LA Clippers 2019-2020 Season Grades: Judging the Guards
Now that the LA Clippers are firmly in the offseason, we look at how the guards performed throughout the 2019-2020 season.
It’s hard to argue that the 2019-2020 season didn’t end up in disappointment. When this team was built, something more than a second round exit was envisioned. That said, the unfortunate ending has overshadowed what was, on the whole, a fun regular season.
In the interest of remembering that season, let’s give out some grades! Today we’re looking at the backcourt for the LA Clippers. A word of caution before you tell me how stupid I am on Twitter, a player has to be really really good for me to give them an A, and they have to be really really bad for me to give them a D. Let’s go! We’ll start with some guys who saw starts.
Patrick Beverley – B+
Our starting point guard gets a B+ here. If there was one statistic I could give for why I’m giving Patrick Beverley such a good grade, it would be this:
There were ten lineups in the regular season involving Bev which played at least 30 minutes. Those ten lineups total 753 minutes and 37 seconds. Only two of the three least-played of those lineups, which total 66 minutes and 55 seconds, have a negative point differential.
For what it’s worth, that doesn’t change much in the playoffs. Of the five most played lineups involving Bev in the playoffs, only 1 has a negative point differential, and it only saw the floor for 7.5 minutes.
The gist of it is, almost regardless of whom you put around him, Patrick Beverley makes a lineup a net positive. The team scores better with him on the floor (116.4 offensive rating with Bev vs. 113.2 without) and the team defends better with him on the floor (105.8 defensive rating with vs. 109.3 defensive rating without).
Certain players may claim that Pat Bev tricks y’all and is just running around out there, but there’s not much evidence to back that up. His second team All-Defense nod agrees with me.
There were cons to Bev’s season. Availability is the best ability, and Bev missed 21 out of the 72 regular season games the Clippers played. In the playoffs he missed 5 games and was often in foul trouble. It’s great that he’s a net positive when he’s on the floor, but it hurts that he wasn’t on the floor so often.
Landry Shamet – C+
Our 3 point sniper and my favorite player in the league doesn’t get the best grade here, coming in at a C+. While Landry Shamet’s natural position might be shooting guard, he was a fairly common fill-in for Patrick Beverley at point guard when Bev missed time.
Landry Shamet’s role on this team is to hit threes and stretch the defense. And while he was still a good shooter, hitting 37.5% of his deep attempts, that was quite the dip from his rookie season when he hit 42% of those.
Shamet has worked on some other aspects of his game, so he isn’t just sitting behind the three point line waiting to get an open shot (I’ll be screaming ‘LANDRY SHAMET POSTERIZED BOBAN MARJANOVIC’ for the rest of my life), but we need him to be a >40% three point shooter.
On the defensive end, you can’t fault his effort. He has put in the work and this season he showed that he at least knows what to do and where to be on defense. But nobody is going to call him a great defender; he’s middling on defense, which is fine when he’s on fire from three.
In the playoffs, Shamet struggled. His three point shooting dropped to 36% and he sometimes seemed lost on defense. Which, honestly, is almost expected – he’s a 22 year old second year player, and those types are rarely productive playoff performers.
A lot of what ailed Shamet was his place in Doc’s rotations. It seemed like he could never get a consistent role, which is necessary for a shooter. Going forward, if he can get a more consistent spot in the rotations with a new head coach, I expect a bounceback from him.
Reggie Jackson – C
Much maligned on Twitter, especially during the playoffs, Reggie Jackson comes in at an even C for me.
Like we saw with Landry Shamet, and like (spoiler alert!) we’ll see with Lou Williams, Reggie Jackson’s playoffs really hurt him, perception-wise.
When we signed Reggie Jackson, the hope was that he could perform as another deadly three point shooter. And there’s no debate – he absolutely filled that role. Jackson shot 41% from deep in the regular season and an absurd 53% from deep in the playoffs. Absolutely no complaints about his three point shooting.
The complaints start, well, kinda everywhere else. As most Clippers fans on social media will tell you, Reggie enjoys having the ball in his hands. An unfortunate number of times, we saw Reggie dribbling and attacking without ever looking at Kawhi Leonard or Paul George.
In the regular season, Reggie got up 13 shot attempts per 36 minutes, and in the playoffs he got up 10 shot attempts per 36. By contrast, he averaged 5.4 assists per 36 in the regular season and an abysmal 2.3 assists per 36 in the playoffs. On a team with superstars, we don’t need Reggie Jackson shooting the ball 5 times per assist in the playoffs.
On defense, there’s not a ton of great things to say about Reggie’s performance. He’s a negative on defense and wasn’t put in a position to be hidden by Doc’s rotations.
If Reggie comes back, then maybe a new coach can find ways to maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses going forward.