Rebuild? No Tank You.

Half this board were full of posters pleading for the organization to tank last year. Chants of trade Bev for a second rounder, dump Gallo, trade Trez and Lou for a draft choice, etc. Thankfully the club didn’t listen, made the right decisions and made moves to accommodate the off season without ever waivering from a win mentality. If we had done what so many were calling for we would have never made the playoffs, never had the epic games against Dubs that put us in such a favorable light, and likely wouldn’t have Kawhi and George now. Hopefully the tanker gang can swallow their pride and admit they were dead wrong.

When we win a championship, we will forgive them all!

Even the Laker spy's on here.

We were after Kawhi as soon as Leonard was traded. We even tried to get his logo back from Nike to give back to KL. We even scouted KL in plain sight in Toronto. The plan all along was to court KL to the Clippers. Everyone and their mom knew it. Anyway, weren't we in the playoff race since the start of the season? Why would we tank? I know a few wanted the pick but NOT many said it.

Anyway, we ran with 2 rookie starters during our push to the playoffs along with a young, green center. Most teams would be considered "tankers" running a starting unit like that.

"half the board" is a bit of an exaggeration, amirite? Let me ask you a question, dirtydunks...What did you want to do? What did you want to happen? Unless you predicted Kawhi and PG13 would come here during last season, then you have no place to talk or call out anyone. hindsight is 20/20 but if you just sat there and never offered opinions on what we should do with the squad (trade/assets), what is the point of your thread? Did you make the call at some point before we got Kawhi? How about PG13? No? So why are you now on a soapbox mocking people for giving opinions? No. One. Got. It. Right. Including you. Just stop.

Forgive them all? Is this what this new team has brought us?

Stop what? Maybe they’ll look back and realize that we should keep the player’s that deserved to be here. Look up all of my posts. Keep and play Bev, Keep Gallo, for god’s sake keep Lou and Trez at all costs. The insufferable chants of trading everyone for draft choices and tank because we had no path to the Larry were so negative. How could anyone call for trading Lou or Trez...apologies to those offended but there’s obviously a more pleasing way to skin a cat then to start over while trading high performing blue collar players busting their butts.

Revisionist history. Only a few people wanted Gallo traded, if at all. I don't remember anyone saying trade Bev. I remember a lot saying we should drop his minutes to give the youngsters more time which is common sense since we had 3 rookie guards and at that point, we had no path to a championship last season. I do remember that I and a few people said if Bev wanted to go sign with the Lakers, so be it.

You think if we didn't make the playoffs, Kawhi wouldn't come? I would argue that even if we didn't make the playoffs, Kawhi would still come based on the fact that Chris Carter said a few days ago that he didn't want to play for the Lakers, but against them. No matter what, we would have still had room for two max contracts so he could have easily brought PG13 with him. Like I said, if you didn't put your neck out by giving your opinions on what we should do or don't, you have no skin in the game and therefor, should not be pointing fingers at anyone.

fact is that KL didn't want to play with LeBron and he wasn't going to stay in Toronto. For the record, I never gave my opinion but I was worried he was going to the Lakers. 3 days days before the news, I did say that if he was coming, he was coming with PG13...But I had no idea. Who really cares now? Why bring it up unless you wanted to point fingers. I have no problem with tooting your own horn but you ain't doing that. You didn't call anything, you're just calling those out that were wrong based on the facts at the time. We. All. Got. It. Wrong... All. of .Us.

Revisionist history. Only a few people wanted Gallo traded, if at all. I don't remember anyone saying trade Bev. I remember a lot saying we should drop a "

I don’t think it’s revisionist. A lot of posters were mad that we were making a playoff push

Maybe I shouldn’t have said posters, but there’s a lot of posts about tanking and trading everybody. I don’t really recall if it’s the same posters making lots of posts or different posters,

I don't. I remember a FEW. Like maybe 2-3 people.

Oh, here is a major fact people are overlooking:

WE REBUILT THIS TEAM FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. The complete rebuild lasted all but 2 seasons. Rebuild does not mean you tank for years. Rebuild in it's purest form is tearing something and building it back up. That is what we did.

By the way, great job on the title of this thread. Props for that! Very clever.

