Injury News: J.J. Redick (back spasms) is out “until he’s right”
If the Clippers emerge successful from this daunted Grammy’s road trip, they may have to do it without starting shooting guard J.J. Redick who is out indefinitely because of back spasms.
"After the game, Clippers coach Doc Rivers wasn’t sure when Redick would be able to return.“It’s just spasms,” Rivers said. “I think it’s from that hit [against Denver]. He probably shouldn’t have played, who knows, but we’re just going to rest him until he’s right.”"
While there’s never a good time for someone to be injured, Redick’s injury is perfectly synced with the upcoming All-Star break, and unlike previous years, the break has been extended to a week to allow players to rest up for the final stretch of the season plus the playoffs.
And because Redick’s injury is the back (his second back injury dating back to last season), we may not see him until the All-Star break (next five games: @CLE, @TOR, @OKC, @DAL, vs. HOU), giving the shooting guard nearly two weeks of recovery time.
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Without Redick, this Clippers team, at least offensively speaking, takes a step back. Sure Jamal Crawford is arguably the more “talented” player between himself and Redick, but when it comes to the offensive makeup of this Clippers team and how much impact one makes on those surrounding them, Redick is the superior player for numerous reasons: he works well without the ball, drawing attention onto himself and off of others, allows Chris Paul to dominate on-ball and makes for an excellent hockey-pass target of the pick-and-roll from Blake Griffin).
Stats wise, the numbers speak for themselves: in 48 games, Redick is averaging 14.4 points on 46-43-86 shooting splits which puts this season in contention with his previous best. And whenever Redick has been on the floor, the Clippers offense has exploded, averaging 114.1 points per 100 possessions in 1391 minutes (without Redick, the Clippers average 105.4 points per 100 possessions in 966 minutes).
Outside of the “Big 3” of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan, no other Clippers players benefits the offense like Redick. Matt Barnes’ on/off offensive rating splits are similar to Redick due to the time spent with Paul-Griffin-Jordan-Redick, but the film shows Barnes’ reputation as a shooter does more damage to the offense than on/off ORTG shows (Zach Lowe did a great job showing how Barnes’ lack of spacing hurts despite a career-best 3P shooting year).
In Redick’s last missed game, the Clippers went with Crawford in the starting lineup. Without the likes of Chris Douglas-Roberts and Reggie Bullock to replace Crawford in the reserves group, all of Jamal, Chris Paul, Matt Barnes, and Austin Rivers saw an increase in minutes.
One name that could see a jump is Dahntay Jones who is around for the rest of the season. During his 25-ish days with the Clippers, Jones has seen little floor time, making an impact as a motivator of sorts, but to keep Paul-Barnes-Rivers-Crawford from burning out, the veteran wing could play spot minutes.
As a member of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Jones averaged 14.3 points on 53-38-71 shooting and 3.4 rebounds per game. Throughout is NBA career, Jones has never been that kind of scorer (averaged a career-high 8.67 points with Indiana in 2010-11), but his stint showed some ability is there, even if displayed against inferior defenses.
And if push comes to shove, rookie C.J. Wilcox could see his first meaningful minutes in the NBA. Between his time with the University of Washington and the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Wilcox has shown he’s talented — similar to Redick offensively, Wilcox can work without the ball, knock down open shots, but unlike Redick, Wilcox has shown a knack for creating his own shots in select situations.
Like Reggie Bullock last year, it would’ve always taken a huge hit to wing depth for Wilcox to see rotation minutes. With no Redick and the CDR/Bullock duo elsewhere following the Austin Rivers trade, the situation may be upon us. Would Doc Rivers trust him? That’s a question unknown, but if he’s around, we could see him called upon, especially if the Clippers are up big throughout the game.
All-in-all, now is about getting Redick healthy. Emerging as one of the best teams in the West, the Clippers of late have done a good job playing like the team everyone expected to see early on this season, but without Redick, it’d be difficult to reach their goals of winning the NBA championship.
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