The Clippers' problem may not be a basketball problem at all

The last time Kawhi Leonard raised his arms like this may be back in the final second of the 2019 Eastern Conference semifinals, when he scored the winner in the bottom corner. It has been nearly four years since then, and these four years are extremely special, enough to describe the vicissitudes of life, to see the world turned upside down, and so are our lives. When all was calm again, Leonard raised his arms again and won a regular season game for them.

Of course, this is no ordinary regular season. Before this season, Xiaoka played 12 years and 639 games, not much but famous all over the world, and his career was like a delicate gadget, a beautiful miniature landscape. The card area is not big, creating a myth, the winner Xiaoka has been able to play in the previous games, the longest consecutive defeat is only 4 games, but before this game, he and his Clippers suffered a wave of 6 consecutive defeats, and even before Harden played that 3+1 in the last 6 seconds of this game, you can't be sure if they can end this wave of losing streak.

The losing streak began the day Harden boarded the ship. It is said that a phone call from owner Ballmer prompted the deal, and the Clippers removed half of the bench and emptied the otherwise coveted forward reserves of Morris Jr., Covington, Batum and Martin Jr., leaving the names of Leonard, Paul George, Westbrook and Harden on the starting lineup at the same time.

If this list appeared 4 years ago, it is difficult to imagine how far public opinion would explode, but this list will appear in 2023, and public opinion is indeed a little excited, but this excitement is more with an element of watching a lively or having fun. Now that the information is developed, the fans are not easy to fool, and everyone knows very well that it makes sense that this list will appear in 2023. This truth comes from people's perceptions of the experiences of the four bigwigs on the list over the past four years, which can be summed up in just two words:

Fail.

Each of the four has a different path to failure, but they also have a unified undertone, and they all have a history of moving freely as superstars, but their movements seem to prove only one thing: although they are in the era of superstars, not everyone can become James.

Everyone seems to have an objective reason to do something about their own failures:

If Weizhong has a system that suits him, he can still play the style of the year, and last year's playoffs Clippers were injured in a large area, and Weizhong pulled out a data sheet of 23.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks.

Harden is no longer the Harden of the Rockets' scoring champion, but this seems to be his active choice to retreat and make a small rather than a natural decline, the output of the Nets' continued big core play before his injury is still amazing, running to Philadelphia Everything revolves around Embiid, Harden has become the league's assist leader with an average of 21 points per game, you can't say that this performance is bad.

And the biggest objective reason for the combination of Kajiao is two words: injury.

But beyond objective reasons or excuses, we can still observe some other facts:

The Clippers in the 2020 playoffs are healthy, and Rivers certainly has his own reversal curse, but he is not the one who makes Leonard's mid-range shot and Pickles hit a three-pointer to the rebounding rim at a critical moment.

There are reasons for Harden's stat decline, but it is also obvious that his first step has become sluggish, and the league's fine-tuning of the outside defensive rules has limited his performance on the one-point line.

As for Weizhong, which needs a system, in fact, it will no longer have a system of its own.

So everything is like Wade told Arenas: you can't use your previous accolades to start the next part of your career.

Now the four people on the Clippers' list are no longer what they were when they became famous, and now they are at the crossroads of their next career. They need to start from scratch and adapt to each other, but you know how hard it can be for a player who has been playing for more than a decade in his 30s to change.

The first problem the Clippers have shown during their six-game losing streak is obvious: Weizhong can't coexist with James in the same starter, no matter which James it is. Weizhong has to have the ball in his hands, and he can provide point guard duties such as breaking the ball and dealing cards at the top of the arc, as well as some physical confrontations, rim impacts, and rebounds, but he can't provide space in the bottom corner.

This issue was partially resolved before the Rockets, when Weizhong volunteered to be a bench, so he played only 17 minutes in the game, especially in the final quarter, and then he did not give a postgame interview. Maybe Weizhong's imaginary going to be a substitute does not mean that the playing time is halved, and it does not mean that there is no chance to play in the last 8 minutes. The use of Weizhong on the bench has not yet received a clear answer in nature, so his entry into the bench itself is not a great decision, and it is more difficult to let Weizhong play to his strengths on the bench, and the Clippers themselves have shortened the rotation line, and the resources to allocate Weizhong are more limited.

The second question is how to use Harden. The question of using Harden is essentially a question of whether to use a big lineup or a small lineup. Harden says he has his own system, and his system is a top selection ability after instigating the pick-and-roll. During the anti-Yong period, the Rockets once developed a set of small-sized blocking and dismantling around Harden, and the space threat of the small-size shooter's cover and dismantling and Harden's heads-up after changing defenses constituted the basic plate of the Rockets' small-ball system. However, with the decline of Harden's personal ability and the change of rules, indiscriminate heads-up is no longer Harden's biggest weapon, so it is difficult for a small space shooter to block and dismantle to become the first option to use Harden, and the Clippers must put a big man with a threat to the basket to match Harden.

This was evident in the win over the Rockets, where Zubac played the longest 34 minutes of the season to good effect, and the team's pre-game introduction of center Theis should also be considered in that regard. But whether it's Zubac, Theis or Plumlee, who will return in 2 months, their finishing ability is limited, and simply blocking and passing inside cannot maximize Harden's ability to be on the floor, and Harden also needs to strengthen his connection with Capepper outside of blocking and pick-and-roll, enriching the team's system, rather than simply playing the role of a dealer. Finally, in a high-end game or in the playoffs, against a strong team in the league that tends to shrink the basket, such as the Nuggets, Harden needs to be able to take advantage of those mid-to-long-range jumpers in the gaps left by his opponent after the pick-and-roll.

