I’m tired of hearing about it. I’m sure you’re tired of hearing about it. Hell, I’m sure the Clippers are tired of hearing about it. But the truth is the truth, and the Clippers small forward position has been absolutely horrible this season.
How bad? Well, while PER (Player Efficiency Rating) isn’t the end-all, be-all stat, it does a solid job of reflecting impact and combined, Matt Barnes, the Clippers starting small forward, and Chris Douglas-Roberts, his backup, have a combined PER of -.3.
NEGATIVE .3.
That’s hard to do.
Matt Barnes‘ play leaves little to desire, but the reality is that he’s in the wrong role. He shouldn’t have started last season, but Jared Dudley just happened to be amidst injury issues and the worst season of his career. He shouldn’t be starting this season, but the alternatives? Well, put it like this: he’s starting for a reason.
Marlin Maniac
Speaking of the alternatives, either Hornets Steve Clifford is a basketball mastermind who should be mentioned in the conversation with the Gregg Popovich’s, Phil Jackson‘s, and Rick Carlisle‘s of the world, or Chris Douglas-Roberts 2013-14 season was the perfect storm for a player who was on his last NBA attempt. He’s been awful this season. Awful to the point where his -5.0 PER seems to be a bit too high. Not only has he been the worst reserve for the team, but he’s been the worst by a large margin, which is astonishing considering Hedo Turkoglu is a rotation player with Glen Davis out.
Due to the extremely small 3 game sample size, I’ve attempted to spew out comments I could possibly regret, but up to this point, Douglas-Roberts hasn’t looked like a NBA player. He’s a mess offensively, whether used as a cutter, filling the lanes in transition, or as a shooter (0-of-9 for the season) and defensively, he’s be average to below average. This isn’t the player we saw in Charlotte for half a season, the player who played a key role on a playoff team. I spoke glowingly of CDR coming into the season, even recommending him as a starter to save Barnes’ body for the playoffs, but he’s doing nothing, but make the Clippers look like
Douglas-Roberts’ struggles lead to another thought: where is Reggie Bullock? Like Barnes and Douglas-Roberts, Bullock too struggled in the preseason, especially on offense. Like CDR, Bullock often looks lost on offense, but can he be any worse than what we’ve seen. There is one area Bullock can be guaranteed to thrive in and that’s isolation defense — he excelled in that area as a rookie against some of the top wings in the league (Anthony, George, Durant), and that’s exactly what this team needs, even if his three-point shot was left behind at the University of North Carolina.
As mentioned above — and through many recent posts — the sample sizes are small and anything can change. For a stretch of last season, Matt Barnes looked like one of the best 3-and-D role players in the league while Douglas-Roberts did the same.
Oh, one more thing. Jared Dudley, who the Clippers handsomely PAID the Milwaukee Bucks to take off their hands, currently has a PER of 10.6 while shooting 50 percent from the field.
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