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Fansided

Takeaways from the first quarter of the LA Clippers’ season

By Brian Cullen

LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 1: Montrezl Harrell #5 of the LA Clippers stands at center court during the game against the Washington Wizards on December 1, 2019 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 1: Montrezl Harrell #5 of the LA Clippers stands at center court during the game against the Washington Wizards on December 1, 2019 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 20: Paul George #13 and Kawhi Leonard #2 of the Los Angeles Clippers warm up before the start of the basket ball game between Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center on November 20, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 20: Paul George #13 and Kawhi Leonard #2 of the Los Angeles Clippers warm up before the start of the basket ball game between Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center on November 20, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /

Charles Mockler

Likes: The Clippers’ egalitarian approach to the offense during roster turmoil

As of this writing, the Clippers sit at 15-6, have played a top-10 toughest schedule, and put up a top-5 115 points a game…all without having proper practices with the entire team yet. Doc Rivers had mentioned (kind of a lot) that the time before PG returned was all about just checking wins off, but even with PG back…it still feels like we’re in that mode with Landry Shamet and Rodney McGruder missing time.

Outside of the PG timetable, this much lineup-flux has been unexpected, but the weird thing is…is that it doesn’t seem to have affected the offense too much. The egalitarian approach to points, attempts, and assists have been a pleasant sight during this opening quarter of the season and should have given some fans confidence in whatever this team’s full offensive potential looks like.

When if comes to scoring the Clippers are a true pick-your-poison team, opponents try and trap which opens up a whole mess of shots for players not named Kawhi, Lou, or Paul. The Clippers currently boast 3 20+ point scorers (Kawhi, PG, and Lou) with Montrezl Harrell close on their heels with 18.8 per game. As far as attempts go, Kawhi is leading the way with 21 FGA/G, Paul George a hair under 17, Lou at 16, and Trez at 13. With such a nice distribution of shots and scoring over the starting lineup and the bench it kind of blows one’s mind when thinking about adding Shamet’s efficiency to this whole equation.

While overall distribution and “true play-making” has stressed some fans out Doc and the Clippers have done an alright job at getting everyone involved in dishing out assists given the roster turmoil. Lou Williams is first on the team with 6.3 per game, followed by Kawhi at 5, PG and Bev at 3, and Trez at 2. I’ve wondered aloud on the Locked On Clippers podcast if Kawhi can get to 7 assists a game (once everyone is healthy this seems very possible).

If this happens the “true play-making” worries should be alleviated. Having this many threats on the offensive end can make *anyone* a play-maker, and at this point in the season the team has kept the distribution up to a 3rd-best-in-the-west pace, something that should only get better as players get healthy.

Dislikes: Having to make this many adjustments (and the play-making issue, just a little bit)

All things considered, there isn’t *too* much to dislike about how the offense is playing. I do have some reservations about the play-making role, but it’s hard to have accurate fixes lined up without having seen our team at full strength yet. People can float out “we should trade for X” ideas until they’re blue in the Twitter-fingers, but until we’ve seen what this team’s true offensive identity is and how the play-making will work from game-to-game it’s just not reasonable to make a move yet. As long as the assist numbers stay spread out we should be fine, there will be nights when it goes cold but hey, passers pass (this is a saying right?).

Really the biggest dislike I have is the amount of adjustments that Doc is having to make. There’s no way to fix this, since injuries have yet to be predictable, but it makes continuity next to impossible and full practices few and far between. The rotation issues that we as fans have (hello, Zu needs more minutes) will be alleviated by the injury report being blank, so that feels like a “well we’re winning short-handed…so there isn’t too much to complain about” scenario.

If things don’t get better, feel free to reference this portion for a “we told you so” tweet.

What I Want to See: The gelling period begin

Early in the season Chauncey Billups said that the Clippers would start to look like a team at around the 30 game mark. This was before the Shamet and McGruder injuries, so that timeline has now been moved to the “however long a high ankle sprain and hamstring injury take to heal” number of games. Getting the team into its FIRST gelling period is all I really want to see at this point, there are some questions where Shamet will go once he’s back (starter? Bench? Sometimes starter in a rotating lineup?) so being able to get this nailed down will be a big plus for the team’s on-court chemistry.

Getting everyone in tune with each other’s movements will happen a little later than we wanted…but at least we’re winning games will still figuring it out.

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