Anyone else Worried Doc Won't Play Rookies Enough?

For these two rookies and even 2nd year guys like Thornwell to develop they NEED reps and minutes. I can already see him playing Lou and Austin 30 mpg and these guys all racking up DNP's. Is that just irrational fear? Or do you guys worry about that too? Doc just has a history of not playing and developing young players.

If Lou, Austin and Beverley are all still on the team to start the season, that's a managements problem. Having all those guys will automatically limit the rookies minutes, moves must be made.

Austin shouldn’t be part of the team moving forward. Already reports that having Austin with Doc caused some resentment. Take his expiring with Wes and fill a hole.

86 here's the problem: there is a faction of members here that legitimately believe that Doc did indeed develop our rookies. There is also a faction that believe Doc earned his new contract. Over the years one thing has stood out about our situation...subjectivity. All of our fans can watch the same thing and interpret things in different ways. Let me give you an example Analyze Chris Paul see how many different opinions you get. For the record, I think resigning Doc was the wrong decision and resigning Austin will be too. i also don't trust him to develop our rooks. However, it's a mute point now. The clippers have resigned Doc and will resign Austin and the rookies will get what Doc determines they get....even if the rookies get shelved i will make this prediction: there will be a contingent that will rationalize the rookies sitting on the bench

Jerry West Ok. his extension so as the saying goes, in West we trust lol

I haven't given up on the this being Austin's last season here. He opted in his last season without being offered an extension. That looks promising on the surface. At least he wasn't automatically given another golden goose. We drafted 2 guards that look very promising which means the Clippers have already moved on. There is a sliver of hope there. We have this off-season to see if we can end this dark chapter once and for all.

quite poetic. I don't know why but given your choice of descriptive words I could imagine Morgan Freeman narrating this lol

LOL!

I must have watched something inspiring last night then.

We need to make trades and get some more picks for next season

Agreed, if that is the case then it will be a problem. If not, then I think these guys will be logging serious minutes

He'll play them plenty. They will have to earn their time however.

Film story. Hitchcock directed movies in the studio era when studios would often take the movies away and recut them. Hitchcock didn't worry, because he only shot the precise footage he knew he would use. He left no other options than to edit the movie as he wanted it.

The front office will be moving lots of guards this summer. Doc's best players will be the rookies and Austin. Plenty of minutes for all that remain.

Sign and trade DJ ..Austin and Lou to OKC for PG and some fillers.

Why is OKC doing this? They would be paying like $40 million at C to add DJ when they have Adams, lol

If they can convince Paul George to want to play on the Clippers, maybe they can approach the Thunder on a Austin + Gallo for Paul George trade. Then maybe DJ opts in for one year. This would give us a pretty decent lineup:

PG Shai Galgeous-Alexander, Pat Beverly, Jawun Evans

SG Avery Bradley, Lou Williams, Jerome Robinson

SF Paul George, Sin Thornwell, Sam Dekker

PF Tobias Harris, Montrezl Harrell

C Deandre, Boban

I'm worried about Doc screwing the rookies. At his core, Doc will start Patrick Beverley and Austin Rivers. These rookies will be coming in with Doc extolling his son and treating him like the acknowledged leader of the team. These rookies won't know any better and accept it as status quo.

Meanwhile, Doc will make sure that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gets his minutes at SF. Doc will excoriate Jerome Robinson's defense, shattering his confidence, while ignoring Austin's ball watching, pointing, and turnstile defense.

If the rookies start making a mark, Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley will remain. Meanwhile, the cockroach that is Austin Rivers will remain with Doc politicking that his son deserves a gigantic raise for averaging 36 minutes/game and adding one more basket to his scoring average.

Jerry West solves all of this by trading Austin Rivers, second rounder, plus whatever else is takes to Orlando for Nikola Vucevic's expiring contract.

Austin for Vucevic would be awesome. We get a big who can actually score and the doc Austin problem is solved. Also Austin grew up in Orlando so maybe he will thrive down here, but most of all won’t be our problem.

Also looking at their roster they really need a decent PG we could trade Milos or Beverly also in some package for Terrence Ross as a sweetener. They have wanted to get rid of him and he might still be able to contribute as back up small forward

LMFAO "the cockroach" that is Austin Rivers. Dude! This just made my day.

Sorry. Pet peeve of mine.

MOOT point. The phrase is it's a MOOT point. There is no such thing as a mute point. I know it seems like a mute point would be a silent point...but there is no such phrase. It's a moot point, which is "a debatable question, an issue open to argument; also, an irrelevant question, a matter of no importance."

OK, sorry for mini rant about a pet peeve.

I can see SGA getting an early call because his body is NBA ready. Jerome how’re, is whom I’m worried about. I think Jerome will struggle defensively early on and Doc will bench him because he’s trying to win games not tank.

