Aloha,
Well that was fun. There is nothing better than beating the Clippers in back to back games. Yes for me it’s even better than beating the Celtics because the Clippers had the nerve to even come to LA. And the basketball gods have rewarded them with heartbreak year after year😂
We didn’t have Rui at all and only had Austin for 9 minutes in the first game as well as Goodwin last night. We proved we are a very deep team and can win even when LeBron has an off night like he did last night. If it wasn’t for turnovers that led to 24 Clipper points this could have been a blowout.
While I doubt Rob will get Executive of the year award, he should. Yes the Mavs approached the Laker in the Luka trade but Rob’s negotiating led to the Lakers under paying. Giving up Max was tough but keeping a first as well as the swaps was brilliant.
I have been hard on Rob through the years but you have to give him his flowers for how this team was built. It started with signing Austin as an undrafted rookie and then as he improved, resisting the pressure to trade him for a name player. He is now our 3rd star.
Next was insisting that Vando came back in the Westbrook dump. Not a lot was made of it at the time but Rob saw a 6’ 9” whirlwind defender and rebounder. There were a lot of questions after Rob extended him but I don’t think anyone is complaining now. His 10mil contract maybe a bargain now.
Rob followed that up by trading Kendrick Nunn, remember him ? and a few 2nds for Rui. A 6’ 8” big body 3 level scorer. While Rui was inconsistent, he began to find consistency down the stretch last year when Ham finally inserted him into the starting lineup. This year he has been a big part of the team’s success. And again Rob resisted calls to trade him.
This was followed by trading DLO for Finney-Smith and some seconds. While DlO is quality offensive player, he was struggling this year and with Austin emerging he wasn’t what we needed but we needed what DFS brings.
Once Vando came back we suddenly had four 6’ 8”- 6’ 9” guys for our “small ball” line up. That always cracks me up. Rui and Lebron can both guard the wing and have big bodies to bang with bigs while Vando and DFS are both lock down wing and guard defenders.
There are other moves as well. After missing most of last year Gabe took some time to find his Miami game again but he finally has.
It took Jackson a year and a half to be the player Rob saw when he signed him. But he has.
Dalton fell to us but he seems to finally coming back to the player he was early in the season.
Add in Tre and Goodwin, two way players that deserve to be on standard contracts and suddenly you have a contender.
What is most exciting to me is there is a lot of room for improvement. Luka is slowly becoming himself again he still is getting his conditioning and rhythm back. And Vando, DFS, Luka, Tre and Goodwin are all still learning to play together in JJ’s system.
While I love that we are sitting in the 2nd seed, it’s just as important that we are 7 games or more up in the loss column on the contenders for the 6th seed. With are newfound defense and reasonably good health we are going to be a problem come playoff time.