After watching the LA Clippers perform in the 2016-17 NBA preseason, what have we learned about the team so far?
The LA Clippers‘ finished the 2016-17 NBA preseason with a perfectly average 3-3 record, following up their woeful 120-75 loss to the Golden State Warriors in their opener with a couple of more promising performances. Of course, it’s only preseason, and Doc Rivers using his bench so much and playing the rookies with solid minutes at times isn’t something we’ll see when games actually matter in the regular season.
This was a time for Doc to experiment and for the team to start coming together, for new players to start finding their fit and everyone to adjust to new lineups.
We also saw the emphatic return of Blake Griffin, who’s come back from injury playing aggressive, shooting threes confidently (and in moderation), and taking over at times.
So, to begin with what we learned from preseason as we look into some of the key takeaways, let’s start with Doc’s approach to begin staggering Griffin and Chris Paul.
Doc is ready to stagger Griffin and Paul
Finally. This is something the Clippers should have used more effectively for some time now, making the most of how great Paul and Griffin can be when they’re apart, not just destroying opposing defenses when they’re together in one of the league’s best starting lineups.
Instead, Doc staggering their minutes, similarly to Billy Donovan with Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant last season, allows the Clippers to have an elite playmaker and offensive leader on the floor at all times.
If anything can be done to help prevent bench lineups that lose structure and squander leads, it should be done. Staggering Griffin and Paul is the most obvious choice.
We saw Doc start implementing this at times in the regular season, using Paul in smaller, multi-guard lineups or using Griffin to anchor the offense from the post and elbows as the tremendous point-forward that he is.
Doc said he wants to stagger more this year & it's something they'll have to do, even though he feels the bench is deeper than ever before
— Rowan Kavner (@RowanKavner) October 19, 2016
Griffin spoke to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register earlier in October about why he thinks staggering his and Paul’s minutes can help:
"“A lot of times, you play with a guy like Chris who makes the game so easy, sometimes you relax a little bit, maybe a little too much. I think (staggering is) good as far as finding out different ways to affect the game and not being able to just rely on one guy, but really working the offense. When Chris is out, we still have these guys like Raymond (Felton), very capable ball handlers that can get us into our stuff. It’s more about trusting our sets and trusting our movement.”"
We’ve seen that Raymond Felton can help and Jamal Crawford can still create shots (wavering efficiency aside), but they aren’t nearly as effective in a bench lineup if Paul or Griffin aren’t there to lead the way.
It makes too much sense for reasons we’ve known about for some time now, and gives the second unit a go-to scorer and facilitator with either superstar they have on the floor.
This altered approach from Doc is nothing but encouraging for the new season.
Next, onto that man Felton, who could wind up being a real fan favorite this year.
Raymond Felton has real fan favorite potential
Besides bringing energy to the table and a likeable personality, I mean a player that will actually make a positive impact when I talk about “fan favorite”.
Like Cole Aldrich, for example, who began last season as an overly-benched, overlooked backup, before fully breaking into the rotation after Josh Smith‘s and delivering an excellent year. Aldrich holding together a host of bench lineups with his rebounding, rim protection and hustle, averaging 14.8 points, 13 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 3.1 blocks per 36 minutes, was unexpected and always appreciated by Clippers fans.
It’s hard to imagine Raymond Felton replicating that level of impact or statistical production. But he can be a real difference maker and add more to the Clippers’ point guard rotation than Pablo Prigioni, a 39-year-old who lost his willingness and effectiveness to shoot threes.
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Felton’s preseason numbers are far from great. 6.8 points per game with 37.5 percent shooting and 1.7 assists to 1.5 turnovers isn’t ideal. Unfortunately, that generally suits the nature of the some of the Clippers’ preseason, with us seeing more signs of what the team will be able to do rather than what they showed in a handful of meaningless games.
To follow that preseason trend, Felton showed us flashes of what he’ll bring off the bench as one of the more overlooked yet valuable signings of this summer for the Clippers.
Don’t be discouraged by those numbers and some of the sloppy possessions Felton had. Preseason is bound to have such spells of play, especially for a point guard joining a new team.
He’s shown us some of what he can do, whether it’s providing some defensive energy to help Chris Paul, adding some more driving ability to the bench (a career-high 63.5 percent shooting within two feet last season), or drawing fouls, such as his 8-of-8 free throw shooting and 17-point performance against the Toronto Raptors.
To continue, let’s look into Blake’s aggressive scoring from the low block, all around intensity, and what this kind of return will do for the team.
Blake Griffin looks explosive and aggressive
Blake is back and at his best. Sure, he’ll take some time to find his full rhythm as the regular season gets underway and he can adjust to his new teammates, but he’s displayed a level of aggression, focus and improved shooting range that you have to be impressed by.
You shouldn’t need reminding of what he can do, unless you’re one of the critics who thinks he needs to leave L.A. after the staff incident last season or that “all he does is dunk.” If you’re the latter, you really haven’t watched basketball in years.
Well, all that matters now is that Griffin has been showcasing exactly how he can help take the Clippers’ offense to a new level now he’s back.
Doc staggering Griffin’s and Paul’s minutes will help Griffin have some more time to show just how elite he can be by himself when operating as a triple threat from the elbow, whether he opts to shoot, pass, or use that devastating first step to drive past his man.
Plus, with Griffin’s improved shot mechanics (releasing the ball more often at the peak of his jump rather than hesitating and releasing on the way down), he’s added three-point range that can be utilized at times, going 33.3 percent from deep with 0.6 makes per game in the preseason.