I’m sure magic are running their hands together in anticipation of an austin for vucivic deal.

No worries, just as long as you are a good sport about it when I catch one of your grammatical mistakes as well

Great analogy. Every off-season we have the discussion about minutes and a lot of us throw out numbers for minutes for young players without looking at the reality of the roster and the need to balance earning minutes and developing and maintaining chemistry, etc. There are 96 minutes at PG/SG. How much of that does the team want to give to the two new rookies? Let's just take out injuries for a second, at a point where everyone is healthy, if you went for a decent 16 mpg for Shai and 14 mpg for Robinson, that's already 30 minutes gone. This leaves you with 66 minutes to divide among Teodosic, Williams, Rivers and Beverley if they all stayed. Are you going to play each of them 16.5 mpg? Are you going to be giving one or two of those guys DNP-CD's while healthy and causing friction on the team. The rookies also still have to earn their team realistically, so those minutes (16 and 14) if all 4 still remain on the team are going to be hard to really earn because they won't likely be better than any of those guys. 3 of the 4 is workable even. Now if you get rid of two of those guys, that opens up a lot, especially adding Thornwell to the mix too, but at a minimum, at least one of them, then you open things up well enough. Even with three of the vet guards remaining, you can have 66 minutes for the vets and then 30 minutes for the young guys, then you can have Robinson earn his minutes battling with Thornwell who can also get minutes at SF here and there, and Shai should easily win out over Evans. 30 minutes does not seem like a ton, because there's this idea....

Well said.

If Evans and/or Thornwell remain, these are second round picks. DNPCD is in the cards for them. They know that. Every minute they play has to be earned, or in the case of last year, handed to them out of desperation. But last year we were a contender, or at least planned on being so. Not playing them is no problem.

I suspect next year, we will not by competing for the playoffs. We'll be in development mode. What good will that be for Beverly, Milos or any of the other vets who remain? None. These guys can all play and would be valuable second unit players to contenders. As you say, figure 13 or so minutes a game for SGA and Robinson, until they prove themselves worthy of more, or injuries to other players require it. They were not drafted where they were, in a good draft, to sit. Unless of course, they were really bad misses in West's part, which seems unlikely.

Doc Rivers: "Shai, Jerome, I'd like you to meet our star guard of the future, Austin. Your job is to defer to him every time that you are on the court. When Austin wants the ball, you give it to him. When Austin shoots the ball, you pound the boards and then pass it out to him.

"Shai, you'll get your minutes in our three-guard rotation. Your future is playing SF, where you'll camp out behind the three and wait for Austin to tell you what to do. Jerome, don't worry, you'll get your scant few minutes when I shift Austin from SG to PG. Remember, Austin must get his 36+ minutes/game. He must average between 18-20 ppg. Our goal is not to make the playoffs, but to make sure that Austin gets another big contract.

"When Austin calls for the defensive switch, you need to bust your tail and guard his man. He'll yell and point and tell you where to go. Don't worry, he'll stop and ball watch. If you don't do your job, he'll tell you. If he doesn't do his job, keep your head down and your pie holes shut. As long as you know that this is the way that it is with the Clippers, you'll be fine."

They haven’t really had an affinity for Vucevic for a while and actively have been trying to get rid of T Ross.

Near the trade deadline, many Orlando fans wanted Vucevic traded, but he was injured. Many acknowledged that they couldn't get a first rounder for him because he'd be an expiring contract. Many hoped to get a second rounder for him. I was hoping that Orlando drafted Mohamed Bamba because then they'd need Vucevic even less. Bismack Biyambo has an untradeable contract, so here's hoping that Orlando does trade Vucevic.

I thought that he'd be perfect with the Clippers because of his offensive skills and passing. Thought he'd be perfect playing alongside Montrezl Harrell, who apparently wasn't a good fit playing alongside DJ. I've read how Orlando tried the same thing by acquiring Serge Ibaka, but that didn't work and they traded him a year or two ago.

I agree, maybe Austin, as a shooter, would have some value returning to Orlando. I was hoping that Doc went with him and Jerry West could hire a new coach, but that didn't happen.

Think the Magic are looking at Nikola Vucevic as retarding the progress of Mohamed Bamba. They lose him for nothing at the end of the year. Think taking Austin is the cost of acquiring a second round draft pick (at least something for him). In this case, I'd even think about gifting them our top defensive player, the phenomenally gifted and athletic Wes Johnson, he of the all world body, who has muscles and athleticism everywhere, except for his peanut sized brain.

I’m worried because we have good depth and proven talent already so barring injuries they may not have much minutes available. If they want to play otherwise they’re gonna have to show out and keep it consistent. But the more they play the better I think these two picks will be good players. The guy from BC is more NBA ready than Alexander but Alexander has great potential once he picks up the speed of NBA ball and gets a man body considering the length he already has. Super excited about these two