Greatest unsung hero in every NBA team’s history

Los Angeles Clippers: J.J. Redick

Honestly, the real unsung heroes for the Los Angeles Clippers are the fans that stuck with this franchise through decades of futility.

The league finally threw this team a bone by acquiring Chris Paul in a traded from the then-New Orleans Hornets. New Orleans was briefly owned by the league at the time and had previously nixed a Paul trade to the Los Angeles Lakers. The wins began to pile up. For a brief time, the Clippers became the more tantalizing NBA attraction in Los Angeles over the reeling Lakers.

If you watched any Clippers game during the “Lob City” era, you probably did so to see the future Hall of Fame point guard virtually gift wrap highlight dunks for Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. But with today’s more relaxed defensive rules, most teams could have clogged the paint to ensure that Griffin and Jordan didn’t have easy access to the basket.

This is what made J.J. Redick so important to this team. The former Duke Blue Devil provided much-needed spacing with his 3-point shooting. He shot 44 percent in four seasons with the Clippers. He was basically a less-athletic version of Klay Thompson. Or is Klay Thompson a more athletic version of Redick?

Sure, Redick couldn’t create his own shot. Yes, he was a liability on defense. Of his 21.2 win shares with Los Angeles, only 4.5 came on the defensive end of the floor. But the Clippers didn’t bring him in to be a star. They simply needed him to knock down 3-pointers and give Paul, Griffin and Jordan room to do what they do best.