Adding a bunch of new pieces this offseason has led many to view the Los Angeles Clippers as a serious threat to finish in the top three of the Western Conference standings next season. Of course, one of the biggest additions the team made was Bradley Beal, and he's going to potentially change a lot for this team from day one.
Brad is still who we have always thought he was. He's a high-level shot-maker with veteran discipline. The Clippers' depth has gone from good to great this summer, and that's going to allow them to use Beal in a few different ways next season.
First of all, it feels pretty obvious that he's going to become a regular in the starting five. Next to James Harden in the backcourt and with Kawhi Leonard, John Collins and Ivica Zubac filling out the rest of the first five on the floor, Beal is in an excellent spot to thrive as a secondary scorer and probably split scoring duties relatively evenly with James and Kawhi.
Bradley Beal provides another fantastic scorer and shooter
We know that Brad is going to excel as a scorer in basically any lineup you put him in due to his self-creation abilities. But perhaps the best use of his talent won't be to put him in the starting lineup every single night. I think especially now with Bogdan Bogdanovic out for the start of the year, Ty Lue might consider bringing Beal off the bench in some games as well.
Of course Lue is going to try a lot of different things to figure out what works best. But this is a move that I think would make sense due to the Clippers' personnel offensively. If you run with a second unit of Chris Paul, Kris Dunn, Derrick Jones Jr., Nic Batum and Brook Lopez, you have some solid shooting there between Paul, Batum and Lopez but you're missing a guy who can create off the dribble at a high level.
That's where Beal would come in. If you slot him in at the two guard spot in place of Dunn, you're going to get a lot less stagnancy on offense with that bench unit. It's probably going to be important for the Clippers to have one guy on the floor who can put the ball on the deck and attack the rim on the floor at all times.
Beal adds another level to LA's depth, and he's going to be a real asset for a coaching staff trying to figure a lot of things out in October and November.