Los Angeles Clippers Make Case As West’s Best Frontcourt
When looking at who has the best frontcourt in the west, you can certainly make a strong case for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Spencer Hawes, and Glen Davis make up the front court in L.A. If you combined all their stats and then averaged them out for 36 minutes, you would get a player that averages 16 points, 10.5 rebounds, shoots better than 50 percent from the field, with 1.4 blocks, a steal, and 2.6 assists per game.
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That would be an all-star caliber player, but how does it compare to the other top teams in the association? I took what I thought were the other two top frontcourts, the Grizzlies (
Marc Gasol,
Kosta Koufos,
Jon Leuer, and
Zach Randolph), and the Spurs (
Tim Duncan,
Tiago Splitter,
Boris Diaw, and
Jeff Ayres).
The Memphis Grizzlies, often thought of as having a bruising frontcourt, would actually average only 16.5 points, 9.7 rebounds, shoot 47 percent from the field, with a block, 0.8 steals, and 2.5 assists. A good player, but undeniably inferior to the Clippers.
Memphis suffers from having a strong starting unit, but Jon Leuer and Kosta Koufos do not inspire much confidence, especially on offense. The Grizzlies do play great defense, perhaps far better than the Clippers, but average defense among a rotation is difficult to calculate, and offensively, there is no comparison.
Another title contender, the San Antonio Spurs, would feature a combined average player who produced 14.5 points, 9.5 rebound, shoots 51 percent, with 1.3 blocks, 0.7 steals, and 3.4 assists per game. This shows the brilliance of the Spurs bigs and their system, with the great ball movement that would produce the 3.4 assists on average from their frontcourt.
The shooting percentage is better than either the Clippers or Grizzlies, while averaging fewer steals.
The Clippers have the best scorers, along with great shot blocking and rebounding. Their playmaking skills are good, but not great, and their defensive quickness shows in their better steal numbers. Its clear that the depth of the Clippers is far superior to that of Memphis and San Antonio.
The Spurs might move the ball better on offense, but Los Angeles has more blocks, steals, and rebounds. The Clippers front-court also averages more than one more free-throw attempt per game, drawing more fouls and adding to their offensive efficiency.
It is a close call between the Spurs and Clippers, and given that San Antonio is the defending champions, I would not argue too vehemently against someone pushing the Spurs. However, in my opinion, Los Angeles does indeed have the top frontcourt, by the slimmest of margins.