LA Clippers: 3 ways the Paul George trade altered the franchise’s future
By Evan Desai
No. 2 way the Paul George trade altered the LA Clippers franchise’s future: It’s driven our unique system
The LA Clippers, especially after this year’s draft, are a team that thrives off of utilizing many long wings through the lineups that they put out, and can go small due to the length they have in almost all positions in almost all lineups.
Without Paul George, I’m not sure the Clippers are able to go with that style of play. This is because PG can guard almost every position on the court. If PG isn’t out there, and the Clippers go with someone (good or not) who doesn’t have his length, they wouldn’t be able to play small.
They’d have to substitute a much smaller Terance Mann in the lineup, and while he is very good, he’s nowhere near the defender PG is right now. This lineup would be too small and Marcus Morris would have to help out a lot, taking attention off of the other team’s big man.
Due to PG being a 6’8″ shooting guard/small forward, we would be able to have three big forwards in the lineup who can contain a typically sized NBA frontcourt. We really don’t even need either Serge Ibaka or Ivica Zubac to start if we’re playing a team that isn’t the biggest.
We’d need a big man out there at all times if we didn’t have George.