---

https://reurl.cc/z6GGYV

作者:Tomer Azarly

 Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Clippers
entered this season with a renewed focus and urgency that had folks thinking,
“Hey, maybe this is the year.” With one trade for James Harden, however,
the team appears to have abandoned that urgency, falling back into last
year's mindset of, “We've got time,” while completely throwing everyone's
roles in a blender.



(註:去年Lawrence Frank與球迷強調他們會開始注重例行賽...之類的BS)

Training camp began with the Clippers placing major emphasis on defense and
playing an up-tempo style of basketball. Practices were full of running to
the point that players playfully vented about them during press conferences.
“We're running a lot,” and, “have you ever seen a team run this much in
camp?” were funny quotes thrown around by some of the older guys on the team.

Through the first seven games of the season — parts of four preseason and
three regular-season games — the Clippers looked like a team building up to
something. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were in a great rhythm together,
picking their spots throughout games while point guard Russell Westbrook
played some of the best and most controlled basketball in his career.





Heading into the season opener, reports out of Los Angeles were that the team
was content with its roster and wanted to see what it had. The Clippers did
so for four games, putting together the best net rating in the NBA, before
pulling off the stunning trade for James Harden at 11 p.m. PST, when nearly
all of the players involved in the deal were already fast asleep.

Enter James Harden, a dominant individual scorer and playmaker, especially in
the halfcourt. Enter PJ Tucker, a hard-nosed 38-year-old veteran who makes
every opposing player he defends work. Well, at least that's who the Clippers
thought they were getting in this deal.





What's the problem? Players don't seem to know
問題是什麼?球員們看起來也不知道

James Harden has significantly slowed down the Clippers' up-tempo style of
play that was a heavy focus in training camp. In the process, Harden has
looked like a shell of himself, and the team has struggled adjusting to his
addition.

PJ Tucker, meanwhile, has been hard to justify playing big minutes because
he's just at the age where he's not defending at a high enough level and
doesn't provide much on the offensive end either. With Mason Plumlee out,
however, the team has to rely on him for some minutes, which is a problem.

James Harden顯著的讓快艇在訓練營強調的高速籃球慢了下來。這個過程中，Harden看起
來像是空有他原本的軀殼，而整支球隊都在掙扎著為他的加盟調整。


stars” are on the floor with starting center Ivica Zubac. Through four
games, the starting lineup of Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Paul George,
Kawhi Leonard, and Zubac has been outscored by 23 points in 46 minutes of
play. The starting group featuring four future Hall-of-Famers hasn't clicked
as quickly as they've wanted to, and none of the guys even have an answer as
to why.

“That's a good question,” James Harden told ClutchPoints after the loss to
Memphis, their fifth in a row.
“It's something we're trying to figure out. If we knew the answer to that,
then we could correct it.”
“I couldn’t even tell you,” Paul George added when asked by ClutchPoints.
“I can’t even tell you. But it’s an ongoing process. Trying to figure that
out. Thing about it is we’re all offensively gifted, so at some point, that
question will be answered, but we haven’t all would say found it together
yet.”

“Just figuring each other out,” Kawhi Leonard said. “There’s no magic to
it. Just trying to play, figure each other out. Like I said, playing with one
another.”

不誇張的說，最令人驚訝的就是當4星與先發中鋒Ivica Zubac同時在場上的數據。在這四
場比賽中，這組由Russell Westbrook、James Harden、Paul George、Kawhi Leonard與
Zubac的先發陣容在46分鐘的比賽就輸了23分。這組先發可是有著4名未來的名人堂球員並
沒有與他們想像的一樣快速融合，且他們甚至都對於原因毫無頭緒。

James Harden在輸給灰熊5連敗後表示:「這是個好問題，這是我們正在想辦法解決的事情
。如果我們知道答案的話我們就可以修正了。」



Kawhi Leonard說:「我們在努力理解其他人。這之中沒有魔法。只能想辦法打球並熟悉對
方。就像我說的，跟其他人一起打球。」

(註:那天記者還來不及找到Russell Westbrook他就已經離開休息室回家了。)

Head coach Tyronn Lue, who always shoulders the blame for individuals or the
team not playing at the level they should be, came out after the Clippers'
fifth loss in a row on Sunday and essentially enacted the closest thing to
calling his players out.

“I think we're playing too slow,” Lue said. “Just playing too slow. Like,
we get rebounds, you get stops, you got to push it. On makes, we got to push
it, get up quick and attack early…We just can't just walk around
offensively. Like you got to get to the next actions. You got things we work
on for the last two months, well, the last three years. You know, we just got
to do a better job of doing that.

