hoop" means very little if you allow the opponent to do it too. Trading baskets with the opponent is not a strong winning strategy.

Agent 0 what you said about D makes so much sense. Watching BG try to hedge on a pick and roll made me crazy. It again seems that Doc is trying to make his team fit a system rather than making the system fit the team. Just like small ball. It would seem to me that if I were a player I would much rather shut my opponent down on D rather than outscore them because you crush their will. You take their best punch and laugh or to quote Monty Python you "fart in their general direction."

Doc, repeat after me, "We are anatomically challenged, we are athletically challenged." We do not have young skinny knuckle draggers who shoot threes. We have few great one on one defenders. It takes knowing when to switch and when to help and the desire to hustle.

toohipcliptoslip this was the same argument I have made time and again about our players. The prototypical NBA player has to be long with wingspans long enough to defend. Blake doesn't have that, and Chris Paul is just way too small and is reluctant to shoot. This team was put together based on a terrible concept which was simply putting two stars together and hoping it was enough. The NBA requires two things for us to be successful defense and three point shooting. We certainly don't have defense, and our only true three point threat is Redick. Our next squad needs to take these things into account, we can't repeat this same mistake and simply put together big name players and hope they pan out. The Lakers already proved that big names alone don't guarantee a championship, they naively thought Nash, Kobe, and Dwight was a lock to win the championship. Hopefully we build better from now on.

There's a reason why San Antonio and now Golden State continue to develop contenders..they find players like this and keep a great culture. There's no luck in what GSW and San Antonio have done over the years its just great scouting and smart moves.

Also, this is a very revealing article about the current state of things. The team has already given up

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/the-clippers-are-in-a-bad-place-right-now-and-have-to-get-out-of-it-quickly-174010196.html

Melo would have brought stability to this team. Chris Paul would have resigned. Chris would have been happy. Now we have to worry about Chris leaving and Blake leaving...Blake is a head case and soft on defense and how can we proceed into the playoffs with all this going on..more excuses!!!! Who should go ??? Coach or one of the highest paid players (not calling them stars or superstars). Superstars win championships! Stars shine! We have a problem starting from the top. President of Basketball Operations!!! We need a small forward and a power forward who can play defense. Now that we did not get Melo, we have to build around Chris or Blake. Which one? The one who can play defense because everybody knows that defense wins championships!!!

Chris is in and Blake gets traded!!!!!!!!!! JJ leaves, and probably little Rivers gets traded too. And we get a new coach!!!!!!!!! Doc can stay at P.O.B.O till his contract runs out.

Well I'm glad he went away from the hedge and recover. You are correct though, the small ball is the exact same problem. Doc wanted too badly to play small ball and just wanted to make his players fit into it even though he knew (and he knew) that they were not the right players for it. The whole point of small ball is to spread the floor with shooting and to have mismatches that allow you to get to the basket against slower players and create open three's or shots at the rim. Effective small ball requires you to have good shooting and then also have players who can play bigger to help keep it reasonable on the glass because you will usually give up some when it comes to rebounding. You need to have the offensive advantage in small ball for it to be effective. The Clippers are throwing out small ball lineups where they are disadvantage offensively and still have all the negatives like less size and being killed on the glass, so what's the point? In terms of the teams main core players though, the reality is that the majority of teams can't get the "ideal" players. We can't go too far where we are complaining that our stars don't check all boxes as if the alternative option is getting one of the stars that does. You can't toss away the opportunity to have players like Paul and Griffin because they don't have enough length. The determining factor in the overall team ability is what you do next. You do need to build your team taking into consideration the skills and weaknesses of your best players. You need to pair them with length. You need to pair Blake with a big that can protect the rim (DJ). That's....

as we just became the laughing stock of the nba lets all remember how much doc ruined this team and what could've been