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Clippers 2015-16 Player Preview: J.J. Redick

By Jeff Nisius

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2014-15 Statistics

16.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, .5 steal, 1.2 turnovers, 47.7 FG percentage, 43.7 3PT percentage, 16.2 PER.

Last Season

J.J. Redick has been one of the league’s best shooters for years, but last season he was simply unbelievable.

Redick set multiple career highs:

  • Field-goal pertencage (47.7)
  • Three-point percentage (43.7)
  • Effective field-goal percentage (58.3)
  • True-shooting percentage (62.2)
  • Threes made (200)
  • Points (1,277)
  • Minutes played (2,409)

To make his season even more impressive, Redick also finished third in the NBA in effective field-goal percentage and eighth in true-shooting percentage.

Redick remained relatively healthy all year, and the work he put in over the summer allowed him to play as well as he did, according to ESPN’s Arash Markazi.

"I pay attention to advance stats, and I pay attention to shot charts, Redick said. I try to figure out, if I can’t get to my strengths, what are teams forcing me to do and how do I improve on those weakness so each year I kind of work on one or two things that if I can get them better will incrementally add a little bit of offensive to my game. The other thing is the amount of time I’m in the gym. Once I start my basketball workouts in July, it’s every day except Saturday. I’m in there, and my shooting percentages each year reflected that I’ve put the time in."

Redick has been adding pieces to his game over the years, especially since joining the Los Angeles Clippers. While with the Orlando Magic, Redick was forced to work on his handles as he was used in a distribution role.

Because he was able to develop those skills, he was able to take advantage of defenders who pressed up on him, such was the case during the playoffs. Redick could attack off the dribble (when Kawhi Leonard wasn’t defending him), allowing the offense to keep continuity and not slow down.

Furthermore, he worked on attacking and turning the corner via dribble hand offs with DeAndre Jordan; now a staple in the Clippers’ offense. Today he can either use his handles to get to the rim, draw the defense and kick or immediately go into his shooting motion, forcing a trailing defender to avoid him for a clean shot or run into him and create a potential three-point-play.

Sep 25, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) talks with guard J.J. Redick (4) during media day at the Clipper Training Facility in Playa Vista. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

This Summer

As Redick noted above, he worked diligently on his skills this summer. However, he also dropped in for an excellent podcast with Grantland’s Zach Lowe.

Redick was very candid during the interview and let Clippers and Dallas Mavericks fans in on the hoopla surrounding Jordan’s free agency decision.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

"On Tuesday, you gave an interview to Bleacher Report Radio where you just hammered the Clippers: F-minus offseason, DeAndre was the only thing we had to do and we couldn’t do it. But we’ve since learned that DeAndre had [already] reached out to at least Doc Rivers, saying, “I don’t know if I really want to go to Dallas.” Had that noise gotten to you? Was that [interview] an orchestrated event?No, it wasn’t orchestrated. I actually gave the interview on Monday, and Ric Bucher had tweeted out things on his account on Twitter about the F-minus grade. I didn’t really think anything of it because nobody really responded. And then it became a big deal on Tuesday. It just seemed like it was a very, very slow news day. I got word that it was the lead story on PTI and got some texts from Ramona Shelburne saying she was going on ESPN in 20 minutes and did she want me to clean it up. And I was like, ‘No, I stand by what I said.’ I wasn’t necessarily hammering the Clippers, but I was giving an honest assessment of results. And our result was, we weren’t able to retain our top priority and we had no cap space to go out and get a replacement. So, in my eyes — regardless of the Paul Pierce signing — we had failed in free agency because DeAndre was that important. It wasn’t a knock on Doc or Ballmer or anyone else. It wasn’t a knock on Paul. It certainly wasn’t a knock on the Lance Stephenson trade. It was more just, I felt, you know, our job was to get DeAndre back and we didn’t do that."

Oh, that wasn’t all Redick brought to the table during Jordan’s decision to turn back from Dallas and head home to Los Angeles. When word broke that Jordan was contemplating re-joining the Clippers, one of the most historic days in Twitter history broke out.

Chandler Parsons immediately set things off with a tweet suggesting he was already on a plane to try to flip Jordan back to the Mavericks.

https://twitter.com/JJRedick/status/618844949413433344

Little did Parsons know, Redick was well ahead of him en route to Jordan’s home in Houston. The next series of tweets set the internet ablaze and nearly broke Twitter:

https://twitter.com/blakegriffin32/status/618847732933898240

https://twitter.com/CP3/status/618851936888950784

2014-15 Highlights

When someone has a career season, there are plenty of highlights to dig up. Redick had 25 20-plus point games last season, including an impressive 30 point and four rebound performance against the Portland Trail Blazers on November 8 and a 25 point, seven assist and five rebound game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 11.

However, when the Clippers needed him the most, Redick delivered.

During Game 3 of the conference semifinals, Redick went nuts on the Houston Rockets. The sweet-shooting guard poured in a season-high 31 points on 11-of-14 shooting and hit 5-of-6 from beyond the arc.

There was absolutely nothing the Rockets could do to slow down Redick as he was on fire from all over the floor.

Redick proved to be a catalyst all season long. When he was able to knock down shots early in the game, the Clippers were able to jump out to early leads and usually meant opposing defenses were in for a long night. His shooting spaced the floor, sucking his defender out of help side and allowed more room for dribble-drive attacks and pick-and-roll sets.

2015-16 Clippers Season Preview

The Clippers are deeper than they were a year ago, more flexible and finally have a bench. However, each new addition on the wing is going to have to have to settle for whatever minutes head coach Doc Rivers divvies up behind Redick.

Redick is the perfect fit with the Clippers’ big three and provides elite shooting and proper spacing, making it treacherous for defenders to sag off Redick or trail too far behind his movement around the floor.

The chart above, via Grantland’s Kirk Goldsberry, shows the projected efficiency of the Clippers’ starters this season. Obviously, Jordan and Blake Griffin make up a majority of the efficiency in the paint, but Redick is responsible for a large share from three.

In fact, according to ESPN Stats & Info, Redick is projected to have the second-highest true-shooting percentage (61.2) among all guards. Redick fits seamlessly into the pick-and-roll nightmare matchup Chris Paul and Griffin present. However, Redick’s off the ball movement is also stifling, especially when combined with pin down screens and dribble hand offs from Jordan.

Offensively, Redick should post similar shooting splits to last season, especially if he logs more time with versatile lineups thanks to the Clippers’ depth. Defensively, Redick proved that he is more than capable of being a solid one-on-one defender. Just ask James Harden how pesky Redick was during the playoffs.

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He also is a good team defender, anticipating and reacting to his defensive assignments. He might not have the size, length or athleticism to alter shots or jump passing lanes, but he knows his responsibilities and is usually on time with his help-side rotations.

Overall, I would expect Redick to again be one of the most lethal shooters in the league, but he also might have the opportunity to see more time on the ball. The Clippers have a bevy of ball handlers on the roster. Hopefully, Rivers is able to parlay that strength into crisp ball movement, allowing guys like Lance Stephenson, Austin Rivers, Jamal Crawford and Redick to attack off kick outs and ball reversals or be the recipients of those passes.

Ideally, Redick comes close to his overall impact of last season and posts a line near 15 points per game, 200 threes made and 45/40/90 shooting splits.

Next: Clippers 2015-16 Season Opener: Their time starts now

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