“And if you don't do that, if you don't do it hard, you get beat every
night, and we're seeing those results. So until we want to play hard on both
ends of the floor, if we don't do things hard — cuts, screens, running the
screen, sprinting the floor — then it is going to be tough nights, every
single night. And so it's up to our guys to change their mentality in that
regard.”

Lue, who appeared finished with his response as the next question began to be
asked, gently cut the reporter off and sharply said, “Because we're teaching
it, we're showing it, we're telling it. So now we've got to perform.”

平常時常為了單一球員們表現不佳或是球隊表現不如預期而肩負責任的Ty Lue在快艇星期
天五連敗之後難得對球員表現出了最接近責備的態度。







Struggles were expected once the trade was executed. The Clippers, who have
long needed to improve the power forward position, traded every single power
forward on their roster not named Kawhi Leonard to Philadelphia.

Robert Covington, Nicolas Batum, Marcus Morris, and KJ Martin all wound up in
Philly, who has improved to a perfect 6-0 since completing the trade. In
turn, the Clippers received the worst power forward involved in the deal in
PJ Tucker and a star guard in an already guard-heavy rotation.

Now the team is stuck with four players they consider stars — Kawhi Leonard,
Paul George, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook — but seemingly have two
that are borderline unplayable alongside one another and no “glue guys”
around them to do the dirty work.

在交易被執行的當下，掙扎是可以被預見的。快艇長期以來都需要補強大前鋒的位置，但
在交易中將除了Kawhi Leonard以外的大前鋒全部送去了費城。





Covington and Batum were the type of role players the Clippers needed to keep
around these superstars because they are highly skilled and incredibly smart.
Whether it was taking on a challenge of defending the best player, forcing
deflections, rotating at key moments, or simply being a level-headed voice
during timeouts, the Clippers have missed every second of every minute those
two have been gone.

The Sixers have outscored opponents by 51 points in the four games Nicolas
Batum has played. Robert Covington, who is a +14 in six games, already has 11
steals as a Sixer, putting him right behind De'Anthony Melton for the team
lead. Covington is tied for second in the NBA in deflections with 34 on the
season, sitting only one behind league leaders Paul George and Jalen Williams.

Without the high-level “glue guys.” or “connectors” as Tyronn Lue calls
them, the Clippers will struggle nightly when it comes to the hustle plays
that get the crowd hyped, the loose balls recovered, the box-outs, and the
extra rotations to force a missed shot late in the clock.







“You lose Nico, RoCo, Marcus, KJ, those what you call glue guys,” Tyronn
Lue explained. “Guys that can connect, like connectors. And so when you have
four Hall-of-Fame guys playing together, you miss that because they're used
to having guys around them that do the small things like Nico and T-Mann and
RoCo. You kind of miss that, so all four of those guys, now they have to do
some of those small things to be a better team. They understand that, and
we've been trying, but we've got to be better with that. But you kind of miss
those connectors. They're used to having guys that connect it for 'em. So
just getting better with that, which we will.”

It's a very small sample against some bottom-tier teams, but the Clippers had
the sixth-best offensive rating, the best defensive rating, and the best net
rating in the first four games of the season. After a healthy offseason for
the stars and a terrific training camp from top to bottom, that team still
had some gaps to fill — they were not a championship team in my eyes yet —
but the group deserved a chance to see what it had, what it could become, as
well as who would become available before it was blown up.





The Russell Westbrook-James Harden dilemma
Russell Westbrook與James Harden的兩難處境

Prior to the trade, Russell Westbrook had been everything the Clippers
could've asked for to start the year. And while he hasn't suffered the most
out of the four purely from a production standpoint, he's certainly viewed as
the player who should have to sacrifice more than the others. With the
acquisition of Harden, some have even called for Westbrook's move to the
Clippers bench, which could use another playmaker and would help balance out
the guard rotation better.

A person familiar with Tyronn Lue's thinking says moving Russell Westbrook to
the bench is not an option at this time with the belief that he's the only
player in the starting lineup that will actually push the pace consistently
and attempt to ignite the up-tempo style of basketball that Lue wants to
play. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are not going to the bench. Ivica Zubac
is the lone big man left on this roster with Mason Plumlee's unfortunate MCL
sprain that he's probably lucky wasn't season ending.



