ClipperSteve's Official Opinion on Jared Jordan versus Guillermo Diaz

The Clips desperately need another guard who can shoot the three. IMO they'll keep Diaz.  Whether they keep Jordan over A Williams is anyone's guess.  

Completely agree with this analysis--it all seems so obvious and simple.  Too bad the Clips and MD have shown a strong penchant for the counterintuitive.

Perhaps it's open to debate, but you make the assumption that Ross is an SF, but to me he has always been an obvious SG.  As you say it's hard to make a clear distinction between the positions and there's something of a sliding scale.  TThomas is an SF who leans very much towards PF.  So is Reuben Patterson, and Bobby Simmons too I suppose.  I don't know Thornton well enough to judge.  I would argue that at this stage of his career, with his improved rebounding and his strength a bigger asset than his mobility, Maggette even leans more toward PF than he did four years ago.

Others might have clearer terms for analysis, but to me the distinction seems to rest in part on how comfortable you are the further you get from the basket.  And I would add that it's more about comfort on defense and ball-handling than having a good perimeter game or 3 pt shot, which are specialized skills.  Ross' lateral mobility on defense makes him a very good on-ball defender and more comfortable at the two than anybody on the Clips except Mobley.  Mobley is a perfect example of a dyed-in-the-wool SG, by the way.

Obviously, some of these thoughts are footnotes on the Maggettifesto--the idea that Ross could be effective as an SF was the underpinning of the entire debacle.  And it may have started with Maggette's ability to play SG (where he was an inadequate defender) when KKittles was injured, showing the interchangability of the positions.

At any rate, to me Ross is an SG and a perfect backup to Mobley.  Or Ross could even start at SG and have Mobley come off the bench.  But any minutes that Ross plays at SF, especially with Mobley on the floor, will be stolen from all of the other players that you name:  Maggette, TThomas, Patterson, and Thornton.  I would argue that one of the Clips' problems last year was that TThomas played very few minutes at SF, a position where he could have really helped the team.  With Ross starting, the backup SF minutes went to the underutilized Maggette, and Thomas role was as Kaman's replacement.  Thomas would have had plenty of PF minutes in the Kaman-Brand rotation regardless (the unfortunate Rebraca situation also hurt the Clips in this regard), but the obvious approach would be to have Thomas  back up Maggs at SF, and Ross back up Mobley at SG.  And thinking of Ross in his natural position at SG, and playing Mobley strictly at SG as well, would have created minutes for Singleton and Davis and even--ahem--Korolev.

And I have another question, probably more of a diary issue but I'll mention it here.  Does anybody else think that there's a backstory to the Clippers dustup with Brand about PEDs?  Specifically, were the Clips sensitive to the issue with regards to Tim Thomas, which caused them to wonder (stupidly and wrongly, we would all assume) about Brand?  I know Bill Simmons had questions about Thomas after his run with Phoenix.  And I would wonder if this was an issue in MDs feud with Maggette, except for the fact that TThomas is the most obvious juice-candidate, and MD has no trouble playing him, and I think that Maggette seems more of an acolyte of the Brand/Kobe school of just working your ass off.  But somehow thinking about TThomas and SFs who become PFs got me wondering about this.  

To mention how much I like the idea of at least considering a buyout of Aaron Williams.  Hadn't really thought of this, but it's very intriguing.

And by the way, even though I haven't done any research on JJordan at all, and know nothing about him except that he's a white guy, I feel almost as strongly as you do that he should definitely be on the roster.  My only theory on the Diaz contract is that he is a known entity on the international level and was going to sign a contract elsewhere if he had no shot of making the Clips.  So I'm hoping that he signed a non-guaranteed contract to get him to come to camp.

But back to getting rid of Aaron Williams.  I like Williams and think he's very good at being exactly what he is:  the 11th or 12th man on the bench, sitting next to the 3rd string pg, who is ready to step right in on those rare but regular occurences when the wheels come off and two big men are in early foul trouble or there's a shortterm injury like an ankle tweak.  He's always ready to play and does some very good things when he's out there.

