Exclusive Stotts... Can We Gameplan Better For Stars and Stop Giving Up Game Winners?

I'm going to address this point by point:

Opposing superstars always seem to go off against us. It was that way last year with Paul George, Marc Gasol, and a few others that I can't specifically remember going off in crunch time with adequate defensive coverage leading to defeats in games we've won.

That trend HAS NOT CHANGED. In 5 games this year, we've given up 44 points to Giannis Antetokounmpo, 39 to DeMarcus Cousins, and numerous crunch time buckets to Blake Griffin.

It's sad when you have numerous people sitting close to court during the stretch run SCREAMING for double teams on Blake, and the couple times it happens it results in turnovers. Blake Griffin was the only guy that could score on us down the stretch, and we let him. Stotts didn't have an answer to one player, and it's a common thing, and quite ridiculous. I'm getting tired of fans like myself that would know what to do in situations like this.

Game-winning shots against us in the past couple years have been NUMEROUS. We never have the right defensive mindset at the end of games.

When up 2 with six seconds left, you don't want to foul, and you don't want to give up a 3. With 3-5 seconds left, if there's a screen or handoff above the key, the defense should always trap, and scramble for the remaining time. Usually the offense won't have enough time to move the ball to get a 3pt shot off. If they are able to pass out of pressure to a guy that happens to be open for two (which is the worst case scenario), it ends up in Overtime at home.

Instead, we have both guys sagging under the handoff, taking away the driving line from Griffin who ONLY has time to shoot a 3pt shot to beat us. How stupid can it get?

Some of this is on the players, but most of it is on the coach. During the past couple games, I've realized that the defensive improvement has been entirely on the players committing themselves to giving more effort on that end, starting with Damian. They're not being coached any better on that end.

And while we're at it, I've been one of the biggest Dame defenders, but Stotts needs to hold him accountable on shot selection. Contested 27-footers with 10 seconds on the shot clock is AWFUL. His shots where he flails in the key searching for the foul instead of trying to convert a layup almost always works out bad as well. But Stotts allows this to happen...

Summary
I've said many times that Stotts is not the right coach for this team. Situations like this, which we should've won, will hurt as at the end of the season. That's a 2-game swing (plus possibly the swinging of a tiebreaker) against the Clippers. Stotts dropped the ball big time. I've seen it to many fucking times. Just needed to vent about this stuff that I'm sure everyone sees.

Do you agree/disagree/what do you think?

 

I think you are spot fucking on, and I've been seeing the same shit as you ever since we rebuilt this team. The problem is, Stotts hasn't changed his playbook or coaching style AT ALL. He's still playing the same shit from when we had a 50+ win team with Aldridge, Batum, and Matthews.

But we don't have them anymore. And he hasn't changed shit. It's the same ol' shit: ridiculous rotations that have even old women in Venezuela scratching their heads, failure to use double-teams when necessary, horrible switches (Dame on BLAKE for fuck's sake!) with no help, almost no crucial timeouts when necessary, and horrible screens.

And he just stands there on the fucking sidelines with that blank, stupid expression on his fucking face:



Like he can't be fucked, or something.

Fuck this clown. I'm SO fucking sick of him! He needs to go! It's the same ol' shit year after year after year: when it comes to crunch time against 40-win teams, he completely gets out-coached. Every single time!

If we don't make it past the 1st round of the playoffs this year, he needs to be fired. And for fucking sure he'll be fired if we DON'T make it at all.

You're completely right, Bones. Nailed it.

 

Fucking NO I wouldn't. So lucky I wasn't at the game last night, I would have been screaming at him from the sidelines while being dragged out in handcuffs.

 

As long as you didn't do this right?

Spoiler

 

You proud of yourself?

 

Calm down. We've also had our good share of hitting the game winning shot. Offhand, I remember CJ's game winning floater against Dallas and Dame's game winning floater against Denver, both just last year. Giannis and Griffin are currently the top 2 MVP candidates this year so of course, the are going to be tough to stop. Nonetheless, we played OUTSTANDING defense in the second half last night. Before Blake's shot, we had held them to 39 points. Aminu was GREAT on both sides of the ball. And Stotts is one of the best coaches in the league. Every coach has tough losses. Calm down. We've been playing great. Two tough plays against us or we'd be 5-0. It's very very early in the season. Don't overreact to losses, especially in games where we did a lot right.

 

Actually keeping Blake out at the 3 point line to take that shot is a pretty good percentage win when you think about it. Career 30.9 %. He has made a remarkable 10 of 23 so far this year but. But if you are looking at a 60-70% chance of him missing that isn't that bad.

 

I don't like the way this team is playing right now. I've said countless times, how frustrating it is to see 2-3 guys suffocating Dame/CJ, and how we never do that to the opposing team's star, even after they repeatedly display that they can take their counterpart 1 on 1 anytime they want.

Dame is simply not playing at a star level this year, he's a good scorer, but he makes terrible decisions. You can just tell in his body language times when he's decided he's going to shoot no matter what. That would be a bit more forgivable if he were a one man team, but he's NOT, this team has other guys that can score.

You look at his crunch time STATS , in terms of shooting and turnovers, and they are abysmal. This isn't my opinion, it's a fact. Dame needs to reign it in and learn how to play the game better as a team leader, or this team will never get to the next level.

 

I agree this wasn't Stotts best game, but the blame for this one should be spread around. If Dame would of @#$#$ blocked out Beverly at least once then this is a win. And do give the Clips credit, that their defense was 100% for the entire game. This team looks a lot less flashy and a lot more dangerous than it did with CP3.

My biggest gripe is that this might have been a good game to experiment with some of the bench given we were so overmatched in size for much of the game. Maybe he really isn't ready, but would have loved to have seen Collins out there defending any of their 3-4-5s. I've never seen us look so small from 1-5.

And yes, if we ever miss Vonleh, this was the game.

 

this coaching staff seems kind of stale and complacent. I wish they were willing to accept seem new blood and energy but they seem kind of insular.

 

I know other teams' fans are saying the same thing about how we seem to hit so many game winning shots against them. And stars are stars for a reason. You don't hold stars to single-digits. Dame had one of his worst games ever recently and he still found a way to score a lot in the 2nd half.

Not to say Stotts couldn't improve in some areas (I bet he would admit that) but he is still a top-half coach in this league.

 

Aminu needs to simply not be a knucklehead and fight thru that screen and force a harder shot! His effort on that last shot was horrible.

 

Vonleh has a bit more size to handle Griffin. Blazers might have done better with him in the rotation.

 

Last night must not have been a "MUST WIN" situation.

 

You're really going a bit overboard man...

 

Was thinking the same thing.

 

It was a really bad moving screen. Dame should've contested the shot. There actually should've been a double IMO. Stotts.

 

I'll be honest, but I think last nights game was blacked out in Venezuela