Is it time for Tyron Lue to change his coaching scheme?

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- There are some teams that just have your number. 

The Denver Nuggets continue their dominant reign over the LA Clippers in a 130-116 victory.  An it was behind the dominant performance of their MVP Nikola Jokic who finished the game with 55 points. The Clippers would drop their sixth game in a row and are now 3-8 not exactly the start expected for the team in LA. 

Tyron Lue’s coaching scheme needs to be changed

In basketball, the job of an opposing team is to take away the other team’s strength. For the Clippers, their offense starts with Tyron Lue on the sideline and ran through their point guard James Harden. 

Throughout the years, Lue has relied on two main things "small ball" where he has inserted smaller lineups on the court mainly with no real center and three guards/wings in at the same time. While also their offensive gameplan relying on more isolation heavy basketball where players tend to go one-on-one and utilizing less ball movement and finding the open man for an open shot. 

Now when you have offensive one-on-one talents like Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Reggie Jackson who can create their own shot on the perimeter, it covers the flawed offensive scheming of the coach. However, Leonard missed his fifth game in a row, and now Lue’s other offensive threat Bradely Beal being out for the rest of the season with a fractured hip. This scheme has been exposed and has been predictable.

Also, with the loss of Norman Powell and Amir Coffey who last season both were great three-point shooters and spacers for the Clippers, Harden doesn’t have the consistent three point catch and shoot guys to make his job easier. So, that adjustment has to be made for this particular team. 

The decline of Ivica Zubac 

Clippers Center Ivica Zubac started the game extremely strong with his traditional hook shots and push shots around the basket but would finish the game with just 18 points and 9 rebounds. That simply wasn’t enough to come close to Jokic’s production, who was able to do whatever he wanted to do inside-out. 

Last season, Zubac had an awesome year where he was not only a force inside offensively, but he also carried the Clippers' defense as well as being the head of the snake with elite rim protection. His productivity earned him All-Defensive second team honors. This would be a season where Zubac would be called upon to take a leap and so far, and that has just not happened. 

Some of it has to do with the Clippers not featuring him enough, but in an NBA where most of the top centers can play not only inside but in the mid-post and perimeter Zubac has yet to develop a mid-post-game, and that's just hard to feature someone like that as your first or a second option. 

Teams have a game plan for Zubac’s one-dimensional style of play to only be a dominant force inside. Zubac can do it all around the basket, but if he wants to be the offensive threat the Clippers need, he is going to have to start stretching his offensive game past 8-10 feet. 

The Young Guys

Despite all the chaos surrounding the team, the bright spot was that the Clippers have some players off the bench that are willing to compete. During the second quarter, the Clippers were down by as many as 10 points. The Clippers needed a spark. 

Clippers young wings’ Jordan Miller and Kobe Sanders came out with a bang.  

Miller would start it off with a half court buzzer beater to end the first quarter, and from that he was able to go into the second quarter with a groove. 

Sanders, who has a textbook smooth release notched in three 3 point makes that turned into nine quick points in the second quarter.  

This short sequence in the sequence showed that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The Clippers are the oldest team in the league in a young man’s game. With that being said, it is time for Lue to start mixing some of the younger players with some of the more seasoned veterans, while changing his offensive scheming. 

Things are not going as planned for Clipper nation its tough times, but their is still 71 games to go more than enough time to turn things around. Will they do it though is a different story?