With the failure to thrive of Rebraca (one of my favorites, by the way), departure of Singleton, and Brand's injury, it seems obvious that Williams' spot would be necessary and secure.  But as you point out the Clips have been pretty aggressive in their response to Brand's injury.  It's a pretty interesting little knot to untie.

Let's say that Patterson is taking the Singleton spot.  We have to remember that MD got virtually nothing out of Singleton last year.  But Patterson will play, and obviously Thomas is going to play a lot.  

The discussion should probably start with Kaman of course.  One of the crucial roles played by Williams is as a backup if Kaman gets hurt.

But that gets us to Davis.  I've said elsewhere, early and often, that I'd like Davis to be 1) good at playing basketball and 2) the starting PF if he can prove in camp and preseason that #1 is true.  Most people are looking at Davis as Kaman's backup.  That's fine and probably the way things will go.  But it reduces Williams' role and necessity.  And in that line of thinking, it'd be good to see how Davis does in camp and preseason, just to see if you need Williams.

And we haven't even gotten to Josh Powell yet.  One way of thinking is not to focus on who can play the 2-3, but who can play the 4-5, and who can play the 3-4.  If you think of Kaman as solid (a big if), and Davis as a 4-5 and potential PF starter, and Thomas getting the majority of minutes at the 4 (whether a starter or not), Patterson as Maggs' backup at the 3, and plugging in Powell at the 4, you've covered a lot of ground and you're still looking for minutes for your promising "mature" rookie.  Even the obvious way to go is Kaman backed up by Davis, Thomas backed up by Powell (and Patterson), and Maggette backed up by Patterson.  And then play Thornton as many minutes as you can.  You're covered pretty well in this breakdown, and Williams never comes up.

I guess if Kaman and Davis are both in foul trouble, you would be left with Powell, Thomas, Patterson, Maggette, and Thornton.  But isn't that just small ball and how you're going to play for long stretches against Phoenix and Golden State anyway?

At any rate, Williams has questionable utility.  We have to see what Davis and Powell can do.  And if Kaman is in a funk and gets off to a slow start, you definitely need Williams, just to pretend you're a real team if Kaman plays 15 mins and has 2 pts and 1 rebound.

Within this argument, it's important to see that Ross and Mobley don't need to play a single minute at SF, not with Patterson and Thornton on the team.

And Diaz might make sense.  He makes even more sense if Brand comes back sooner rather than later and goes on to wipe out a gigantic chunk of minutes at the 4-5.  The ideal scenario is that Maggette plays well and leads the team and eats up his own big share of productive minutes.  Kaman does the same, and those two get a lot of help from Thomas, Davis, Patterson, and Thornton.  Then Brand comes back, Kaman-Brand-Maggette works well, and Davis and Thornton are established solid contributors, and the Clips have a strong deep bench.

Of course, it's standard practice to end any Clipper post with the potential downside, always much more realistic.  Diaz gets cut (or maybe JJordan of course), Aaron Williams is the new Rick Brunson, and when it rains tonight it pours.            

is not the real problem. the problem is dunleavy. we are expending all this energy on diaz vs. jj when the reality is that sam and brevin will take up all the pg minutes and mobley and ross will take up all the 2 guard minutes. even if they both make the team they will be buried on the bench. barring (another) catastrophic injury they will both be getting kololev minutes, singleton minutes in dunleavy's rotation. get a good look in preseason because even if they make the team you may not see them outside of garbage time.
of course it makes sense to the people on this blog not to start the season with 2 point guards with 70 years of combined life experience and a kid rehabbing his eggshell of a knee. but just because it makes sense doesn't mean the clips will do it.

...that Kirilenko is available. Perhaps a bit expensive, but nonetheless available. Any thoughts by you experts on how that soap opera will play out?

any thoughts on maggette for kirilenko? weren't the jazz interested in corey before the clippers matched? is it worth thinking about? if corey hates mdsr what will he do in sloanville. would the little donald give up his favorite player for a slasher who plays defense? could ak fit in when eb comes back? please clippersteve cast some pearls.