Los Angeles Clippers: Looking At The Frontcourt Rotation

Will Los Angeles Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers embrace needed change?

It was only the first preseason game, but nevertheless there are some things we learned, and one of the more interesting tidbits was a glimpse into coach Doc Rivers’ player rotations and how he plans on using his new pieces.

In the first half, we saw a lot of the predicted starting lineup of Chris Paul, Matt Barnes, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and J.J. Redick. Not all that exciting of a revelation, but the rotation of the Clippers’ bench caught my attention, specifically the Los Angeles Clippers frontcourt rotation.

Spencer Hawes, the big addition in the off-season, spent much of the first half on the floor with the returning Glen Davis, and precious little time sharing the court with Griffin. This might just be pre-season experimenting but it brings up some interesting questions about how best to use the four quality big men that Los Angeles has on its roster. The frontcourt is the strength of this team, so Rivers needs to maximize the contributions by all four players if he expects the team to get the coveted home-court advantage come playoff time.

In this first pre-season game, Spencer Hawes had a terrible minus-17 +/- rating in just 24 minutes of action. That is really bad, but was it all Hawes’ fault?

As mentioned, Hawes shared the court with Davis for much of the first half, and while the new Clippers big man did seem a little tentative on offense, his mere presence helped to clear the lane for the man playing in the other front-court slot, Davis.

Big Baby was awful, shooting just 2-of-7 from the floor, with just two rebounds, while committing two turnovers and fouling three times in 15 minutes of playing time. He missed several open shots while on the floor with Hawes, including a wide-open lay-up and a relatively easy and-one opportunity.

His only makes were easy looks. It would not be crazy to think that an athletic big man with monster finishing power could have torched the Warriors if he had shared the court with Hawes in that line-up.

Hawes’ strength on offense is his shooting and floor-spacing ability. As a stretch-4, or stretch-5, who can actually shoot it, he provides an open lane for any other big rolling to the basket or posting-up. Inside of three feet, Hawes shoots a pedestrian 62 percent, but from the 3-point line, he cranks it up, hitting 36 percent for his career and an astounding 45 percent last year in a 27-game stretch to end the year with Cleveland.

Clearly, you want Hawes on the perimeter while a prolific finisher is down inside. Davis is not that guy.

In his career, Big Baby has hit a somewhat pathetic-for-a-big-man 61 percent of those shots within three feet, while chucking almost as many long 2s as lay-ups. Davis has similar, if not quite as good, skills to Hawes, as he provides some measure of floor spacing for other players by making enough long twos to keep the defense honest.

Meanwhile, Blake Griffin is destroying the opposition by dunking his way to a 74 percent mark on shots inside three feet, one of the best percentages in the league. And he loves to dunk, as we have seen from the highlight shows, as a good 41 percent of his shot attempts come from within three feet. So would it not make more sense to pair Griffin and Hawes together?

Even on defense, the Griffin-Hawes frontcourt sounds better than the Davis-Hawes pairing. Hawes is a good rebounder for a 5, and he showed that again in the preseason game against the Warriors by grabbing eight rebounds. Having two bigs who both rebound is a godsend for a team that loves to run the fast break.

And the athletic Griffin and his terrific weak-side shot blocking ability would be perfect to cover up the weaknesses in Hawes’ defensive game. Hawes has never been a great defender, as quicker more athletic players have given him trouble. However, with Griffin on the court, you could put the bigger opposing player on Hawes, a legit 7-footer, and let Griffin use his quickness to stay in front of the smaller Derrick Williams/Markieff Morris/David Lee type 4s.

Meanwhile, Davis has never even sniffed an average of one block per game, and has no ability to erase mistakes coming from the weak side. Davis also has problems with quicker 4s, and that same David Lee or Markieff Morris type of player would feast upon a Davis/Hawes defensive duo.

Hawes himself has never been a great shot blocker, although he is certainly better than Davis. Having no rim protection on the court, while also jacking lots of jumpshots sounds like a defensive nightmare for a coach. It is clear that Hawes’ game just meshes much more smoothly with the athletic Blake Griffin than the ground-bound mound of no-rebound that is Davis.

The other big man, DeAndre Jordan, while a great defender and shot blocker, also hurts the offensive game of Blake Griffin. Griffin can make a long two for sure, shooting better than Davis, but do you want a powerful force of nature like Griffin shooting 16-foot jumpshots because Jordan is clogging up the lane?

If anyone should be shooting those shots, why not have it be Davis while Jordan waits underneath to snag some easy put-backs and offensive rebounds. Davis can provide nominal floor spacing for Jordan when DeAndre runs the pick and roll with either Jordan Farmar or Chris Paul.

And while Davis has never been a great defensive rebounder, he has some ability to sneak in on the offensive boards. Davis’ game is just much more suited for being a floor spacer and pick-and-pop player than being a roll-man, as he does not have the size and athleticism to finish those plays.

DeAndre Jordan shoots better than 71 percent when inside of three feet, and he can clearly finish with authority. So why pair your two best finishers together, and then pair your two worst finishers? Do you really want more long jumpers by Blake Griffin and more missed lay-ups by a flailing Big Baby?

It is still very early, and Doc Rivers is a smart man. So there is hope that he will see the light and adjust his rotations. Starting Hawes, while probably the best move, seems unlikely to happen as NBA players view the starting line-up far more importantly than they should.

Rivers is known to be loyal to a fault with his players, so Jordan will most likely be starting for the entire season, barring any injury. However, hopefully Rivers will keep him as just a symbolic starter and insert Hawes quickly, giving the fans more ferocious dunks and threes and giving the Clippers a reason to believe this year will be the year they finally make it past the rest of the western conference.