Newsletter: Clippers! Steve Ballmer has a lot to contemplate this Thanksgiving

Hi, my name is Broderick Turner, and welcome back to the Los Angeles Times’ Clippers newsletter.

As we examine this free fall that has taken the Clippers into the darkness, it’s only right to wonder what owner Steve Ballmer is pondering.

He surely has to be troubled by all the losing his team has endured. He must be baffled by the way his team has lost games. And he must have some doubts about proceeding down his team’s current course.

It would be easy to say Ballmer should part ways with coach Doc Rivers.

But is that the right answer to the Clippers’ problems?

Every coach knows that his voice eventually gets old to his players, that they start to tune him out and that they sometimes go their own way.

It’s hard to say that has become the case with Rivers, but one has to wonder if his message has grown stale with the main three holdovers from the Clippers — Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Austin Rivers.

The NBA is a results-oriented business, and right now Doc Rivers isn’t getting the desired outcome. Under his direction, the Clippers had lost nine consecutive games before they played the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night.

The losing alone makes Rivers’ job status tenuous, puts him on the hot seat. And he knows that. He knows coaches are easier to replace than a group of players.

Players, however, can be traded, and that is something the Clippers’ front office may have to chew on.

But to his credit, Rivers has tried every manner of way to draw the best out of his guys, to put them in position to win.

He has coached them up, as they like to say.

He has screamed, yelled, prodded, pushed and encouraged.

He has cajoled and patted them on the back.

Nothing seems to have worked during all the losing.

But Rivers has been doing all this while not being fully stocked, losing three starters in the process.

The Clippers just got Patrick Beverley back after a five-game absence recovering from a sore right knee. But he then had surgery Wednesday on that knee and will be lost for quite a while, perhaps the rest of the season.

They still don’t have Danilo Gallinari (strained left glute) and Milos Teodosic (plantar fascia on his left foot).

Perhaps these are all the things Ballmer is taking into account.

He is not known to make quick decisions out of frustration.

But, Ballmer still has to be distressed over the team’s direction his team.

The Clippers started 4-0, but they have not been close to that team since.

They have fallen in nearly every important statistical category after their first 16 games.

They are ranked 16th in the NBA in scoring, averaging 104.9 points per game and 19th in points allowed, giving up 106.6 per game.

They are ranked 28th in assists, handing out just 19.6 per game, 15th in turnovers (14.8), 12th in offensive efficiency, rating out at 104.5 and 20th in defensive efficiency, rating out at 106.2.

Those are signs of individuals not playing together as one.

So, yes, Ballmer has a lot to contemplate.

Good luck, Steve.

In case you missed it

Clippers are feeling the pressure, but not breaking.

Patrick Beverley has strong words about the Clippers’ effort after ninth straight loss.

The Clippers want Wesley Johnson to shoot more.

Up next

Wednesday at Atlanta, 4:30 p.m. PT

Saturday at Sacramento, 7 p.m. PT

Monday vs. Lakers, 7:30 p.m. PT

Thursday vs. Utah, 7:30 p.m. PT

And finally

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Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Clippers newsletter? Email me and follow me on Twitter: @BA_Turner.