Los Angeles Clippers: The Effects of the New Additions
The Los Angeles Clippers have been busy this offseason, retaining key players while also adding to their core.
Owner Donald Sterling uncharacteristically broke out the checkbook and paid Doc Rivers handsomely to become the senior vice president of basketball operations and fill in the coaching vacancy with a three-year, $21 million deal.
In Rivers he will be gaining a high-caliber head coach with a proven track record and a championship ring to top it all off. The question now is how will the rest of his offseason spending affect the team?
First, there’s J.J. Redick, who throughout his career has been known to live and die by the 3-ball … and so far it’s worked out pretty well for him as he shot his way to a four-year $27 million contract.
J.J. Redick has arguably been the biggest addition for the L.A. Clippers this offseason. (Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com)
The former Duke Blue Devil is exactly what the Clippers needed because he excels as stand-still shooter and is also a great shooter off screens. In addition to this, he is able to shoot well off the dribble if you crowd him.
Redick was a highly sought-after player and the Clippers will be glad to have acquired his services because he is a great shooter with a career 3-point average of 39 percent and teams will have to keep tabs on him at all times. That will open up opportunities in the middle for the likes of DeAndre Jordan to continue their Lob City duties as well as giving Blake Griffin more room to work in the post.
Even though he shot a career-low 36 percent from long-range last year, J.J. still racked up the best scoring numbers of his career as he tallied 14.1 points per game and the bonus is that he has improved his defense to the point where he is no longer a liability on that end of the floor.
The acquisition of Jared Dudley was another key one because you can never have too many shooters. And at better than 40 percent for his career 3-point shooting average, Dudley is a damn good one.
Jared Dudley’s ability to shoot the ball and play multiple positions will be valuable to new coach Doc Rivers (Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com)
As illustrated by his career percentage, the Boston College product is a great spot-up shooter and open looks are almost guaranteed to be makes for him. Therefore defenders will be forced to think twice when helping off him and an indecisive opponent is all Chris Paul needs to punish a defense.
With the upgrade in talent compared to his Phoenix Suns (and Charlotte Bobcats) days, you can expect Dudley to hit more shots at a much higher rate. Defensively, he’s no slouch either, grabbing nearly a steal a game for his career.
Darren Collison has been reunited with his former mentor, Chris Paul, who took him under his wing while both were in New Orleans a few seasons ago.
The lightning-quick point guard appeared ready for the starting job after impressing when coming off the bench or filing in for Paul when he was injured. However, the production and glimpses he showed as the star’s protégé didn’t lead to much success when he got the starting gig in Indiana and he was eventually traded to the Dallas Mavericks where he ended up playing second fiddle to … wait for it … Mike James.
Darren Collison was ultimately a disappointment as the starting point guard in Dallas. (Photo Credit/Vernon Hadnot/D210 tv)
Nonetheless, he promises to be a good replacement for Eric Bledsoe, who simply outgrew his role as a backup. Although I’m sure L.A. will be more than happy and soon forget about him if Collison continues his career averages of 12 points, 5.2 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
Having said that, I doubt the Clippers would be that disappointed if he can’t quite fill in his predecessor’s shoes since they only forked out $1.9 million with a player option in the second year.
As well as retaining the services of Ryan Hollins, the L.A. Clippers also added depth with the acquisition of Byron Mullens for a deal worth $2 million with a player option for a second year. And if he continues to do this, then he will fit in perfectly with Lob City culture in Hollywood.