Clippers Rumors: Interest in Metta World Peace?
The Los Angeles Clippers need wing defenders and Metta World Peace is sitting around — is it a match?
The latest Clippers rumors have tied veteran small forward Metta World Peace to the glaring hole at the small forward spot for the Clippers. World Peace is currently playing overseas, but Dan Woike of the OC Register reported that Daniel Artest — Metta’s brother — said that the Clippers were interested. Would World Peace be a good fit?
The 6-4 Clippers are struggling defensively, as they’re 20th in scoring defense (101.4 allowed per game) and 21st in defensive rating (107.0) in the NBA. Matt Barnes has been at the center of the struggle, as a 34-year-old small forward who simply doesn’t have the athleticism to be a quality wing defender.
If the Clippers had better options, they would have demoted Barnes long ago. If Barnes had been more helpful on the offensive end, they wouldn’t feel pressed to replace him. Unfortunately, neither of those things are accurate, as Barnes has scored in double figures just twice in 10 games — and the backup is Reggie Bullock, Hedo Turkoglu or a player out of position.
Back to World Peace — would he be a good option? He’s currently playing for the Sichuan Blue Whales and through seven games, he’s averaging 23.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.3 steals in 31.3 minutes. His shooting line of .431/.339/.644 is better than his .397/.315/.625 from 2013-14 with the New York Knicks.
So the question of whether World Peace would be a good fit for this Clippers team? I don’t see it. At his peak, World Peace was a premiere defensive stalwart and was an underrated offensive player. Both of those things have long passed and the Clippers would essentially be trading an aging veteran who’s lost athleticism for another.
At this point, the Clippers are fairly tied to Barnes, unless they want to do some more creative lineups. Is Blake Griffin able to slide to the small forward? Maybe the Clippers go small and trot out a three-guard lineup of Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford and J.J. Redick?
In any event, I wouldn’t expect much to come of this World Peace rumor. In my opinion, if he still had a lot to give an NBA team, he wouldn’t have gone to China in the first place.