Russell Westbrook is signing with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Probably, the Clippers are determined to be spoilers.
As I said at this time last year, the Celtics — then fifth in the East — were the most dangerous team in the East.
The feeling of a strong team: smooth and dashing, flowing clouds and water, but you can't beat it!
Dangerous feeling: scary, can't hold it, maybe why will it jump up and beat you up?
Since 2020, the Clippers and the Celtics have had some similar temperaments:
Ace Wings; Change the anti-tough; A bunch of people have baskets and lack an organizational soul, so the attack is unstable; Positional warfare often can't pour out space, and brute force throws into trouble; However, after disassembling the ground meat, it can still make life hurt.
I always thought that the Celtics were the youth version of the Clippers, but last season it was the Celtics who advanced to the Finals.
But this season, the Clippers are still dangerous.
The Clippers' previous no-ball and conduction this season, to put it mildly, was not good; For two consecutive seasons, he relied on George as the team's assist king. On the offensive end, the pace is not fast, the attack is not fierce, and it relies on single mid-range shots and peripheral hand.
But Coach Lu has a lot of strength, the Clippers are tough and tough, especially a good hand for defense: playing the Suns a few days ago, the last point guard team, won abruptly.
Mann + Leonard + Covington/Batum + George can be the league's most comprehensive finishing lineup, with Zubac/Prenley carrying the big lineup, or Morris to swing infinitely.
The league has its own other excellent finishing lineups, but few are as well-suited to play a playoff grinder as the Clippers. So the Clippers now, although they only have the fourth-best regular season record in the West, and the regular season often bumps, this team's style of play is to be a spoiler.
But the Clippers don't need organizers entirely, after all, the game is 48 minutes long, and it is impossible to grind meat and change defensive formations and fight hard at all times.
The Clippers recruited Wall before in an attempt to be instigated by him, but it didn't work well. Now they originally lacked point guards, but also sent Reggie and Wall, recruited Hyland and Weishao, the meaning is quite clear:
They change defenses infinitely, take turns to play singles, and do not pay much attention to the commander when deciding life and death, but they do need someone who can push the rhythm and break the score:
Wall didn't do it, you guys try to do it.
The current situation of Wei Shao is well known:
He has no basket, the efficiency of the ball is not good, the control error is not good, and the single defense is not good; Off-ball threats are especially bad.
He has been in this state since knee surgery in 2019.
But still in the 2020-21 season, he won the assist king with the Wizards and played his last peak season - averaging 22 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists, and 38 triple-doubles per game. The Wizards also played in the playoffs that year.
In the spring of 2021, how did the Wizards use Wei Shao?
Swap defense with Lane + Hachimura + Avdia's swing striker; Let Wei Shao push the speed to fight counterattack and fall into positional battles, Wei Shao is responsible for dealing cards to find empty cut teammates, or handing them over to ace Bill.
If the Clippers also use Wei Shao in this way, they will probably be able to:
Change defense, the Clippers are good at it.
Wei Shao dealt cards to find teammates? The Clippers have no shortage of shooters, and the best season of Paul George's career, his third-highest regular-season MVP vote year in 2018-19, came with the Thunder and Westbrook.
Wei Shao's threat of attacking with the ball, that's not to mention, but the pass is still reliable.
He and the Clippers' spoiler temperament do not seem to conflict.
As mentioned above, strong teams are in the clouds, and dangerous teams are very unpredictable:
Most of them are not smooth, but they are good at disrupting the rhythm of the strong in the noise chaos.
Wei Shao is such a big nag that can take his own rhythm off the beaten and ruthlessly destroy the other party's rhythm.
Since Durant's departure from the Thunder, Westbrook has won only one playoff series, the 2020 Rockets vs. Thunder: Even in that series, he didn't play well.
But he and Durant partnered to win the last series, the 2016 Western Conference semifinals, the Thunder and Spurs.
In that series, Durant averaged 29+7+4 per game, and Wilson averaged 25+7+11 per game. Durant is a consistent source of scoring for the Thunder, but those of you who have experienced it naturally remember:
In that series, what made the Spurs uncomfortable was Adams' interior hand-to-hand combat and Wilson's starting sprint.
When the rhythm is on the Spurs' side, Aldridge and Leonard can still play the thunder steadily; But when Wilson took the Thunder to speed, the Spurs were dizzy.
As for the subsequent Western Conference Finals, how the Thunder once ran a 3-1 lead over the Warriors over the Warriors, everyone remembers - the three games that the Thunder won in that series, Wilson was a triple-double of 27 points, 12 assists, 30 points, 12 assists and 36 points.
Russell Westbrook is one of the few diesel chainsaws in NBA history. Smoothness and steadiness have never been with him, and running and tearing up in noise mistakes is his specialty.
Running poor is absurd and provoking neighbors to complain, running smoothly will evolve into moving and hitting everyone together.
Now he's in the Clippers' Unlimited Swap Grinder spoiler team, which still lacks a speedy breakback.
If you are afraid of affecting the starting chemistry, then try to let him take more bench speed, and run fifteen or twenty minutes per game, it seems okay?
(Although whether it is the start or the finish, it is probably better to go to Mann...) ）
Of course, this trick is a bit of a gamble after all. After all, in the past three or four years, except for the Wizards, Wei Shao has not been smooth on any team - as mentioned above, his style of play is a spoiler, and fluency has nothing to do with him - so it was also reported the other day that the Clippers were worried about whether Wei Shao would destroy the locker room chemistry.
But in the end, the Clippers still have to sign less power, which can probably be understood like this:
On the one hand, Bradley Beale said about Wilson a while ago:
"He's a fantastic teammate and in character he's by no means what many portray; If you're his teammate, he works hard for you, he loves the team; If you make a mistake, he will be more self-critical before he gets angry with you... He knows where I like to catch the ball and he will make it easier for you to play. ”
Beal was second in the league in points per game that year he partnered with Wilson.
In addition to him, Wilson has also worked with Durant and Harden, two scoring champions. George averaged a career-high season of 28 points per game while working with him; Leonard probably won't have any difficulties working with Wilson.
Wei Shao himself probably understood that this was his last chance in the NBA.
On the other hand, even though it may be a bit of a gamble to sign Wei Shao, the Clippers team is almost time to gamble:
They went in and out this month, sending off Wall, Kennard and Reggie, and got a wave of people: Wilson and the new Gordon are both 34 years old, and the new Prenley is almost 33 years old; Think about the original people of the Clippers: Batum is 34, George is 33 in the playoffs, Covington is 32, Leonard is 31 and is in his fourth season with the Clippers, playing 143 regular-season games.
Their core team is really not young.
For the Clippers and Westbrook, this is the final sprint disruptor:
"Finally go crazy! - After all, we are all getting old. ”