Next is pickled peppers. Pickled peppers are a peculiar problem, during the Clippers' losing streak, Tyronn Lue once showed everyone a video, and Pickled Pepper said that everyone needs to sacrifice, "I'm willing to be that glue player, and work more on defense and rebounding." ”

But Taryn Lue's reaction was, "You're not a glue, you're a fucking ruthless!"

I can fully understand Coach Lu's encouragement and expectation for Pickle Pepper, but I never expected Pickle Pepper to really play in the game against the Rockets, he played a full 40 minutes, almost all strong shots, and finally handed over an answer sheet of 22 shots and 23 points. Pickled pepper is also a 34-year-old person, and he has been in the league for 13 years, and the set of things that fight chicken blood still works for him, which can still explain some problems. In addition to this sudden chicken blood, the problem of pickled pepper is an old problem, unpredictable is his old problem, he can play some 20 shots 7 hits, 3-of-12 shots, you can also play some 13-of-26 shots, he can have 7 assists, he can also make 7 turnovers, he can drift up and make strong shots, and he can also complete a return defense and a breakthrough at the most critical time of the game, he is a coin, you never know which side will be up when you land, and according to Murphy's Law, the high probability of facing up is often the side you don't want to see.

Now, for Pickles and Coach Lu, they need to recognize a reality, their failures in the past four years are certainly related to injuries, but frequent coin tosses are also an important reason, Pickles Pepper needs to play in a system, in my opinion, if Harden can build another fuller offensive system for the team, Pickles Pepper can fully integrate into Harden's system, and according to his own words, more of a "glue", rather than forcibly playing a bloody ruthless person.

However, the bench positioning of Weizhong is not clear, and it will take time for Pickles to be the glue and Harden to build an offensive system, all of which are not enough to immediately support the Clippers' offense, so everything has to be attributed back to the real boss of the team.

Unfortunately, the small card has its own status issues. His mid-range shooting and crunch shooting percentage began to decline, with him shooting just 27 percent from mid-range this season, the third-lowest of 38 players who have taken more than 25 mid-range shots, compared to 49.2 percent last season and the fifth of all players who have made more than 175 shots. In the fourth quarter of the game, Leonard averaged just 3.3 points per game on 39 percent shooting this season, compared to 5.4 points on 51 percent shooting last season. In the last 6 minutes of the game against the Rockets, Leonard missed 4 shots, and in the last 6 seconds, Smith Jr., a sophomore player who singled out 5 fouls, was forced to stop the ball and pass the ball to Harden at the top of the arc.

If Harden is the system itself, and Pickled Pepper needs a system to restrain him, then Leonard should be the one who can jump out of the system to play, the so-called superstar is to have this ability and performance. I don't doubt that Leonard can get back to form and become who he used to be, but with Leonard, one thing people can't be sure of is which comes first, the recovery or the injury.

And on top of all of that, there's one final thing hanging over too many Clippers right now, and that's contract year pressure.

When Harden played that 3+1, the live broadcast camera quickly gave the boss Ballmer, the old man was not as ecstatic as before, there was no body movement or exaggerated expression, he just stood there, his face showed a trace of "Look, Lao Tzu fucking said I wasn't stupid" calmly, and a trace of "Can these people only win by relying on this kind of one-shot deal". Ballmer took over such a sparkling combination as Ka Pepper as soon as he became owner, showing his surging passion everywhere, and his love for basketball was all in every move; now four years later, the fatigue and suspicion after the passion should gradually come to the heart of the capital tycoon, who is about to give the team an independent home arena, as for whether to bring this gang into this new arena, is another question.

Currently, Leonard, Pickles and Wichung are all in the player option at the end of the season, while Harden is in the final year of his contract. This means that everyone needs to think about the next contract. When you're in an unstable situation where you need to play well to win your next contract, and because you're on a team with goals like the Clippers, you need to juggle sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of statistics, which is a double pressure that comes from contradictions, and it's not just Harden alone.

The Clippers' dilemma is much more complex and difficult than how to get four unsatisfactory stars to have chemistry on the court, and it is not a simple basketball problem. Of course, basketball is played by people, and naturally this is one of the problems of basketball, and it may even be the most critical problem, and it is precisely the most difficult factor in basketball problems to control: the uncertainty of people.

A lot of times when we talk about football, we unconsciously skip this question, or think that we can simplify it with data, professional ethics, and terms and conditions, maybe just to avoid making a professional sport seem too complicated and unacceptable to the general public.

In his later years, Tai Jingnong wrote inscriptions for people, often writing the characters "Life is really difficult, and the avenue is ambiguous". These are very interesting eight words, because the difficulty of life lies in the fact that there are too many wrong paths, and it is difficult to reverse one wrong step. As soon as Yang Zhu, the philosopher of the first Qin, thought of this, he couldn't help but "cry", looking very sad. But things in the world are probably like this, since the road is a fait accompli, and the real difficulty of life caused by one wrong step is also an inextricable dilemma, you might as well let go of pessimism and nothingness, face the difficulties of life, come to a fork in the road, just take a road, go to the end, but do not have to regret, chant a sentence of Wang Wei's famous sentence "Go to the poor place of water, sit and watch the clouds rise".

Of course, if the clipper boat also goes to the bottom of the water, the passengers should also get off the boat and disperse.