Should LA Clippers Sign Jordan Hamilton for the Rest of the Season?
The Los Angeles Clippers have needed help at backup small forward all season. Unfortunately, they haven't gotten it from Jordan Hamilton, but that's not necessarily his fault.
Hamilton signed a couple of 10-day deals, starting on Feb. 24, after spending most of the season in the NBA D-League, which means he is currently playing for his basketball life. NBA rules state a player can only sign two 10-day contracts. After that, if a team wants to bring him back, it has to do so on a permanent basis.
But aside from a couple of exceptions, we're not seeing Hamilton on the court in L.A., even if the fourth-year wing has consciously tried to change his style from early in his career.
"Two years [ago], I was 22 at the time, and it was just tough for me trying to find my way into the league," Hamilton said of his beginning in the NBA, via Chris Wylde of ClipCast. "You know, I didn't really understand why I wasn't getting the minutes I was. Now, understanding that now, and looking back at it, I wish I could've did things differently."
Back in his days playing for Rick Barnes at the University of Texas, Hamilton was the ultimate chucker. You could turn on a Longhorns game at any given moment and watch a possession start and end with the ball in Hamilton's hands. The start of his pro career looked like that, too.
So much dribbling. So much shooting. And so much of it ill-advised.
Considering his reputation and production, the former Houston Rocket and Denver Nugget, among others, could've kept throwing the shots up there in the D-League this season. Guys do that all the time as non-NBA players, trying to show off their scoring to make it back to the big time, especially if they're natural shooters. Hamilton went the other direction, posting a reasonable usage rate to pair with his productive 55 percent true shooting.
"Just looking back at it, I never want to go back," Hamilton said of his D-League experience, via ClipCast. "I'm not saying that the D-League is a bad place, but that's a place I don't want to go back now."
But he's not getting minutes with the Clippers. Even the old woman in the park who feeds the pigeons for three hours a day is starting to judge the amount of time he's spending on a bench.
Hamilton did start the two games Matt Barnes missed with hamstring problems—he got 25 minutes on March 2 and 18 on March 4—but he's been stapled to his seat otherwise. And thus, he's still somewhat of an unknown on this roster—at least to the people on the outside.
As Nate Robinson, who's also on a 10-day contract, continues to get rotation time even while playing like he's just taken six bullets to the leg, it's a mystery as to what Hamilton has to do to get into games. But, of course, claiming that a guy on a 10-day deal needs more minutes is easier said than done for a team that's trying to win every contest right now.
Steering away from the riskier players this late in the season because you're fretting about losing games is a reasonable emotion. But if that's coach Doc Rivers' logic, it does beg the question, "Why is Nate playing this much?"
When the Texas product has played, he's been serviceable. He shot 3-of-7 from three in his two starts while guarding inconsistently but capably with his 6'7" frame that boasts a 6'10" wingspan.
He's never going to be a straight stopper on defense, a type of player the Clippers can only dream about now, but he can at least be a big, decently athletic body to plug into a backup forward role, a way we certainly can't describe Hedo Turkoglu.
You'd have to imagine a coach/executive duo would have some amount of confidence in a guy it just signed. Otherwise, why would it make that move? And if that coach and exec are the same person, then you'd think coaching philosophies and front office ones would be intact.
But still, almost no burn for the newest Clipper wing. It's the same issue the Clippers have had with other supposed solutions (like Reggie Bullock): They need wings, but they only play the ones who prompted the need in the first place.
Hamilton has gotten a total of 15 minutes over the five games he hasn't started. He didn't get get on the floor against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday until the fourth quarter, when the game was already out of hand, an interesting development considering a team with the length and athletes of Golden State would be a proper matchup to employ him.
The next night told a similar story. Hamilton didn't play until the final two minutes of Monday's win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, which was a blowout much of the way through.
For some reason, Turkoglu is still getting his named called over Hamilton.
Maybe Rivers isn't playing Hamilton much because he's already made up his mind on the 24-year-old. After all, the Clippers did just sign him to a second 10-day contract, often a near-guarantee that a team will re-up a player with a year-long deal in the coming days.
On top of that, the Clips almost have to re-sign Hamilton once his second 10-day runs out if only because there isn't anyone else out there who fills the "three-and-D" role the team so desperately seeks at small forward.
Who else can be the Clippers' solution to the problems at the backup 3 spot?
Hamilton may not be the right answer—check that. Hamilton isn't the right answer. But remember when you took the SATs, and they used to tell you not to look for the right answer, but for the best one? Well, Hamilton is merely the best answer to a highly depressing question.
Unfortunately, the buyout market is particularly weak this winter, and the players who could've made an ever-so-small impact (i.e. the Shawne Williamses of the world) are all snatched up by other teams. And no, that's not a mistake on the Clippers' part. They just chose Hamilton as the kid amongst kids they figured would help them most. Yet he's feeding pigeons instead of playing basketball.
It would be nice to find out if Hamilton can produce in a game environment. Practices can only tell a coach so much. But "nice" things don't always develop.
He might not play much down the stretch. Come big games, he might not play at all. But with the few wings the Clippers do have, they need insurance, and fortunately or not, Hamilton is the best answer. They'll stick with him if only because they have no other choice.
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 on ESPN's TrueHoop Network at ClipperBlog. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of March 10 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.
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