Because all situations are the same? And, Belinelli, generally considered to be the tiest of the ty defenders, spent some time guarding James. So, there's that.
Nobody else spends time on LeBron when Kawhi is out there, unless he is in foul trouble.
Pop not putting Green on Paul from the get go has more to do with him constantly underrating Green's defensive impact than anything else. Has nothing to do with it being some genius strategy. Green on Paul/Curry and Kawhi on Red /Thompson is a no brainer.
Even if we're being generous, the Clippers have no more than six players on their roster who belong in the playoff rotation of any team that wants to consider itself a le contender, and that's only if Barnes makes the cut. Doc the HC hasn't been well served by Doc the GM.
For all the complaining we do about Marco here, Doc would, quite literally, give up one of his natural born sons to have an option like Beli on his bench.
I agree that Pop shouldn't put Green on Paul all the time. But that doesn't explain why in Game Two, he took so long to put Danny in the game. If Pop understood that Green is the best CP3 defender on the team, then he would have had him on Paul to close out regulation. A similar thing happened in Game Six versus Dallas last playoffs. Green shut Ellis down the whole game, and Pop put Leonard on his for the last few minutes. It led to Dallas stealing that game. Push comes to shove, I don't think Pop respects Green's talent as a defender. It's not just an act that only certain posters here are smart enough to get. He's lost the team games for it, and he almost lost them another on Wednesday.
I'm comfortable with Pop's rating of Green's defensive impact.
He may get that option next season. Word on the street is that Marco considers himself as good as gone in the off-season, and the Clippers will need to find wing scoring with their MLE/mMLE unless they're content with completely reworking their rotation.
I think Pop totally respects Danny as a defender. I also think he is afraid of Danny making some bone-headed plays sometimes. I don't think it has anything to do with Pop's belief in his abilities as a defender in general, though.
My issue is with posters that think Pop doesn't know Danny is a better defender than Tony and Patty, which is what most of them are complaining about. Saying Pop made a mistake switching him for Kawhi is far more nuanced. Pop has definitely made some mistakes. No one's perfect. And, hindsight is 20/20. Trusting Kawhi over Danny sometimes might be one of Pop's mistakes, but they are 1a and 1b defender options, so I don't see it as much of a slight toward Danny nor as egregious an error by Pop, even if it might have been an error and Danny might have been a better choice than Kawhi in your examples. However, we don't really know. Danny may have failed where Kawhi did as well.
My point is: Of course Pop knows Green is a better defender in these situations than Tony and Patty because Green is almost always, eventually, switched onto these players at some point. Pop doesn't rediscover the idea all over again every series and every year. The question is then why doesn't he make the switch immediately in game one. I suggest he has some well thought out reasons for it, and could maybe even posit a few myself. They claim, instead, that there is no reason to ever game-plan as Pop has, and Danny should start on Paul (insert other) from every tip of every game, in every series.
Minutes/rest in a single game, minutes/rest over multi-game time spans (travel time, # of days off between games), accounting for wear on us vs. them and our bench vs. theirs, attempting to bait a team into doing something you want them to do (maybe sometimes it works and other times it doesn't), referee/other gamesmanship, defensive rebounding (Danny being a good rebounder for his position), Danny being more useful as a help defender off of Barnes, et al more than off of Paul, injuries disclosed and undisclosed, there's just a plethora of reasons that Pop may not start off the series with Green on Paul, etc. I'm sure Pop has a longer and more specific list.
Whether the game-plan always comes to fruition is another story. However, I'm fairly confident that he's considered these options.
Maybe if he didn't hog every single penny of the salary cap, we could afford a wing who actually makes an impact on the game. As it stands, Choke Paul is a loser who's content with playing a round or two in the playoffs and then going home to count his money all summer.
I understand the frustration, but I don't get the criticism of Paul. 1) The vast majority of players, particularly at their peak, take every last penny they can get. 2) When he signed, Rivers wasn't even brought in yet, so obviously there was no way of foreseeing all the dumb they've done the past few years. 3) He's clearly one of the fiercest compe ors in the league. 4) He's never been on a team good enough to win it all and I don't recall a series he's lost where he was on the clear favorite.
Paul's aggressiveness in looking for his own shot is virtually non-existent when LDN is on him... he isn't going to beat him if he doesn't actually ing try. The Clippers can't beat the Spurs unless Paul scores heavily.
should be running pick and rolls with matt barnes to force the switch
I think Paul and Parker cancel each other out in the useless stakes.
Paul would flourish in SAS being a distributer to others who cannot create like DG, but in LAC he is forced to score a lot and play heavy minutes which is not his natural game.
DG is to CP3 what Bowen was to Nash. I think we got to stick with that. Cutting the head of the snake off.
The Clippers have a great point guard, but for a back up. They have a great paint defender, but for a scorer in the paint. They have a great athletic finisher but for a clutch player. They have a great 3pt shooter but for a defender. They have a great 6th man but for a 7th.
So you are saying you can find some great in Los Angeles?
The only thing the Clippers have going for them right now is that they play in a much better city than the Spurs do tbh.
That's not really what happened. Danny was definitely the primary defender on Paul. Van Gundy made it sound like the Spurs were rotating defenders, but in reality, Kawhi only picked CP3 up if the Clips pushed the ball up when Danny wasn't in position. That type of switch is something the Spurs do often, especially when the opponent only has one dominant offensive wing. Parker spent time on Paul, of course, but only when Danny wasn't in the game. The rest were the result of switches.
Remindse of the Hornets series when pop didn't put Bowen on paul until later on as the games progressed.
Well, looks like they didn't even need to make an adjustment..
Paul continued to struggle vs. Green, but Danny missing shots all game = Pop sitting him, Paul dominates against the smaller defenders and the defensive switches vs. bigs..smh..
Pop valuing three point shooting over Danny's defense is idiotic. Goes against the entire defense first mentality he loves to preach about.
LDN sucked today, no doubt. But you play him because of his defense. I would seriously root for another team if the starting backcourt next season is Enrique/Beli while Green plays for a contender.
This is what drives me nuts about Pop. Says one thing and then actions shows the other thing. We're not going to beat the Clippers by outscoring them but by playing good defense and executing on offense. That's the pounding the rock way. No need to panic if shots are not going. Just keep executing on offense and the defense will wear out the other team by the end of the game.
Have Danny put up a donut but play good D on CP3 or give his minutes to Manu/Belli and let CP3 destroy you. Hmm tough choice.
jup
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote