The Good, Bad and Ugly from the Los Angeles Clippers' Early Season

At 3-1 through four games, things are mostly rosy in the land of the Los Angeles Clippers. But like any honest critique, there are still glaring deficiencies for a team with championship aspirations. 

Los Angeles has been on a roller-coaster ride of sorts through the first week of the NBA season. Despite the record, they've won ugly with a 106.3 defensive rating.

That's the sort of thing head coach Doc Rivers and the coaching staff will look to clean up. 

The Clips' superstars are doing what they're supposed to, while some of the team's role players are still searching for their identity within the framework the rotation. 

Blake Griffin has continued his torrid pace from last season, averaging 27.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 38.3 minutes per contest. 

Chris Paul has a 24.9 player efficiency rating, which is indicative of his profound effect on the game in several different ways. He's creating shots for both himself and others, putting to bed any notion that he may have lost something in the process.

The floor general has put up 15.8 points and 9.7 assists per game. He's also making waves on defense by averaging 2.7 steals per outing. 

While the contributions from Paul and Griffin are noticeable, the small forwards have struggled to find their footing. 

Matt Barnes is off to a horrendous start with a lowly 6.4 PER. Chris Douglas-Roberts has been given early chances by Rivers to revitalize his waning NBA career with 13.7 minutes per game. 

So far, he's squandered those precious opportunities to post a dismal -5.1 PER. He's also been a part of the team's defensive issues (more on that shortly) on the outside. 

For now, let's take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly for the Clippers through Week 1 of the 2014-15 season. 

Good: The newcomers

Spencer Hawes and Jordan Farmar may not have made as big a splash as new owner Steve Ballmer did in coming to Los Angeles this past offseason, but their presence on the floor has already begun to pay dividends. 

Here's a snapshot of what they've done through the first four tilts: 

2014-15	PPG	RPG	APG	TS%	PER
Spencer Hawes	7.5	3.5	0.8	58.8	14.3
Jordan Farmar	6.0	0.5	1.5	64.0	18.3

Better still is what they're doing on the floor together. The two-man combination of Hawes and Farmar has yielded a differential of plus-13.0 points per 100 possessions in addition to a plus-10.1 mark in three-pointers made. 

The bottom line? The free agents are making the front office look good in a small sample size. There's no reason to believe this trend won't continue. 

Bad: Shooting woes

Heading into the Nov. 3 game against the Utah Jazz, the Clippers were shooting a dismal 41.1 percent from the field. That number had them ranked 27th among all 30 teams at time of publication.

The outlier here is J.J. Redick, who's been abysmal from the field at just 25.6 percent. 

It's not time to hit the panic button, however. We're only three games in, and the sharpshooter is bound to improve on his 6-of-28 three-point clip.

He's a career 38.7 percent shooter from beyond the arc who averages 3.8 three-point shot attempts. He'll shoot himself out of this mini-slump eventually. 

Clippers fans needn't worry. It's been less than 12 months since he's done this: 

 The breakout game is coming at some point.

Ugly: Perimeter defense

There are few numbers that can illustrate the difficulties the Clippers have had on defense. Here's all anyone needs to know about how bad things are when it comes to defending perimeter players in Clipper Land: 

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

 That's Paul defending Kobe Bryant on the perimeter. That's not supposed to happen. 

As Steve Perrin of Clips Nation points out, it's a problem—a big one at that: 

"

When your best option on defense is to put the 6'0" Chris Paul on the 6'6" Kobe Bryant, you've got a problem. And like the rebounding, this is not a two-game problem, this is a carry-over problem. The Clippers were forced to defend Kevin Durant with Paul last season.

"

The Clippers clearly don't trust the likes of Barnes, Douglas-Roberts or anyone else but Paul to defend a scorer like Bryant on the wing. Paul isn't supposed to defend the opposing team's best player when the coaches can help it. 

Unfortunately, they can't. 

Here's another example of the gravity of the situation: 

That's Bryant throwing it down on Barnes like it's 2007. 

These days, when Kobe dunks like he did on on that play, it's a big deal. That's because the aging Lakers legend doesn't get up or move like when he wore No. 8. 

When a defender makes a 36-year-old 19-year veteran look like he's 26, there's something wrong.  

The time to figure out a solution on defense is now.

All advanced statistics via Basketball-Reference.com