一名與Tyronn Lue想法熟識的人表示Russell Westbrook去板凳現階段不是一個選項因為
Lue相信他是先發唯一一個可以時常推快節奏並嘗試點燃Lue想打的高速籃球。Kawhi
Leonard與Paul George不可能去板凳。Ivica Zubac是在Mason Plumlee不幸的MCL扭傷後快
艇僅剩的唯一一名長人。

James Harden has been a superstar since his move to Houston in 2012, where he
first became a starter and never looked back. There isn't a belief that
moving him to the bench is something that's going to happen either. The
Clippers do, however, want to pair him up with a big man, whether it be Zubac
or Moussa Diabate, in more second-unit lineups to initiate more pick-and-roll
opportunities.

It's clear that Russell Westbrook and James Harden do not play well in the
same lineup. Westbrook, for as good as he's been, is not respected as a
shooter and oftentimes takes up space on the low block or the dunker's spot,
making it incredibly difficult to create much out of the team's already
limited drives to the basket.

James Harden自從2012年被交易至火箭打先發之後就一直是一名超級球星。我也不認為將
他移到板凳是一件會發生的事情。快艇確實想要將他與一名長人擺在一起上場，無論是
Zubac或是通常是與第二陣容一起上的Moussa Diabate以打更多擋拆。



“Well, the thing with James is just try to split those guys up as much as
possible,” Tyronn Lue said. “I think because Russ has been great for us
over the last 20 games he was with us and in the playoffs and then it started
this season as well. So both of those guys with the ball in their hands has
proven that they can get things done as far as making plays or scoring the
basketball. And so just trying to split those guys up as much as possible and
let those guys have their own unit.”

So just to keep track: The Clippers are treating both Westbrook and Harden as
superstars who need to get theirs alongside Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
They need both Westbrook and Harden to play around 30 minutes a night, but
they also need to split them up as much as possible.



所以我們必須要追蹤到:快艇無論對待Westbrook與Harden都將他們視為他們需要並要與
Kawhi Leonard及Paul George一起打球的超級巨星。他們每一晚都要上30分鐘，但同時他
們必須要盡可能錯開。

The Clippers also don't have a veteran backup big man. They want to let
Harden be Harden and pair him up with a big man, and they also need to avoid
playing three-guard lineups, which have been disastrous. Bones Hyland is the
odd man out of the Clippers rotation right now as a result, and Terance Mann
is no longer starting like he was expected to.

There are just too many holes in this Clippers roster right now and not many
avenues to improve it right away. With the Mason Plumlee injury, there's not
enough size behind Ivica Zubac, who has been mediocre at best since the
trade. As a starting point, the Clippers' stars just need to play better,
play harder, shoot better and do more of the little things that win your team
basketball games.





Kawhi Leonard, who has historically been an efficient scorer, is shooting a
career-worst 46 percent from the field and 30 percent from three since James
Harden joined the rotation. Paul George is at an abysmal 33.9 percent
shooting from the field and just 23.3 percent from three. Russell Westbrook
is shooting 43.6 percent from the field and 32.1 percent from three.

Pointing the finger at Tyronn Lue when his team is down their backup center
after trading all of their power forwards and glue guys doesn't hold water.
Lue is continuously trying to tinker with the rotations, pulling Russell
Westbrook and Ivica Zubac early to keep those two together and pair James
Harden with Moussa Diabate. Those lineups are still too small, don't have the
necessary shooting, and/or aren't pushing in transition if they do get stops.

Terance Mann and PJ Tucker have had to split some backup four duties, and as
much as they'd like to avoid it, Russell Westbrook and James Harden will have
to share the floor at some points throughout the game if they're each going
to play at least 30 minutes a night.

Kawhi Leonard作為一直以來高效率得分手目前在Harden加入後僅有生涯新低的46%命中率
與30%三分命中率。Paul Geoge在33.9%命中率與23.3%三分命中率的深淵。Russell
Westbrook則保持了43.6%的命中率及32.1%的三分命中率。

在球隊失去了替補中鋒並交易掉了所有大前鋒及Glue Guys後還將所有問題全部指責在




No fan favorites or locker-room vets left
不再剩餘的球迷寵兒或是休息室老將

Among all the trades and moves throughout the “213” era, the consistent
disregard for retaining culture-builders, positive locker-room presences and
fan favorites might be the most concerning. The priority should always be to
improve a roster, but too many have come and gone without adequately valuing
enough of what they bring off the court.

