The Los Angeles Clippers are currently greeting from the top of the Western Conference. Without a real star, the team at Coach Doc Rivers relies on the collective and hard work. What’s in it for one of the surprise teams of the season?
‘After 20 games, you get a good feeling about how a team’s season is going to go.’ You hear this guiding principle from many people, be they coaches, GM, journalists or even scouts, when it comes to assessing the performance level of a team in a new season.
These 20 games are now in the books for most teams this season, with the Toronto Raptors taking the place of the sun in the east – and the Los Angeles Clippers in the west! Correctly read, not the Warriors, the Rockets or even the Lakers around LeBron James greet from the top, but the Clippers, led by …
Yeah, exactly, led by who? For years Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan were the stars, formed a Big Three and made the Clippers the Contender. But for years the clips disappointed and finally disintegrated into all parts within a year. From the Clippers core of “Lob City” only one component has remained – Coach Doc Rivers.
The same Rivers who left Boston Celtics in 2013 for L.A. because he didn’t feel like rebuilding and wanted to continue ring hunting. Instead, over the years I-AGs developed, which no longer liked each other and increasingly robbed Rivers of their desire for coaching.
“I was very distant this year”, Rivers described in a conversation with Kevin Arnovitz (ESPN) the last run with CP3 on the title in the 2016/17 season. “I just didn’t want to be there anymore. I wanted to continue coaching, but this team was very difficult to train. I’m very introverted and this group was so exhausting because they didn’t like each other.”
Now these egos are missing, the team lives from the collective. The best player on the team is … Tobias Harris? Maybe Lou Williams? Or Danilo Gallinari? With these names you quickly notice that this troop has no clear All-Star, but provides at least twelve capable rotation players. Not a single Clippers player has a lower net rating than -0.2! A Milos Teodosic or Mike Scott would probably only get a DNP with a few teams, although the coach is not too good to play an 11-man rotation.
The result is a unit that wins its games with hard work, even if the Clippers of the talent level are more in the back midfield of the West. That’s exactly what made the young coach Rivers stand out when he led the carefree Orlando Magic almost into the playoffs at the turn of the millennium, earning him the Coach of the Year award.
“I love our identity,” Rivers enthused in a recent conversation with USA TODAY when he was asked about his new Clippers team. “We’re physical, we play hard, we want to win and we’re always honest with each other.” Another small pinprick against earlier versions of the clips.
As in parts of the previous season, this season is marked by hard work. There’s game after game 48 minutes of full throttle basketball to watch, although of course the extremely low squad helps a lot here. Rivers can set up small, large, or huge, allowing L.A. to convert several residues into victories.
It is certainly no coincidence that the Clippers won most of the games in Crunchtime (10) after Philly. Ten players get at least 15 minutes of playing time per game, so several players have already advanced to match winners for the “other franchise from Los Angeles”. Sometimes center giant Boban Marjanovic brought momentum to the Clippers, sometimes Forward Mike Scott nailed one jumper after the other into the basket, sometimes Sweet Lou took over the game completely.
Rivers is spoilt for choice and can therefore decide which players are best suited to the situation depending on the matchup. Of course, there are also certain constants in the game, with Gallinari and Harris being the first to be mentioned. It’s almost an irony of fate that the Clippers now have two strong wing players in their squad. Remember: In the days of Lob City the position of the Small Forward was always the problem, now you have with the two potential All-Stars.
But the clippers are even lower in the small positions, which is why a Teodosic hardly gets minutes yet. Rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in particular did his job as a starter so well that he left all his rivals behind in the rotation. Since Griffin, SGA has probably been the best Clippers rookie and thus an important building block for the future.
With SGA, Patrick Beverley and Avery Bradley, the Clippers have three strong Guard defenders at their disposal, which can conceal Sweet Lou’s shortcomings. As is well known, he is hardly usable as a defender, but he is usually the absolute go-to guy in the final phase. Like last year, the current Sixth Man of the Year has the green light in the fourth quarter and is basically the offense of the Clippers.
With Montrezl Harrell, who made another jump and is the first big to come out of the bank, Williams forms a deadly one-two punch. Harrell has mutated into one of the best Pick’n’Roll players in the league, only Rudy Gobert and Serge Ibaka topping the 1.47 points per posseon that Harrell plays as a Roll Man.
“It’s his speed,” Rivers said last trying to explain Harrell’s numbers. “He’s so fast, he plays with so much power. You can hardly stop the ball with your pace and then defend Trez in time.” It’s also helpful that Harrell has good hands, which led Harris to compare his Power Forward to a wide receiver.
Often Harrell can only be stopped by fouls, which means that he takes an average of 6 free throws per game in 25 minutes. Since Gallinari and Williams also draw a lot of freebies, the Clippers generate a lot of easy points, which makes them the second best team in the league at the Free Throw Rate (33.3 percent).
So it is not surprising that the Clippers are in 6th place in the offensive rating, although only three teams take fewer three. The Rivers force is always out to attack the Zone – hard and determined.
It’s also another expression of the fact that the team not only talks about playing hard, but actually does. This also includes the other side of the field. “No one wants to play defense these days. We don’t have this luxury,” says Rivers due to the lack of star power.
How far will the Clippers get this in the season? I guess that’s the question a lot of people are asking right now. Of course, the Californians are not a top seed, but there are some players in the squad who have rarely played through a season without injury (Gallinari, Bradley, Mbah a Moute).
Nevertheless, the Clippers have every right to hope for the playoffs, even in the completely crazy West, which was quite questionable before the season. After all, the team is in a process of upheaval, which was heralded by the Griffin trade at the latest. L.A. is far from being a laughing stock, as it has been for decades, it has earned respect.
This is also shown by the rumours that have been circulating around the team for some time now. According to some media reports the Clippers were on Jimmy Butler’s list and also Kawhi Leonard is supposed to have the team for his Free Agency on his wish list of preferred destinations.
“I like hearing all these rumors that they want to play for the Clippers,” Rivers said about the news. “You’re right about this, because we’re building something good here.” Like some other teams, the Clippers will have a lot of Cap Space available in summer 2019 (up to two Max slots), but in contrast to other teams they already have a working construct. Much will depend on how the clips will treat Harris’s personality.
With 21.5 points and 8.7 rebounds on average, the forward plays the best season of his career and becomes Free Agent. Can it be kept at acceptable conditions, is there a team that offers Harris a maximum deal? The further course of the season should bring a little more light into the darkness, every strong game will improve its negotiating position.
The Clippers will still like to see this. Despite the arrival of LeBron at the Lakers, the Clippers continue to be respected and taken seriously, also thanks to strong performances by Harris and Co. This was not always the case in the sometimes painful past. Not only because of the table situation, but also because of the way the Californians have earned respect in the Association – and rightly so.