I was puzzled by the minutes that Pop played the starters.  Except for Manu, all the starters played over 20 minutes, Tim played over 28.  Hill and Bonner also played over 20 minutes.  For an early pre-season game…WHY???

The newbies that needed to be evaluated….only saw the floor sparingly.  Simmons and Jerrells were the only ones that saw over 10 minutes.  Again…WHY?? 

 

What did I miss last night?  Why was the rotation so different from the previous games.  I thought we got off to a terrible start…or should I say the first half of the game.

Was this strange use of veterans because the Clippers were playing their starters?  They probably needed to; Griffin needs to be brought up to playing shape.  Speaking of Griffin, he was impressive.  He would be a great replacement of Timmy in a few years. 

Based on how they have looked this year, Temple, Gist, Gee, and Neal are gone.  Cousin has a chance and I have no idea what Pop thinks about Simmons.  Temple has not shot well and has not seen the floor very often.  Gist has looked OK in his limited minutes, but hasn’t wowed me.  I haven’t figured out if Neal is trying to concentrate on defense or has just hesitated to take his shot when he had a chance.  Gee…no clue.

There are 4 pre-season games to go.  What will we see?  How long before the next cut needs to be made?  Will Pop stay with the 13 – 14 player roster or will that be upper to a higher number.  How will Pop use the Toro’s this year? 

As an aside, those announcers were terrible.  They chatted about non-game situations.  When they talked about the game, they got things wrong very often.  Called the Clippers the Lakers.  They had no clue of why fouls were called and often said the foul was on the wrong team.