It might already be safe to deem the Marcin Gortat experiment a failure for the Los Angeles Clippers.
After getting benched in Saturday’s game against his former team, the Polish Hammer’s streak of consecutive games started may not be the only thing snapped, but also his hold on the starting center position. The duo of Boban Marjanovic and Montrezl Harrell has widely outplayed Gortat this season — in every sense of the word — and both players even double-doubled against the rebuilding Orlando Magic.
It seems Gortat himself is feeling the frustration and uncertainty begin to creep in. The big man even retweeted a post by longtime fan Clipper Darrell regarding his benching:
This Broke My Heart When I Saw This about @LAClippers Center @MGortat Consecutive Game Streak!!! Why Do You Bench Someone Only 8 Games in the Season?!!! #FANTRUTH pic.twitter.com/X52HDwaXgT
— Clipper Darrell (@clipperdarrell) November 3, 2018
The 12-year NBA veteran averaged 10.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks on 55.2 percent shooting from the field before arriving in Los Angeles before the season began. In 2018-2019, after only eight games, he has only produced a mere 3.6 points and 5.5 rebounds in 16 minutes per outing. This, by any standards, is unbecoming of a starting center on a team fighting to make the playoffs.
All this is admittedly difficult for Marcin Gortat, who was a productive player in Washington before getting traded to the Clippers. If the team no longer has confidence in his abilities, it’s also possible that they trade him to a club in dire need of a big man.
Still, we can only hope he gets his basketball career back on track, especially with free agency coming up next summer.
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