That experiment was the beginning of what is soon to be the end for MDSr and the Clippers.

Mardy has surprised us and has been a much better ballhandler and distributor than QRoss ever was. He seems to have some moves and hesitation that gets him into the paint and to the rim. And it works out a fair amount. It might be that he knows he a poor shooter, so he knows he has to go to the basket.

The weak part of QRoss might have been that he seemed to have a decent jump shot—-as you say, it seemed like he was capable of making the occasional 17 footer. Only, as it turned out, he was never able to make it except on very special occasions. It was somewhat baffling. He seemed like a fairly solid finisher, but his own path to the rim was always more of a flash, very quick and direct.

Collins seems to have a signficantly better “handle,” and it marks a big difference in their games.

Some of it seems evolutionary. Collins was a throw-in, thought to be a good athlete and perhaps a defender, but one of the worst offensive players in the league. We should remember that he was shockingly aggressive in his early games as a Clipper, getting up 10+ shots in multiple games, as if he wanted to rebrand himself and try to generate some confidence. The results were mixed.

But then he was forced into point guard duty. And he did very well, although it’s not like he was playing with a bunch of starters. The absence of both Davis1 and Davis2, shooting very poorly, helped his stats, as Eric Gordon and Steve Novak shot at a much higher percentage (not sure about that, but it sounds right). Playing PG and handling the ball so much seemed to improve his game quite a bit—he really stepped up.

It was out of necessity, but it might have been the thing that separates him from QRoss. I’m not at all sure that Ross would have fared as well in a similar situation.

Ball-handling is a tricky skill to qualify, like court awareness, but it’s critical.

Is it a good idea now, Jax? Do you think the Clippers could be a better team with Thornton coming off the bench, and Mardy Collins starting?

There are always so many mitigating factors. Right now, Gordon is out of the lineup for the next game, and we don’t know anything about Thornton’s status.

KA analyzes it pretty well at Clipperblog, but he only reaches the conclusion that neither of them is adequate—which is easy enough to say—and the Clips should use the analysis of their weaknesses as they try to trade a big man for a 5th starter. I don’t completely agree with the argument, without having any kind of sample of what the team looks like with all 3 big men healthy, and Thornton, and now with Collins as a wild card, plus a lottery pick on the way.