LA Clippers: 5 Things the New Coach Can Do Differently

3) Implement, and trust, a system

This was another issue that we saw developing in the regular season for the LA Clippers but didn’t come back to bite us until the playoffs.

When games got tough, it often looked like the team abandoned whatever offensive system was in place and started playing hero mode. Most notably (and most unfortunately) was second half of basically every Denver Nuggets playoffs game.

While we didn’t have a true playmaker to run some masterful offensive scheme, we had too much talent on the roster to be 22nd out of 30 in assists per game in the regular season and 13th out of 16 in the playoffs.

That speaks to systems breaking down and our gameplan becoming “give it to Kawhi Leonard or Paul George and let them figure out how to score. And when the bench unit comes in, give it to Reggie Jackson or Lou Williams and let them figure out how to score.”

When that’s working, it looks fine. But there’s no fallback when it isn’t working. Isolation hero-ball is supposed to be the failsafe, not the system.

We don’t need some brilliant offensive system like the Spurs’ Beautiful Game in the mid 2010s under Popovich (although if Pop wants to come set that up here, I’m not saying no!). What we need is a coach who sets up an offense and, when the opposing team goes on a run, has the heart to tell the team not to give up on it.

So long as the next coach is able to do that, I think we’ll see a marked improvement in our offense.