How To Coach the Clippers

With the Clips down by 15, DJ gets his 4th foul and Reggie Miller says “how about Doc leaving DJ in with 4 fouls.  That’s gutsy coaching.”  Huh?  At that point, Doc had nothing to lose and it is most certainly not gutsy coaching.  The gutsy coach move would have been to leave DJ in after his third foul when it was a four point game.  As Mrs. Clipanswerman said, “Why not leave DJ in and keep it close and then if he fouls out, you depend on CP to win it?” Exactly right.  This unwritten rule that coaches follow of always taking a player out at the third foul in the first half is ridiculous.  It depends on the circumstances.  You’re up 3-1 and you’re on the road.  That’s a ‘roll the dice’ situation and to me, quite simply, the odds of winning the game are better if DJ is in there.  I said it after game 2, I’ll say it again – DJ playing only 24 minutes (he ended up with 4 fouls, you get 6) is inexcusable.  It’s bad coaching.

Hawes played well – by his standards, but the combination of Hawes and Austin let the game get out of control quickly.  I got some comments on my ‘Daddy Issues’ post after Austin played well this weekend.  Well, if you’re keeping score – and you should – because one really bad game equals one really good game – Austin was horrible yesterday.  19 minutes, one assist.  Discombobulated offensive sets with him ‘running’ the point and a multitude of layup bricks resulting in easy scores on the other end yesterday.  Doc is depending on Austin way too much.  For the record, Barnes was horrible yesterday, too.

One other thing that gets my dander up.  I can’t stand it when a coach (i.e. Dumbleavy) calls a play at the end of the game that hasn’t been used all game.  Similarly, all season long when teams Hack DJ, we haven’t adjusted our game plan.  Now all of a sudden, Doc’s apt to pull DJ at certain points in response to Hacking.  Why the sudden change in strategy? (Answer: Doc’s panicking.)  We also haven’t Hacked the other team once all year.  Why are we occasionally doing it now?  (Really, hacking Corey Brewer when you’re down by 18?)  Memo to Doc:  If we’re going to go down, lets go down with the guys who got us here.  That’s DJ, not Austin.  Thursday is a ‘must-win’ game.  DJ, Blake and CP need to play 42 minutes each.  Use the timeouts to get them rest.   Don’t save your timeouts so you can allow Houston’s defense to get set while you diagrams a play.  Limit Hawes’ and Austin’s minutes.  Don’t worry about the other team hacking.  And don’t use the Hack strategy.  It’s a loser’s mentality.

In short, how do you coach the Clippers?  You don’t overcoach and over think.  You listen to Mrs. Clipanswerman and you put in your best players and play them for as long as the rules allow and they can physically play.  Then, get out of the way.