Keeping DeAndre Jordan was the most vital component of the Los Angeles Clippers' offseason, but upgrading the supporting cast around the team's stars was also of the utmost importance for coach and president Doc Rivers. The Clippers' weak bench was a problem all season and was badly worn down by the end of the stunning postseason collapse against the Houston Rockets.
The Clippers’ bench is better, but still isn’t good enough
Doc Rivers made some great upgrades on paper, but they come with a lot of question marks. Will they be enough to push the Clippers over the top in the deep Western Conference? We’re skeptical.
On the surface, Rivers did an admirable job upgrading the roster. He turned an aging Matt Barnes and the failure that was the Spencer Hawes experiment into a talented, if not mercurial, young player in Lance Stephenson. Rivers then lured seasoned veterans Paul Pierce and Josh Smith on the cheap to replace Barnes and Hawes. Wesley Johnson, Cole Aldrich and Pablo Prigioni (still not officially signed) were also added at the minimums to add depth. With limited resources to make additions, it sure seems like Rivers hit a home run.
But while all these names are upgrades on paper, there are reasons to be skeptical about their ability to push the Clippers over the top in the deep Western Conference.
Too many overlapping skills off the bench
Trading for Stephenson was a calculated risk with a potential high reward, but we can't dismiss just how awful he was last season with the Charlotte Hornets. He posted the worst three-point shooting season of all time and had PER under nine. Some of that was caused by injuries and a poor fit with Kemba Walker in a spacing-starved Hornets offense. Rivers will surely try to play to Stephenson's strengths and return him to a role similar to the one he had in Indiana, where he flourished as a lead ball handler for the second unit.
However, Stephenson will have to compete alongside fellow ball-dominant players like Smith, Jamal Crawford and Austin Rivers on Los Angeles' bench, so the fit isn't much better. Crawford's been rumored to be on the trading block to alleviate some of those possible issues, but there's nothing imminent.
This new bench group, with or without Crawford, will also have serious problems spacing the floor:
| 3-point shooting in 2014-15 | |
| Wesley Johnson | 35.1% |
| Pablo Prigioni | 34.3% (37.4% with NYK, 27.5% with HOU) |
| Jamal Crawford | 32.7% |
| Josh Smith | 31.6% (24.3% with DET, 33% with HOU) |
| Austin Rivers | 29.8% (28% with NOP, 30.9% with LAC) |
| Lance Stephenson | 17.1% |
Those numbers aren’t pretty. The improved shot creation and passing should help mitigate some of the outside shooting woes, but teams will pack the paint against some of these bench-heavy lineups until they prove they can consistently knock down jumpers.
Pierce is a defensive downgrade
The addition of Pierce will bring more shooting to the roster, and he’ll be much more reliable than Barnes on the offensive end in general. Pierce has championship experience and proved last year that he’s still adept at knocking down big shots in the postseason, whereas Barnes folded in the second round against Houston.
But Pierce will be 38 years old by the start of next season and won't provide the same defensive presence Barnes did. Pierce and J.J. Redick isn't the most intimidating defensive duo on the wing, and the options on the bench aren't all that much better unless Stephenson and Johnson can step up in a big way. Having Jordan and more able rim protectors in Aldrich and Smith (who could also provide some perimeter defense) off the bench will help the defense, but this is an issue that could prove costly when trying to navigate through the Western Conference playoffs.
The Clippers didn’t have many options to defend players like James Harden, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Kawhi Leonard last year. They’ll have even fewer this season.
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Perhaps it’ll only take marginal improvement from last year for the Clippers to win a title. After all, it took a historic collapse for them not to reach the Western Conference Finals, and who knows what happens if Los Angeles gets there.
However, the heavy-hitters in the Western Conference are only getting better. The defending champion Golden State Warriors aren't going anywhere. The San Antonio Spurs snagged LaMarcus Aldridge. The Houston Rockets added Ty Lawson. A healthy Oklahoma City Thunder team may be more talented than anybody. The Memphis Grizzlies will continue to grit 'n' grind.
It’s hard to envision this new Clippers supporting cast being worse than last year’s crew, but there are still enough flaws with these players that it’s fair to question whether they’ll be better enough to win a championship. It’ll be up to Rivers to coax more out of these veterans than previous coaches could.
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