The LA Clippers offense is on an early pace to be an all-time Clippers offense in one category, even despite the season being shortened to 72 games.
One thing that’s been noticed by anybody watching LA Clippers games is how much they love the three ball. Just Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are averaging 16.3 attempts from deep per game, which is higher than your average team’s average as recently as 2005.
Then you factor in that Montrezl Harrell’s minutes are being replaced by Serge Ibaka, and it makes sense that the team is in love with the long-range attack. After all, with a starting lineup of Bev/PG/Kawhi/Batum/Ibaka, every single starter has the skill and green light to jack threes.
In fact, this Clippers team is more in love with the three ball early in the season than any other Clippers offense ever. Per game, this team is shooting 36 threes per game, which would well surpass the previous Clippers record of 33.5.
But it’s not just on a per-game basis. The most threes the Clippers ever shot was last year, in the 2019-20 season, when they got up 2410 threes and made 895 of them (this was also in 72 games!). This year, through 5 games, the LA Clippers have gotten up 180 threes and made 71 of them. In an 82 game season, that extrapolates out to 2952 attempts and 1164 makes.
Obviously, that would shatter the record. But even in the shortened season, the current rate extrapolates to 2592 attempts and 1022 makes.
That gap of 182 more attempts than last year is impressive. 2592 attempts would shatter the highest total in a full 82 game season (2202 in 2016-17). It would also be the first time the LA Clippers ever make more than 1,000 threes, as last year’s team also currently holds that record.
It’s a testament to the way that basketball is changing that the 8 Clippers seasons with the highest attempts from deep are the previous 8 years. And it’s a testament to Ty Lue’s new system that we’re looking at leaving those previous seasons in the dust. Shooting more threes was a point of focus for Lue coming in, and so far he’s sticking to his word.
Of course, it’s early in the season and things could certainly change. But this roster seems built to fire up threes, and we haven’t even added Marcus Morris back into the fold, who averaged 6 threes a game last year.
Despite some worries to the contrary, Ty Lue has made some serious adjustments to our offense early in his head coaching tenure with us. Time will tell if this three point barrage keeps up, but so far it’s working.