Los Angeles Clippers New Year’s Resolution
The Los Angeles Clippers are well on their way to yet another top-four finish in the Chris Paul–Blake Griffin era, but no team is perfect. With that known, if Lob City had to make just one single resolution for the new year, what would it be?
At the start of the year, you would have easily said “three-point shooting”, but after aMatt Barnes Find the Right Balance” href=”http://hoopshabit.com/2014/12/18/los-angeles-clippers-can-matt-barnes-balance-aggressiveness-restraint/” target=”_blank”> couple of tussles ignited the fire back into Matt Barnes, the Clippers have improved dramatically.
They now rank second in the NBA in three-point percentage at better than 38 percent, trailing only the Washington Wizards, and ahead of well regarded shooting teams like Golden State, Phoenix, and Toronto.
Earlier this season, you might have also wished upon a star, hoping that a miracle could fix the Clippers defense. In the first month plus of games, Los Angeles was getting absolutely torched by opponents three-point shooting.
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That mostly came from an unsustainable number of corner three makes, despite the Clippers being one of the best teams in the league at denying the corner three. Opponents were just making contested jumpers at an astounding rate.
Now? The Clippers are right about league average on opponent three-point shooting, ranking 14th out of 30 teams. As opponents have settled into a more reasonable number of made jumpers, the Clipper defense has stabilized, if not excelled.
You could certainly wish for better defense, but with the aging Barnes playing against the other team’s best wing player each night, it will take a miracle to be better than league average on defense.
Which brings up another good idea. Maybe the Clipper’s and Doc Rivers could resolve to make a move on the trade market, bringing in an upgrade on the wing? There are some trade ideas out there, but the trade market is tight, with teams unwilling to give up assets for anything other than a superstar.
Los Angeles itself is in that group, as they are unwilling to part with any significant contributor other than possibly Jamal Crawford.
Crawford was reportedly being considered as trade bait earlier, but those rumors never came to fruition and things have calmed down. Rumors also surfaced briefly about Lob City looking at Lance Stephenson, but that seems like a long shot.
The Clippers roster is just not primed for a big move without giving up significant assets. A small move could be made, but it would surely have just a small impact.
Nay, perhaps, though, a resolution for the new year should just be for the Clippers to get along, as my colleague Marcus Bass wrote recently about Los Angeles players disliking each other in the locker room. While this is certainly a feisty group of players, those media reports are usually overblown.
I rarely buy into the chemistry stuff regardless, having watched a team with the best locker room chemistry of all time in the later years Steve Nash led Phoenix Suns, routinely finish ninth or lower in the conference.
At the same time, who can forget the infamous Portland Trail Blazers teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s, made of such good chemistry guys like Bonzi Wells and Rasheed Wallace, go deep into the playoffs each year, and nearly win it all if not for questionable officiating and a complete fourth quarter meltdown against the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers.
Those “Jail Blazers” were the opposite of good chemistry, and while they never won a championship, they came close several times.
Perhaps the Clippers could resolve to move into the eastern conference, where they would be a virtual shoe-in to the conference championship game, but geography might make that difficult.
The Los Angeles Clippers resolution for the new year should be simple. Get back to doing what they do best. Blake Griffin needs to posterize opposing players more often, and take fewer long jump shots. Chris Paul needs to just continue his reign as best point guard in the West.
DeAndre Jordan needs to patrol the paint and act as Blake Griffin’s champion, resisting the urge in a contract year to add more offense to his game.
Jamal Crawford needs to keep lighting up the opposing bench, and Matt Barnes needs to be unafraid to mix it up, even if he gets a technical foul or two.
This team is looked at as a disappointment, but in reality they within striking distance of the number one seed, and only a game back of the four seed and home court advantage in the first round. We all know the playoffs this year will be an epic contest in the Western Conference, so maybe drastic changes are not the way to go.
Let this team fight through some adversity, and come playoff time, will you really be ready to count them out against perennial playoff flameouts ahead of them like Portland and Golden State? I will not be betting against them.