Taylor: Veterans Would Help Young Team

Coach Chris Ford’s decision to start Tyrone Nesby and Charles Smith the last two games gave the Clippers a new look with the same end results, which is not a surprise to second-year forward Maurice Taylor.

“Lineup changes are not going to make any major difference with this team because the same guys are going to play,” said Taylor, the Clippers’ leading scorer. “Lineup changes mean you only get different guys to start the game. . . . It may motivate some guys but it’s not going to really change things.”

Taylor is hoping that the Clippers can acquire one or more veterans before the league’s trade deadline Thursday. He feels that having players who have experienced winning at the NBA level can help mold the team’s core of young players, who only know losing with the Clippers.

“You can’t say, ‘OK, we can make these trades and we’ll win the rest of our games,’ that’s not realistic,” Taylor said. “The only thing you can hope for is that you bring in people, preferably veteran people who’ve been on winning programs, who know how to handle things outside of basketball.

“I think that’s key. I think we need guys like that in the locker room who can say, ‘I’ve been here before. I know what you’re going through and what you need to do to get things going.’ We don’t have that.”

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With five of their next six games against teams .500 or better, the Clippers are going to have to dig deep to prevent topping their franchise record of 19 losses in a row.

“If you’re a competitor, you certainly don’t want to get your head handed to you every single night but you can’t just say that you’re going to change,” Ford said. “It will not change unless you go out there and make it change. It’s nothing new. It’s a lot of hard work. It’s a lot of self sacrifice.”