At a press conference a week ago, Clippers general manager Lawrence Frank said a series of phrases when asked what signing Westbrook would bring to the team.
"Explosiveness, strength, intensity, ability to attack the basket, ability to push back, ability to create space for shooters, competitor mentality. He doesn't need to change, as long as he plays his own style, we think his good qualities can really help our team and make us better. ”
6 games have passed. The Clippers fell from fourth in the West before the All-Star weekend to eighth in the West now. Wilson gave the Clippers everything Frank said and played in style, but the Clippers apparently didn't get better — at least not immediately. Steve Ballmer spent the NBA's highest salary to build the NBA's most expensive team, and yesterday one of the richest old men in the world could only sit in the front row, watching the team be slashed 51 points by the Grizzlies, who were missing three starters in the third quarter.
Fortunately, the Clippers returned in the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies' hands cooled, and Paul George became the team's savior, fighting 15 free throws and stressing after the game: "As a point guard, Russell fits all the qualities of a leader." He constantly cheers everyone up and stays positive. You need such guys. ”
The Clippers scored 135 points and Wilson played 34 minutes, with 9 points, 6 assists and 4 turnovers. If you have seen the whole process of this game, you will also think that George is really a brother, he not only took Wei Shao out of the venue with his own efforts, but even found the only place in this game Wei Shao to boast about.
We might need to point out that the Grizzlies' offensive frenzy in the third quarter was started by two turnovers by Wilson, and most of the Clippers' players didn't look like George wanted to win as much. As happened in the previous five games, when the "momentum" on the pitch changed, not only could they not step up and turn the situation around, but instead used careless defense and clanging iron in the back kitchen to collect the fire of the game, leaving a cold residue.
So is Wei Shao to blame for all this? Is he really a dead star who "does not give birth to grass wherever he goes"?
Looking back on previous losses, what images do you have in your mind? Wilson missed Malik Monk at a crucial moment to make him an equaliser; Wei Shao was released five meters away by Dream Green, and the zombie jumper hit the iron, and directly refused to shoot at the back; Wilson let Eric Gordon's pass pass between his hands, and the Clippers lost the game... That's right, Wei Shao Wei Shao Wei Shao, or Wei Shao. The only game that didn't require Wei Shao to back the pot was against the Denver Nuggets, and Wei Shao didn't play at all in the fourth quarter and overtime, in other words, as long as he played, the Clippers had to rely on Wei Shao to lose.
Maybe we have to justify Wei Shao and mention one more statistic: In the poor 1-5 record, Wei Shao has positive plus-minus in 3 of these 6 games, and in the 188 minutes he has played in total, the Clippers actually lost 5 points. This is completely different from our impression. Our impression stream and the current sample size is not large, and there must be something lying in it.
Westbrook has played six games for the Clippers, and those six games perfectly embody Weishao's characteristics: As Frank said, Westbrook is indeed a player who can create scoring opportunities for his teammates and can push back — these are things the Clippers need, but they are also costly. As long as you let Wilson play, you have to accept that he makes mistakes, not only on the offensive end, but also on the defensive end.
Coming to the Clippers, Wilson is much more active than when he was with the Lakers. He's even willing to cover for his teammates, but because of his own poor shooting percentage—not just from long range, but also on empty baskets close at hand, flying off the court, and then watching his teammates defend on all sides—it only causes more trouble for his teammates.
Even though he is very good defensively, his leaks on the defensive end still occur from time to time - which means that it does not depend on his attitude, but his understanding of the space on the court makes it impossible to execute more advanced defensive tactics, including joint defense.
Because of the above two points, the only way for the Clippers to use Wei Shao to play the starting lineup is to give the ball to Wei Shao to drive. Of course, Leonard and George aren't very good offensive drivers, but when you get the ball out of their hands and into Westbrook's hands, it means you have to accept everything Westbrook has to offer—the good and the bad.
Putting the fate of a team with an annual salary of 200 million on the shoulders of a player with an annual salary of 780,000 may be too heavy. Wei Shao himself may be willing to take on this responsibility, which is the core trait of his ability to become a superstar and MVP all the way back then, and later became the inevitable reason why he was responsible for the team's loss along the way.
