The LA Clippers found two big men who will finally bring depth to their second unit: Marreese Speights on offense and Brandon Bass on defense.
General Manager Doc Rivers did coach Doc Rivers a great service by signing Marreese Speights and Brandon Bass to one-year minimum deals in NBA free agency this summer. Although both players are not stars and have their flaws, both will contribute to the LA Clippers‘ depth and provide specific value.
Speights is the long range shooting big man the Clippers have been looking for since Vladimir Radmanovic rocked the red, white, and blue jerseys. Meanwhile, the power forward Bass will be expected to (attempt to) fill the void that was created when Cole Aldrich and his stellar defense left in free agency.
Big man depth has always eluded the Clippers, but in this duo they might have finally found it.
Speights has spent the past three seasons with the Golden State Warriors, winning a championship in 2015. His ability to consistently knock down 20-foot jump shots will open up the floor and last season he found consistency from three, shooting 38.7 percent from deep and 41.9 percent in the playoffs.
This threat will provide more spacing for the bench unit and help those attacking inside in a way that Aldrich couldn’t.
In the example below, Jamal Crawford came off a side pick-and-roll late in the preseason game against the Portland Trail Blazers, and both defenders followed him.
Last season, Crawford would have needed to force up a tough, contested mid-range shot, but this time found a popping Speights at the arc line to drill the three-pointer.
There are drawbacks to Speights’ game, though, and most of it resides on the other end of the floor. According to Basketball Reference, he has a career defensive plus/minus of -1.2, which helps indicate how he’s frequently a liability at that end of the floor, primarily because of his lacking speed, quickness and length. Or, in other words, the physical tools and drive you need to be a great defender.
Teams will search Speights out to put attack him in pick-and-roll sets and hope to force a switch. In the play below, he switched onto Damian Lillard and back-pedalled so softly it was easy for Lillard to draw a foul on him.
You don’t have to watch too many of Speights’ minutes to see more instances of him being exposed by opponents attack off the dribble.
Bass has the opposite skill set; he’s more valuable on the defensive end than the offensive. He is able to knock down the 15-foot jumpers comfortably, but doesn’t pose a threat from three (he made zero threes last season).
On the defensive end, he brings with him a career 0.4 defensive plus/minus and can switch onto guards in pick-and-roll situations, just like he did against Portland’s Evan Turner.
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When they are on the court together, Bass will defend the better big and Speights will defend the lesser skilled (and ideally slower) big man.
On the offensive end, Bass will dive hard in pick-and-rolls while Speights will roll to the three-point line or pick-and-pop depending on the scenario.
It’ll get tricky when teams go small against this unit. Doc will have to judge whether to go with scoring or defense, and even still, a shot blocker like Aldrich (who averaged 3.1 blocks per 36 minutes in L.A.) is nowhere to be seen in this second unit.
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One thing is certain for the LA Clippers this season, though: they finally have multiple options they can go to on the bench depending on what they need against certain matchups.