Will Los Angeles Clippers Sink or Swim with Current Small Forward Crew?
The Los Angeles Clippers have a small forward problem, and unlike the the position's title, the issue is anything but tiny.
The Clippers employ Matt Barnes, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Reggie Bullock to play the 3, but so far, none has taken control of the position. That's going to be a problem moving into the future, considering how many athletic small forwards roam the Western Conference landscape.
Actually, there are issues already—on both sides of the ball. The Clippers may be 3-2, but coming off a thrashing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, they've hardly looked impressive getting there. Part of that is because the wings haven't been able to score or guard.
Barnes is missing open shots after a weak preseason. Douglas-Roberts didn't sink a field-goal attempt until the fifth game of the year. Bullock is still on the early end of his learning curve. And all are getting lit up on the defensive side.
This would be the moment when you could rebut with, "It's only been five games. Calm down with your small sample size theater. This could mean nothing right now. It could easily be just five bad games." And you'd be right in principle. However, your point starts to come apart once you realize this sort of production was the expectation coming into the year.
Just look at some of the wings who have gone off against the Clippers so far in the early season.
| Name | Team | FGM | FGA | PTS |
| Perry Jones III | OKC | 10 | 17 | 32 |
| Kobe Bryant | LAL | 6 | 15 | 21 |
| Rudy Gay | SAC | 7 | 14 | 25 |
| Gordon Hayward | UTA | 10 | 19 | 27 |
| Klay Thompson | GSW | 7 | 13 | 19 |
| Draymond Green | GSW | 8 | 13 | 24 |
It doesn't look good for LA at the 3, but at least we saw some promise when Bullock entered Monday's game against the Utah Jazz, a 107-101 Clippers victory.
He barely played last season, getting into a game for more than 20 minutes just four times. He missed 2014 Las Vegas Summer League because of injury. He couldn't get off the bench during the preseason. He didn't once see the floor during the Clippers' first three games, but basketball has this uncanny ability to surprise you.
Out of nowhere, Bullock added a new wrinkle to this crew Monday in a closer-than-it-should-have-been game against the Jazz, surpassing Douglas-Roberts in the Clippers' rotation.
Finally, the Clippers got some production at small forward.
The 25th overall pick in the 2013 draft may have only played 18 minutes, but he drained four threes, just one fewer than Barnes and CDR have on the season combined.
Still though, we saw struggles.
Part of Barnes' offensive appeal, even though he's not much of a distance shooter, is that he moves so well off the ball. Matt Barnes is the definition of a sharp cutter, the scissor on a team synonymous with scissors themselves. In that sense, the Clippers offense changed with the second-year Bullock out there.
At only 23 years of age, Bullock is still learning plenty of facets of the game, including how to find space off the ball. Go back to look at the highlights from the Jazz game, and you'll find a stoic Bullock hanging out in the corners, usually on the right side, waiting for a kick-out or a swing around the perimeter.
When Paul and Griffin have gravity working, when they're pulling defenders into the paint, opportunities for Bullock can be there, and he can put up a performance when he hits three or four long balls every once in a while. But there's a reason he attempted only one shot in 12 minutes against the Warriors on Wednesday during his second game of the year. Good defenses who take away passing lanes to the corners can completely neutralize his still game.
Considering what the Clips were getting from the 3 before, Bullock's production perfectly fine as long as they can get a 4-of-6 performance from long range. They needed to get shooting and space from the position, somehow. But Bullock still isn't all the way there, especially on the defensive end.
So, what are the Clippers to do?
Barnes shot 6-of-44 during the preseason. He's off to an almost-as-cold start during the regular season. CDR, meanwhile, looks to have fallen from Doc Rivers' rotation—for now.
"For now" are an essential two words to remember when talking about the Clippers' struggles at small forward, because it does seem like LA is heading down a road that has multiple 3s on it.
The Clips have already seen Bullock pass Douglas-Roberts in the rotation. But what if Barnes continues to play poorly? Couldn't he fall? And are either of those guys good enough to grip a stranglehold on the position for a full season with a pesky CDR behind them?
A trade may be inevitable, though it's unclear exactly whom the Clippers would get rid of in such a deal.
Jamal Crawford, the usual bait, is an essential part of the bench lineups, considering the lack of natural scorers the Clippers boast in the second unit. Spencer Hawes just signed a four-year deal. J.J. Redick, whose shoddy on-ball defense doesn't help the Clips' defensive issues, remains an integral part of the Clippers offense even if he's not hitting shots right now.
The Clippers could've made moves for a defensive-minded 3 during the summer. It wouldn't have been that hard.
They chose to draft C.J. Wilcox, an offensive-minded 2-guard who is yet to get into a game, instead of K.J. McDaniels, who has been a defensive hound during his long career at Clemson and his short one with the Philadelphia 76ers. They chose to spend the full mid-level exception on Hawes instead of splitting it between a defensive big (like Ed Davis) and a two-way small forward (like C.J. Miles).
Then there's that Jared Dudley trade, which looked odd at the time and seems even stranger now. The Clips sent Dudley and a first-round pick (emphasis on first-round pick) to the Milwaukee Bucks for Carlos Delfino and Miroslav Raduljica, only to release the two former Bucks so they could create cap space to sign Ekpe Udoh and CDR.
Except Udoh isn't getting minutes, aside from the four he received on opening night, and Douglas-Roberts fell out of Doc's rotation with Usain Bolt-like speed. Essentially, the Clippers decided to trade away a first-round pick so they could sign two guys they weren't confident enough in to keep in the lineups longer than three games. There's reason for confusion here.
But this is all a case of hindsight being 20/20.
At the moment, all the Clippers can do is hope. Hope that Barnes returns to last season's post-New Year's form. Hope that Douglas-Roberts can start making shots from the perimeter like he did under Steve Clifford a year ago. Hope that Bullock can turn into the prospect they thought he was in June 2013.
But we're yet to see the hope manifest into truth, and if the Clips keep struggling on the wing, they're going to wish they had addressed the issue when they had the chance.
Fred Katz averaged almost one point per game in fifth grade but maintains that his per-36-minute numbers were astonishing. Find more of his work at WashingtonPost.com or on ESPN's TrueHoop Network at ClipperBlog.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of Nov. 6 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.
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