Objectively speaking, the 34-year-old Wei Shao is obviously unable to play the role of "core defender of the championship team". But it's not a problem with Wilson, it's with the Clippers who use him to play the starting point guard. Of course, the Clippers have their own ideas, and before Wilson arrived, their tactics of using Mann to start were enough to make them win some weak teams more consistently, but the ceiling of that roster was clearly not enough for them to win in the playoffs against the well-equipped Denver Nuggets or the Phoenix Suns with Durant. As a team aiming for a championship, they need any possibility of raising the team's ceiling.
So the Clippers and Wei Shao hit it off. Wei Shao became the catfish that muddied the waters, and perhaps he saw it as the best opportunity of his career to turn around, but he should also understand that it was also the biggest crisis of his career so far. If he doesn't prove himself with the Clippers — a difficult thing in itself, and perhaps beyond his ability — it's even likely to be the last NBA contract of his career.
The best news for Wei Shao is that the Clippers still believe in him today, and we can still hear Coach Lu supporting him recently: "Russell [Wei Shao] did too much, didn't do enough, I will let him get good feedback." Because he's used to playing a certain way, he's played his own unique style of basketball throughout his career, which is why he was Russell Westbrook. So we didn't even think about taking that away from him. We want him to do the things he loves, he's MVP, he's a future Hall of Famer, and he's unreserved for the team every night. Then we'll take charge of letting him do all this to our team's advantage. ”
On the bright side, it's the leadership that still supports your work; On the bad side, the leadership has put the pot on your head. If the team can get on the right track in the future, it is the leadership and command; If the future of the team falls apart, you have betrayed the trust of the leader. Having a player with an annual salary of $780,000 to top the Ray may seem outrageous on most teams across the league, but considering that this has been the daily routine of the Clippers for the past four years, you might also nod your head secretly.
It's a team that never has a core defender, and it's also a team that never has a dressing room leader. When the players of this team start putting high hats on you, maybe you should first be wary before you have fun. When the Clippers lost to the Nuggets in the playoffs for the first time, it was Montrezl Harrell who stood up with tears in his eyes. That says a lot, but as an outcast from the Lakers, Wilson apparently couldn't care about that, and was knocked down by sugar-coated cannonballs from Clippers players and management, and completely enjoyed it: "I've been trying to improve myself and the team's energy lately. Leadership requires not only me to lead the team when things are going well, but also to help the team stay positive in the face of ups and downs. ”
The incident itself is strange. The Clippers, sitting on two forwards in the league second only to LeBron and Durant, always need role players to "improve leadership" and "face ups and downs" for them. It has become one of the strangest sights in the league over the past four years. Not every role player can carry this cauldron. Reggie Jackson has left the Colorado plateau because he can't carry the pot, and Marcus Morris looks like he has been boiled into dregs. Zubac, Batum, Kennard... The longer a player plays with the Clippers twins, the less energetic he looks, the more like a basketball civil servant who leaves work on time.
Perhaps recognizing this, the Clippers bought a lot of newcomers before this year's trade deadline: Mason Plumley, Eric Gordon, Highland and Wilson. They've just arrived and still look energetic, but that's also putting a lot of pressure on Lu: With 15 regular season games left, the Clippers, a team known for defying the regular season over the past four seasons, have a lot of things to sort out in those 15 games.
In fact, we all know that the problems that have not been solved in the past four years, these last 15 games are still likely to be solved. Those problems are not solved when there is no Wei Shao, and after there is Wei Shao, things are more complicated, can they be solved?
If you start from the point of view of solving problems, everything looks pessimistic. But there's another way of thinking that can make things optimistic again: if we can't solve the problem, we can propose the person who solved the problem. Wei Shao may not solve the problem, but Wei Shao can become a problem. Look, after this season, after playing Wei Shao, the back-pot man, the Clippers can also draw a big pie and come another year next year. What happened before with the Lakers is likely to happen again with the Clippers.
It's a pity that Wei Shao's life is hard, and on his back, it seems that he will soon have another black and shiny new pot.