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.
Lou Williams – B-
The captain of our bench unit comes in at a B- for me last season.
Lou Williams had a pretty typical Lou Williams regular season last year. He put up 18/5.6/3 as a statline on middling efficiency, and he hit an acceptable amount of threes while playing horrendous defense.
That’s fine. Lou coming off the bench is a part of why we got the second seed for the first time in franchise history. His weird ESP pick and roll plays with Montrezl Harrell were nearly unstoppable.
But then the playoffs started. And as has happened in the past with Lou, his performance dropped. His three point shooting went from an acceptable 35% in the regular season to a horrendous 23.5% in the playoffs.
While Lou tried to counteract this by playing some of the best defense we’ve seen him play, it wasn’t enough to undo the terrible shooting.
That said, I don’t want to totally forget his fine performance in the regular season. As much as we want to (maybe rightfully) put blame on him for his playoff performance, our bench is a huge part of why we got to the high seed in the first place.
Rodney McGruder – D+
Rodney McGruder gets one of the low scores of the piece for me.
After being claimed off waivers by the Clippers, McGruder never really found a way to contribute to the team, either in the regular season or the playoffs.
Rodney appeared in 56 games in the regular season, averaging 15.6 minutes per game but only putting up a 3.3/2.7/0.6 statline on really poor efficiency. The 28 year old shot 27% from behind the line, only 39.8% from the field as a whole and 56% from the free throw line.
On offense, McGruder couldn’t find a place; he only averaged 0.6 assists compared to 0.4 turnovers per game, so his lack of scoring was not counteracted by his playmaking.
There was a slight silver lining to his game; it’s nice to see rebounding from the guard position, and his defense was at least not awful. Those weren’t nearly enough, though, to make him a positive after you take his offense into consideration.
Terance Mann – C+
The rookie out of Florida State University, Terance Mann comes in at a C+ for me.
This isn’t a bad grade for a rookie! It’s rare that first year players come in and are productive players, so a C+ for Mann indicates some positivity from me.
Just like many rookies under Doc Rivers, Terance didn’t see a ton of playing time – 9 minutes per game in 41 games in the NBA. He managed to make some impressions, though, in his limited minutes.
In a very good sign for a rookie, Mann had above average scoring efficiency and found ways to contribute all over the court. A 54.5$ true shooting is a pretty good mark, and his per 36 numbers were 9.8/5.5/5.3, showing Mann doing a little bit of everything. Even his defense was promising, putting up a positive 1.2 DBPM.
He got plenty of playing time for the Agua Caliente Clippers in the G-League. In 35 minutes per game for the ACC, he put up 15 points, 9 rebounds and 5.7 assists on some hyper efficiency at 64.6 true shooting.
I’d be remiss if I wrote about Terance Mann without mentioning that he nearly dropped a triple double against Oklahoma City, missing it by just 1 assist.
If Terance Mann can keep finding ways to contribute everywhere, he’s sure to get more and more playing time, and we could be seeing a legitimate rotation player in the future.
Amir Coffey – D
Our other rookie, Amir Coffey hits the lowest point for me, but don’t take that too seriously. This is 50% for his performance and 50% just a “who knows about this guy?” grade.
Coffey only played 159 minutes total for the LA Clippers, which translated to 8.8 minutes per game in 18 games.
What can you really say in such a small sample size? He put up 3 points and less than 1 of everything else. He didn’t shoot particularly efficiently and he wasn’t particularly good on defense. But again, he practically didn’t play!
In the G-League, he was able to up scoring numbers, but not much else. For the ACC, Coffey put up a per 36 minute statline of 19.5 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. That doesn’t stand out too much to me, but I’m not writing him off yet.
There’s not much more to say about Coffey. Maybe next year we will see him for more minutes and can evaluate him a bit better.
Keep tuned to Clipperholics; in the future we will give out grades for the rest of the roster, as well as constant coverage of the coaching search and any other Clippers news!