When he’s not taking shots from beyond the arc, the very threat of that range opens up more space for the Clippers inside and gives Griffin a chance to attack off the dribble when opponents are forced to guard him closely from distance.
Equally, Griffin can still have his way in the post, too. His aggression to do just that in the preseason was impressive, looking for contact and powering his way to the basket. Scores like this baseline spin and dunk against Boris Diaw exemplified just that.
When he does this, he can so easily draw double teams to create lanes for others to cut. And one of the best parts about Griffin is that he has tremendous vision, timing and passing touch to find his teammates for easy scores.
In this play, with Rudy Gobert drawn away by DeAndre Jordan to prevent the threat of a lob and Joe Johnson coming to double Griffin in the post, Luc Mbah a Moute has a clear lane to cut and score off the pass from Griffin.
Blake changes the entire LA Clippers’ offense. These strengths have been on full display already, and we’re only in preseason form.
Next, the importance of Brandon Bass‘ defense when playing alongside Marreese Speights.
Brandon Bass needs to step up defensively
Marreese Speights is a terrible defender. Unfortunately, there’s no way around that for the Clippers. He’s a strong body and can help a little more if he’s left under the basket, and his 10.3 rebounds per 36 minutes last season is solid enough, but he’s not a good defender by any means.
As a polar opposite to his offensive game, Speights is at his worst when he’s further away from the basket on defense. He rarely uses a low, energetic defensive stance, although he completely lacks the speed or lateral quickness to cut off drives to the basket and guard opponents at the perimeter, anyway.
As our own Mohammad Dakhil detailed in his recent article on Brandon Bass and Speights (which you need to check out if you haven’t already), Damian Lillard had an easy time blowing straight past Speights with a simple change of direction as if he wasn’t even there.
Forced into fouling and giving up two free throws rather than contesting the shot or holding Lillard away from the basket, Speights showed how much he can be abused off the dribble, especially when he switches onto smaller players and is attacked in the pick-and-roll.
This is where Bass is so crucial.
He isn’t the rim protector that Cole Aldrich was for the Clippers last season either and he’s a clear downgrade in that regard (and on the boards). That will need to be accepted from the bench. But Bass is still a slightly above average defender, particularly for a backup big who won’t be required to play major minutes anyway.
Bass shifts his feet far better than Speights and brings more intensity on defense. Despite being just 6’8″, Bass has a strong build and can hold his own in the post, bodying up against bigger opponents to the best of his ability and using his strength to hold opponents away from the paint whenever possible; completely unlike Speights, as you can see from that lowlight above.
Look at this play from Dakhil’s piece where Bass easily switches onto Evan Turner to cover a drive off a pick-and-roll. Bass shifts his feet back to match Turner, and when Turner stops, Bass is quick to move forward and contest to force a poor shot.
No, Bass won’t be rising up to protect the rim and anchoring the glass like Aldrich did. This change to the Clippers, far more than any other, is my biggest concern heading into the 2016-17 season.
That being said, as someone who can compete more away from the basket, cover pick-and-rolls and bring the kind of defensive energy and physicality that the Clippers’ bench has often lacked in the past (bar Stone Cole Aldrich), it’s clear how Bass will need to step up in this regard to help balance out lineups featuring him and Speights together. For more on this, check back into Dakhil’s article.
Going on from here, we’ve seen some super small lineups Doc has used and learned the limitations and weaknesses of such groups. Continue to see what you need to look out for.
Doc can’t go too small
In the preseason, teams have a chance to experiment using different lineups, see what rookies have to offer at this early stage, and try to structure rotations and combinations with new signings is perfect for this time of year. The only drawback is that sometimes these experimentations don’t always look too promising.
For the LA Clippers, that was the case when Doc opted to go super small.
A small-ball mindset with a five-man group of ball handlers and shooters is what Doc went for last summer when he signed Josh Smith as his backup center, before soon realizing that Cole Aldrich was the far better option backing up DeAndre Jordan.
Take last season, for example. The Clippers’ worst two lineups by a significant margin were small bench rotations.
The first: Rivers, Crawford, Johnson, Pierce, Smith — 73 minutes played together with a -34.9 net rating.
The second: Prigioni, Rivers, Crawford, Johnson, Aldrich — 186 minutes played together with a -16.6 net rating.
Doc shouldn’t slip into similar mistakes with his team for this season. Sure, there’s no Lance Stephenson or Josh Smith in L.A. as misused or puzzling fits, but we saw Doc use small lineups in the preseason featuring three guards with Wesley Johnson and Brandon Bass filling the frontcourt.
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As solid a defender as Bass may be, he can’t lock down the paint as Aldrich did and he can’t anchor the boards by himself. Surrounded by three guards and Johnson at power forward (who only averaged a modest 5.4 rebounds per 36 minutes last season) isn’t going to cut it, no matter the benefits of having a bunch of players who can shoot threes.
Opponents could quickly abuse the Clippers’ defense and outmatch them on the boards, and that good soon encourage the Clips’ offense to get impatient and lose its composure.
The same goes for lineups if Speights is the center; it’s hard to see such small lineups having much resilience defensively.
However, Doc was experimenting in preseason, because, well, it’s preseason. It doesn’t matter. We might not see these lineups being used too often in the regular season, and staggering Griffin and Paul helps lead the bench, too. This is something that was obviously limited in the last couple of weeks as neither players were being overused for meaningless games.
Next: Clippers Fantasy Basketball Preview
In all, there are plenty of positives to takeaway for the LA Clippers, and some adjustments to keep an eye on as we assess the strengths and weaknesses of this team going forward.