After the James Harden trade that sent Covington and Batum to the Sixers,
President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank offered insight into the
value of locker-room presences within the team and organizationally.



在James Harden交易中送走Covington與Batum至76人後，籃球營運總裁Lawrence Frank對
球隊內休息室領袖的價值提供了一些見解。

“It means a lot,” Lawrence Frank said. “I mean, we do not underrate
chemistry. We don't underrate character. Trades have to be a two-way street.
They have to make sense for the other side. The other side, if we value
someone, they probably value the player. He's probably valued around the
league. So it is always extremely difficult to trade. And yeah, there have
been people who have been very, very important, and we still stay in close
ties with them.

“But ultimately what you have to assess is what's best for the organization
and what's best to help us with our goal and to have the opportunity to
acquire one of the elite talents in this league. And I think we focus on
players who are they in terms of what are their strengths, and if you
optimize their strengths within the group, what does it look like? And I
think acquiring James and also acquiring PJ, despite, to your point, the
great contributions those guys made, we felt as hurtful and tough as it is,
it was well worth the price we paid.”




令人痛心且艱難的，但我們認為付出的代價是完全值得的。」

Understanding that not every transaction is a win-win and certainly has its
risks, has what's best for the organization been trading away crucial locker
room contributors and fan favorites in Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, Reggie
Jackson, Nicolas Batum, and Robert Covington?

Was it best to not re-sign a proven Isaiah Hartenstein for less than what he
took from the Knicks in order to take a chance on John Wall, who hadn't
played in over a year? This move alone has had a long-lasting domino effect
on the team.

我理解並不是所有交易都是雙贏局面且都有他的風險在，但交易掉那些休息室的關鍵人物
及球迷們喜歡的球員如Patrick Beverley、Lou Williams、Reggie Jackson、Nicolas
Batum與Robert Covington真的是對球隊最好的決定嗎?

(註:Lou Williams甚至表示快艇將他交易回老家加速了他想退休的念頭。)

不以比尼克更低的薪資簽回已經證明自己的Isaiah Hartenstein來獲得一年沒打球的John
Wall是最好的決定?這個舉動甚至開啟了長期的骨牌效應。

(Hartenstein後來有情報說他願意拿快艇的小中產並放棄尼克的全額中產 但結果大家都知
道了。)

Was it best to let Eric Gordon walk into free agency after 27 games — not
even using him as a trade chip — just to save money and try to avoid the
second apron, giving up Luke Kennard and the pick swap that turned into Cam
Whitmore? (Right now, by the way, this looks even more pointless because the
Clippers are a second apron team after the James Harden trade anyways).

The Clippers' rosters over the last few years have had zero continuity, not
only because Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have had unfortunate injury luck
but because players hardly stick around beyond 2 1/2 years. Luck has had a
lot to do with where the Clippers have finished in the last few years,
however, compare their constant roster turnover to recent NBA Finals teams:
The Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat in 2023, the Golden State Warriors and
Boston Celtics in 2022, the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns in 2021.





All of those teams had some level of continuity with their stars and role
players. The Clippers have had none of that, and constantly shuffling through
pieces hasn't proven to work just yet. In fact, if an older role player says
they'd like to retire a Clipper, that probably means they're going to be
traded soon after.

Maybe Kawhi Leonard and Paul George finally figure it out and the Clippers
make a run that puts everyone’s minds at ease. Having four future
Hall-of-Famers and a coach like Tyronn Lue is exactly who you’d want leading
the charge.

Right now, however, this team has too many problems with no simple answer or
direction in sight.



(註:Batum Reggie等人可能都沒少說過)

或許Kawhi Leonard與Paul George最終能找到快艇可以衝刺的方式並讓大家冷靜。有著4名
未來名人堂球員與一名如同Tyronn Lue的教練可能就是你要衝刺會想要的陣容。

但現在，這支球隊有太多問題且可視範圍內並沒有一個簡單的答案或是方向。

心得:

最後一段我是真的很心寒

甚至交易當下都快感到麻木了
最喜歡的球員一個一個被賣走
誰知道他們哪天Mann或Zu這兩個哪天會被動到

抱怨James Harden還什麼的 抱怨Ty Lue什麼的對他們根本不公平
這球隊就是同樣的事情不斷的一直做一直做而已

--
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc), 來自: 98.217.185.18 (美國)
※ 作者: EZ78 2023-11-15 10:47:53
※ 文章代碼(AID): #1bL35RYE (NBA)
※ 文章網址: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/NBA/M.1700016475.A.88E.html