Half this board were full of posters pleading for the organization to tank last year. Chants of trade Bev for a second rounder, dump Gallo, trade Trez and Lou for a draft choice, etc. Thankfully the club didn’t listen, made the right decisions and made moves to accommodate the off season without ever waivering from a win mentality. If we had done what so many were calling for we would have never made the playoffs, never had the epic games against Dubs that put us in such a favorable light, and likely wouldn’t have Kawhi and George now. Hopefully the tanker gang can swallow their pride and admit they were dead wrong.

Granted the only part of this post that I think my past self agreed with was getting rid of Gallo if we could unload the contract and not necessarily needing to make the playoffs and losing a first round pick...

I think I can still stand by former me... I don't know how much the playoffs spured Kawhi to come here. I think a big factor of Kawhi coming here (other than being "home") was the fact that he wanted to play with a co-star.

We were able to unload Gallo and pick up a co-star in the same move. In my mind, that solidified bringing Kawhi. (I could be wrong.)

So had we narrowly missed the playoffs, and retained a pick... we could have potentially made the moves to get Kawhi and PG - while unloading Gallo - and retaining a pick. Maybe we could have included that pick in place for Shai? Or just have had one more pick.

But that first rounder vs GSW was fun and resulted in a future that panned out with GSW losing, so I am happy with the result. And I do place importance on making the playoffs (especailly when LAL do NOT)... but the result is the same, it was a frist round loss.

I knew KL would not go to LAL... I was worried about him staying in TOR (on a 1+1)

I think LAC and TOR were his main/only targets. Not sure how and why LAL were given the light of day... maybe the fact that he gave them a meeting. But still, there are many reports now surfacing how LAL is upset that Kawhi screwed them with his "decision".

I never asked for Trezz to be traded, he is my favorite Clipper at the moment.

Gallo was the only one I was OK with trading based on his health history... And even then, I acknowledged that he was performing very well for us.

Well of course there's a reason a guy like Jerry West is a legend in NBA front offices and we are just arm chair GM's. That's not to appeal to authority and suggest that just someone is in a position they will make the right decisions, but tanking does get overrated. Tanking is generally better for small-ish market type teams who aren't very good at drawing FA's, and even then, not always, it is case by case. Clippers have long changed the perception of being a crap team with the previous generation teams, the market has always been there, so for the Clippers, showing a competitive team when that's what the FA's are looking for was certainly a good decision.

I agree. The nice thing is though that we kept Gallo, competed hard and were able to use his salary then as the bulk of the match for the PG trade.

Yup, that is evidently true. The only alternative that I can think of is that I couldve been OK with is competing hard and barely missing the playoffs and keeping our pick. Still wouldve had a healthy and productive Gallo (hypothetically) that we could've flipped for PG13.

Or if we want to argue for going balls to the wall, I can see that argument and get pissed that we let one drop late against the lakers and got blown out by GSW and HOU. We could've easily gotten into the playoffs as a higher seed.

To be honest, we barely hung on and got the "worst" of all scenarios... but still it made for a hell of a series. A great "feel good" ending to the season...

But I am speaking pragmatically or as a utilitarian... taking all emotion out.

(Because as stated, I think we could've landed Kawhi without making the playoffs.)

As Joe says, hind sight is 20-20... but I am channeling the past me which I still agree with. Don't recall other peoples' viewpoints and posts... but I stand by past me. But looking forward, happy with the way things turned out - if changing any aspect of the past would affect the futurre turnout of anything, I'd obviously opt out (but I am speaking hypothetically).

DirtyDunks, you remember correctly. ClipperPostman and SamMays wanted us to tank (ClipperPostman was pretty loud about it).. clipperboy24 thought we'd have a high lottery pick (that we'd be the 10th or 11th best in the west). JamFan thought we should tank.

You can see a lot of those comments here:

https://clippers.newssurge.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-13961-sid-65a87e82f727ee7cc11d62e30f2ead77.html

As it stands, I would play the whole last season out exactly as it did. I don't know about you guys but I loved seeing us take it to GS. Super proud of our guys and their gritty attitude. Seeing them be so fearless was worth losing a pick to me.

Again, what is the point? We haven't even seen the new guys in uniforms and we're finding ways to "one-up" each other? Unless the ones who are pointing fingers got it right, 100%, there is no soapbox to stand on. That's as simple as it gets.

I am not going to lie, it was weird and funky to go back in time and read the conversations on where the team was... SO MUCH has changed.

The point is that you don’t always waive the white flag to accommodate a flawed hard lined philosophy at the expense of our star players and fans. Our front office proved that. As for revisionist history Joe... you might try almonds and sudoku.

Who tried to wave the white flag at the expense of our players? Who here has enough pull to do that? Didn't we dump Harris, Bobi, and and Mike Scott for youth and picks? Wasn't Harris our best player at the time? Of course people will NOW say it was a great move but in no way were they tanking despite getting rid of 3 good players for youth and picks. It just so happened that it worked out for us but make no mistake, the consensus was that we were tanking at the point. Want to know how I know? That was one of the good stories that came out at the end of the year by most pundits. Despite losing our best player, we rallied. That trade alone puts everything to rest. We were collecting picks and youth so we would have the cap space or continue the rebuild.

Oh, for the record, I said not to give Harris anything close to the max very early in the season and long before he was traded. I said I would not waste cap space on him. That kinda worked out.

Again, what is the point? We haven't even seen the new guys in uniforms and we're finding ways to "one-up" each other? Unless the ones who are pointing fingers got it right, 100%, there is no soapbox to stand on. That's as simple as it gets.

I got it right. A lot of us got it right. A lot of people gave us crap all year long for being optimistic and wanting to win games and make the playoffs and saying we'd be attractive to top free agents. And now we're not allowed to even mention what happened? You guys can give us crap for an entire year and you cannot handle ONE SINGLE THREAD where we mention we were right?

What do you mean, "you guys"? You have not been paying attention to what I've been saying. Who gave who crap? You mean a discussion or argument is giving each other crap? Hey, if it means that much to you guys who felt attacked by opposing opinions, have at it. I'll bow out and let you guys pad yourselves on the back.

What do you mean, "you guys"? You have not been paying attention to what I've been saying. Who gave who crap? You mean a discussion or argument is giving each other crap? Hey, if it means that much to you guys who felt attacked by opposing opinions, have at it. I'll bow out and let you guys pad yourselves on the back.

I think every once in a while holding people responsible for their bullshit is helpful. So that next time they spew bullshit, it will be easier to refer back to how badly wrong they were last time. And you can be certain guys like ClipperPostman and SamMays will spew more bullshit this year. Count on it. In fact first game we lose, ClipperPostman will bemoan Doc, and after about the 10th loss of the season he will be calling for us to blow up the team, if not sooner. And when that time comes, it will be easy to refer back to last year when he was so wildly wrong.

This is a fan page for a bunch of celebrities that happen to play a sport... Everything we say is going to be b*llshit

Let's keep the love alive.

I remember you giving me a hard time because I was sick of CP and Blake and wanted them traded for depth/assets/picks/etc. Funny how things go full circle so fast.

I remember you giving me a hard time because I was sick of CP and Blake and wanted them traded for depth/assets/picks/etc. Funny how things go full circle so fast.

Lol roasted!

Let’s be honest, we have all said plenty of things we were wrong about. I was begging for Doc to be canned after 17-18 season and clearly that was wrong. Part of it was because of Little Rivers but if I am going to be honest I just thought he was overrated. He might still be at times but what he did last year was awesome

I remember you giving me a hard time because I was sick of CP and Blake and wanted them traded for depth/assets/picks/etc. Funny how things go full circle so fast.

And I remember you giving me crap for that for a long time and not one person was bothered by you giving me crap for it.

Funny that.

That last season with Blake and CP together was a really tough one to sit through. It was clear that the Championship window was slammed shut. I was completely fed up with Blake and CP. I wanted Doc canned and Austin dumped. I was sick of the Clippers being labeled as soft chokers. We had no cap space, no young talent. Mistwell can vouch for me, I thought we were gonna go nowhere fast with Blake and CP and wanted them traded instead of signing them to long term deals. He roasted me pretty good for "giving up" on our boys at the time... Along came Jerry West and the Clippers did EXACTLY what I wanted them to do; flip CP and Blake for assets/flexibility. I feel like Nostradamus. Here we are as the favorites to win multiple titles.

Of course they weren't because they knew I was right. That season was a rough one for all Clipper fans and a lot of us were at each other's throats. Look at us now; Championship favorites.