Los Angeles Clippers sign Marshall Plumlee

The Los Angeles Clippers suffered last season due to a lack of big man depth. The team moved to help rectify that issue by signing Marshall Plumlee to a partially guaranteed deal in the quiet period of a busy offseason.

The Los Angeles Clippers are in the midst of one of the team’s busiest offseasons in franchise history. Despite losing Chris Paul‘s services, the team recovered with what was probably the best superstar trade of the summer. While the team will be worse without Paul at the front of the offense, the team recovered well enough to remain a playoff contender.

When the Clippers reached the playoffs last season, however, their depth at guard was not the biggest issue. They struggled to overcome the big men for the Utah Jazz, especially after Blake Griffin‘s injury.

The Clippers made a move to shore up their big man depth by signing former New York Knicks center Marshall Plumlee to a partially guaranteed contract, per ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Plumlee is not a game-changing center. He did not play much in New York and will probably not see much court time for the Los Angeles Clippers. However, Plumlee also fills an area of need for them. He might not be a piece of the team’s core going forward, but he has solid value as a potential rotation player.

A true seven-footer

It is both undeniably strange and indicative of the current direction of the NBA, but Marshall Plumlee is now the only seven-footer on the Clippers’ roster. While DeAndre Jordan just barely misses the cut at 6’11” (and his vertical leap and wide frame allow him to play even bigger), it is quite telling that the Clippers did not have a true seven-footer on the team until nabbing Plumlee.

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Marshall Plumlee does not provide much beyond being a big body. He attempted just three shots from more than 10 feet from the basket last season and made one of them. He went eight of 19 from the line in the NBA. While his D-League numbers were far better (62 percent from the line), Plumlee does not provide much outside of the restricted area.

However, Plumlee is quite adept at taking advantage of his size. His ability to bang inside shows up most prominently in his rebounding statistics. Plumlee pulled in offensive rebounds at a ridiculous rate last season, grabbing 4.9 offensive boards per 36 minutes. He also pulled in 2.9 offensive rebounds in just under 31 minutes per game in the D-League last season. Plumlee might not be a future superstar big man, but he is at least rather adept at taking advantage of his size.

Future outlook: Emergency big man

Marshall Plumlee will probably not be a major rotation player for the Los Angeles Clippers next season. He is already 25, so he will not be treated as a long-term project. Despite the Clippers’ lack of big man depth, Plumlee will probably start the season behind DeAndre Jordan, Montrezl Harrell and Brice Johnson in the hunt for minutes at center.

With that being said, the Clippers have struggled for years to find depth behind DeAndre Jordan. Jordan’s incredible, almost robotic, stretch of healthy seasons may last for the rest of his career. However, even DeAndre cannot play 48 minutes per game. Furthermore, Blake Griffin’s presumed absence to start the season would leave the Clippers very thin down low if any of their other bigs have to miss time early in the 2017-18 season.

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Marshall Plumlee might not play much for the Los Angeles Clippers this season. Given his partially guaranteed contract, he might not make it through training camp. However, his size could be useful if the Clippers are ravaged by injuries. His seven-foot frame alone may be enough to give Plumlee a shot at some NBA minutes this season.