What will the LA Clippers’ healthy 10-man rotation look like?
The LA Clippers are healthy for the first time this season, just in time for their showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers. What will the rotation look like?
It’s hard to believe that, at 22-10, the LA Clippers still haven’t had their best 10 players available for a single game this season. That’s the reality of it though — there have always been at least one of LA’s main guys that have been out for each game.
If everything goes according to plan, the Clippers’ first chance to debut that fully healthy 10-man rotation will come Wednesday when they face the Los Angeles Lakers for a Christmas Day showdown.
All the pieces are there — JaMychal Green is back after suffering a tailbone injury that left him sidelined for nine games, Landry Shamet has returned from his ankle sprain and Patrick Beverley should be all good to go after missing Sunday’s game against Oklahoma City.
On top of that, per The Athletic’s Jovan Buha, LA got its first chance to have every single player available for practice this afternoon. So not only should they be healthy tomorrow, but there should be a little more chemistry between them as well.
We’ve seen Doc Rivers get crafty this season due to the lack of healthy players he’s been able to use. At the beginning of the season, Patrick Patterson and Shamet were both in the starting lineup in an attempt to make up for the offense that Paul George would create upon his return.
The two were effective — before Patterson was bumped back down to the bench, he was shooting 37.5 percent from beyond the arc and had made as many as six three-pointers in a game. Shamet wasn’t as efficient as Clippers fans had grown accustomed to, but was still knocking in 36.2 percent of his looks from deep before he went down with an injury.
However, it was clear that this wasn’t a permanent fix. Once George came back, Shamet would presumably be moved down to the bench and Patterson would likely fall out of the rotation.
As it stands, Shamet is with the second unit, and Patterson, despite starting Sunday’s game against the Thunder, should have his minutes eaten up by Green in games that Kawhi Leonard starts.
We’ve also seen Maurice Harkless enter the starting lineup, where he should remain as the season progresses. He’s been one of the team’s best defenders this year, and his ability to defend virtually every position (he’s primarily guarded opposing team’s point guards) makes him an incredibly valuable asset.
The second unit has been something worth questioning as well, though we’re beginning to have a clearer picture there. Terance Mann, Derrick Walton Jr. and Jerome Robinson have all made solid contributions this season, but none of them should be mainstays in the rotation. That doesn’t mean we’ll never see them again, but they shouldn’t get any meaningful minutes on nights when the team is completely healthy.
The depth we should be left with looks a little something like this:
- Patrick Beverley
- Paul George
- Kawhi Leonard
- Maurice Harkless
- Ivica Zubac
- Lou Williams
- Montrezl Harrell
- Landry Shamet
- JaMychal Green
- Rodney McGruder
So how does that help shape the 10-man rotation? This takes a little guessing, but we can work with what we’ve seen so far.
Leonard and George typically play a majority of the first quarter, while Beverley, Harkless and Zubac exit roughly halfway through. Those three are replaced by Williams, Shamet and Harrell. Once Leonard and George come out, they should be substituted by Green and McGruder, who make up the final two parts of the second unit.
That group of five should get to run until the latter half of the second quarter when the starters trickle back in. Before halftime, Williams and Harrell close things out alongside Beverley, George and Leonard.
From there, it’s just rinse and repeat. Fluctuating leads may call for the starters to stay in a little longer or exit early, but this is how things should look when these 10 are all available.
In tight, competitive games — like the one we’re all expecting to see Christmas Day — may call for Beverley, George and Leonard to spend more time on the floor with Williams and Harrell. For all intents and purposes, that group of five should be the LA Clippers “Death Lineup”. It has its weaknesses (like an inability to defend longer bigs, plus Williams gets targeted on defense) but is likely the best lineup this team can deploy during the regular season.
Ideally, neither Leonard nor George play over 30 minutes each night. The talent disparity between the Clippers and most other teams should allow for that to happen too, so long as this team finds a way to stop blowing leads. Against tougher opponents though, having each of those guys play upwards of 36 isn’t too harmful so long as they get significant rest between then and the next game. And since the Clippers don’t play again until Saturday, they’ll probably get some more run against the Lakers.
Next. Rivers has options with the LA Clippers starters. dark
So that’s that, for now at least. As you can see, there’s plenty of reason to be excited about how this team looks with its best players on the floor. This is merely a prediction though, and we should have a better understanding of what the LA Clippers’ 10-man rotation looks like following Wednesday’s showdown.