Grading LA Clippers' Final 15-Man Roster

Fifty-seven wins is a whole bunch of victories, but regular-season success wasn't enough for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2013-14.

The Clippers eventually fell in six games to the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second round of last year's playoffs. Now, they enter 2014-15 with an improved roster.

Doc Rivers' team mended some of its issues in the backup-big-man department over the summer with the Spencer Hawes signing. It brought in Chris Douglas-Roberts and Ekpe Udoh for defensive purposes. It replaced Darren Collison with Jordan Farmar. 

With Kevin Durant injured to start the season, and with the Spurs bound to rest guys sporadically, as always, the Clippers' chances at finishing first in the West surely go up. Still, San Antonio is always the favorite to win in the postseason, and the Clips will need better showings in April and May to get to June. 

Point Guard

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First string: Chris Paul

Second string: Jordan Farmar

Third string: Jared Cunningham

Clearly, Chris Paul's quality of play deserves an A—the guy's been the best point guard in the league for years now—but that doesn't mean the position as a whole gets the same treatment. 

Farmar is a quality backup, but at the deepest position in the NBA, seemingly every contending team has a respectable point guard on its bench.

Considering he's hit 43.9 percent of his NBA threes since the 2011-12 season, Farmar could help massively as a scoring guard off the bench, as he did with the Lakers a season ago. But the issue is he's not always around to play.

Durability has to be taken into consideration when grading out a roster, and that's an aspect of the game in which Paul and Farmar, who played in only 41 games during 2013-14, have struggled. Paul missed 20 contests last year, 12 the season before and is on a downward trend, progressively playing in a lower percentage of his team's games during each of the past four seasons.

There's no question Paul is the best point guard in the league when he's on the floor. We just don't know how often that's going to be, and as he hits his age-29 season, it wouldn't be unreasonable for Doc Rivers to give him sporadic rest throughout the year to ensure good health come mid-April.

Grade: A-

Shooting Guard

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First string: J.J. Redick

Second string: Jamal Crawford

Third string: C.J. Wilcox

It's possible that the most important offensive players on the Clippers (not named Chris Paul or Blake Griffin) are the top two shooting guards. 

Redick only played 35 games last season but completely opened up the offense when he was able to stay on the floor. It's not just his elite shooting that helps his teammates but also the versatility he adds to the attack.

Rivers changes up his schemes when the Dukie is able to play. The Clippers run far more pin-down screens. They send Redick jetting off screens all over the floor. He's a never-ending pinball on the offensive end. Knocking down shots is only part of that.

Forcing a defense to move only gives it more opportunities to screw up its rotations and get caught out of position. Crawford, meanwhile, plays a different type of importance.

Last season's Sixth Man of the Year is the Clippers' main ball-handling scorer off the bench. There is always going to be trade speculation around the instant-offense phenom, but in many ways, the Clips need Crawford's scoring and durability in the reserve unit. 

After Crawford and Redick, it will be hard for the rookie Wilcox to get into games, barring injuries. The bottom of a contender's rotation is often a lonely place.

Grade: B+

Small Forward

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First string: Matt Barnes

Second string: Chris Douglas-Roberts

Third string: Reggie Bullock

Barnes is just glad the preseason is done.

The third-year Clipper made only six of his 44 preseason attempts from the field. That's not exactly what the Clippers were hoping for considering how weak they are at small forward.

It's not that Barnes or backup Douglas-Roberts are bad players. That's not true for either. Both those guys have specific roles, mainly defensive ones, on a good team and will likely continue to contribute during the upcoming season. But there's one aspect of organization evaluation we would be remiss to gloss over.

The Clips re-signed Barnes to a three-year, $10.2 million deal during the summer of 2013 after acting as a star reserve for a 56-26 squad the previous season. That's the role the Clippers expected Barnes to play once again: quality bench player. And with Jared Dudley coming in last season, it didn't seem like it would be an issue.

It was, though. 

Dudley completely fell out of the rotation, and now the Clippers find themselves with two small forwards whom they internally rated as backups at the times of their respective signings. 

Both Barnes and CDR have defensive minds and each fits the "3 and D" description (though Barnes' shooting is inconsistent). But if the Clippers have struggles on the wings for the first half of the season, don't be surprised to hear trade rumors swirl around a team that will be fighting to contend in the West, especially if Bullock spends another season sitting on the bench.

Grade: C

Power Forward

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First string: Blake Griffin

Second string: Glen Davis (but actually Spencer Hawes)

Third string: Hedo Turkoglu

The Clippers finally shored up their third big-man spot with the offseason signing of Spencer Hawes, a capable passer, scorer and shooter who can stretch the floor to the three-point line.

Hawes sunk 41.6 percent of his long-range bombs a season ago while splitting time between the Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers, and though he doesn't help much defensively, he is a massive overall upgrade to what was the Clippers' biggest weakness last season.

Versatility comes with the signing, as well. The 7-footer can play the 4 or the 5, meaning we could see Rivers go with a three-man big rotation during important games, letting Hawes drift between the two big spots and filling up the rest of the time with Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and some small ball.

Oh, there's also that Blake Griffin guy, who's only become the best power forward in the game.

Griffin holds the distinction of "best among power forwards" in so many categories now that it's getting hard to keep track: dribbling, finishing, passing, overall athleticism. He's completed his game, and his preseason pick-and-roll defense has improved on top of him adding range and accuracy to his jumper. 

Griffin's biggest weakness as a pick-and-roll defender was always the recovery onto the screener. He'd sometimes struggle to find his assignment after straying from the basket, but after years of playing next to Jordan, communication looks more fluid and impulses seem more natural, traits that often don't show up in the exhibition season. 

The improvement trajectory will continue into this season, and with Kevin Durant hurt and LeBron James potentially working out kinks in Cleveland, Griffin is as good a dark-horse MVP candidate as anyone.

Grade: A

Center

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First string: DeAndre Jordan

Second string: Spencer Hawes

Third string: Ekpe Udoh

Jordan may have finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season, but he still has plenty of work to do to improve.

There are a number of players any voter could've thrown in front of Jordan on that ballot: Joakim Noah (the actual winner), Roy Hibbert (who finished second), Serge Ibaka, Andre Iguodala, Dwight Howard and Andrew Bogut all had legitimate cases to receive votes during 2013-14. 

Still, Jordan's progression was notable throughout the season a year ago, and the Clippers should expect another year of development (especially after a dominant playoff showing). 

Just on the defensive side, DJ can work on positioning himself better to protect the rim on dribble penetration off ball screens. He often intentionally lags a step behind ball-handlers so that he can swat a shot as opposed to contesting in front of the dribbler. It leads to flashy blocks, but sometimes, it can create uncontested layups, as well. 

Hawes will clearly be an upgrade on the Ryan Hollins-Byron Mullens-Glen Davis combination of last season, though Davis does return in a lesser role for this year. He doesn't, however, help much on the defensive side. That's why the Clippers went out and got Udoh, who isn't much of an offensive contributor or scorer, but he is someone who can defend the rim and use his athleticism aptly. 

Grade: B+

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 Oct. 27 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.