Minnesota Timberwolves: Is the Patrick Beverley effect real?

2017-2021: LA Clippers

Beverley’s tenure in Los Angeles with the Clippers is a little harder to measure. Coming in, he didn’t immediately receive as big of a role as he had in Houston, and when his role was finally increased, it was during two shortened seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the numbers surrounding Beverley’s tenure with LA are interesting, and they do skew positive.

In 2016-17, the season before Beverley’s arrival, the LA Clippers averaged a 107.5 defensive rating (12th in the league), as well as 7.5 steals (20th) and 4.2 blocks per game (21st). We’re also at an advantage here, as 2016-17 was the first season the NBA started tracking hustle stats such as contested shots and deflections, which LA averaged 55.3 (30th) and 15.3 (18th) in respectively.

Once Beverley showed up, the scene changed a little bit. 2017-18, the first season the Beverley was a Clipper, saw LA average a 109.2 defensive rating along with 7.7 steals and 4.5 blocks per game. As far as hustle stats went, LA averaged 59.0 contested shots and 14.6 deflections per game. All of these stats, with the exception of defensive rating and deflections, were an improvement over 2016-17. And again, Beverley had a limited role his first year, only playing 11 games in 2017-18 and missing 29 out of a possible 78 starts in 2018-19.

In 2019-20, Beverley saw the Clippers fully rely on him once more, and the Clippers saw improvements in all of the previously mentioned stats from their pre-Beverley year with the exception of deflections, which were 14.6 once again. It’s a shame that the pandemic only allowed Beverley to play a total of 88 games with the Clippers over his last two seasons, as it’s only up to our speculation for what the team’s defensive numbers would have been with two full-length seasons of Beverley.