Biggest Offseason Needs for Los Angeles Clippers
If you're a Los Angeles Clippers fan, step away from the computer now. You don't need to be following any more Clippers coverage after the steamrolling you witnessed over the past week. Take a couple days off and settle down.
The Clippers, once up 3-1 on the Houston Rockets and sitting a single victory away from their first-ever Western Conference Finals appearance, saw their season slip through their fingers when they dropped three straight to end the series. A train wreck in Game 5, an all-time collapse in Game 6 and an exhausting performance in Game 7 on Sunday were the final blows. By the end, anyone still watching was just rubbernecking.
Now, L.A. heads into the offseason with a top-heavy roster in need of major improvement on the fringes.
The talk has already started: Should the Clippers blow it up? But blow what up?
A core of Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan with an intelligent tactician on the bench is good for 55 wins almost no matter what. This year's Clippers lost Griffin for 15 games and still won 56 times. Last year's saw CP go down for more than a month and got to 57.
The issues came with the bench, one that was so unplayable at times that coach Doc Rivers had to unload every last drop of sweat from his starters during the postseason. By the end of the Rockets series, they were so gassed they couldn't keep up with Houston during a 106-possession Game 7, one of the fastest-played games of this year's playoffs.
Still, even with the depth issues that plagued the team all season, keeping the core together has to be priority No. 1.
Re-Signing DeAndre Jordan
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This is the obvious one, right? Even Doc admitted as much immediately following the Game 7 loss to Houston.
"Can you tamper with your own guy?" Rivers questioned in the postgame presser after the Sunday loss. "If that's true, I want to go tamper right now."
Jordan is the Clippers' most essential defensive player. On a team without any semblance of depth whatsoever, he's a man who's been a model of consistency, playing 82 games for a third straight year (and he started all 66 during the lockout season four years ago). He still owns the longest streak of consecutive games played in the NBA.
He's all of the rim protection on the team. He's all of the back-line defense. He's certainly flawed on D—whether you want to pick at his post D, jumpiness or overaggression on the floor—but he's also certainly one of the league's most important defenders to his own team. That's what happens when your backups are Spencer Hawes and Glen "Big Baby" Davis.
After all of this, you could still argue Jordan is a better offensive player than defensive one, even with the grimy free-throw shooting. He's possibly the best and most active screen-setter in the league. He's one of the NBA's best finishers around the rim and pulls down offensive rebounds galore. He's a floor-spacer because of his devastating basket cutting in the pick-and-roll, drawing the defense into the paint and opening up passing lanes to free shooters on the outside almost every time he darts to the rim.
So, don't freak out when the Clippers offer him a max contract, which is bound to happen, especially after Rivers' postgame quotes from Sunday, when he specifically stated, "Our first priority is DJ."
Next year's cap projects to be around $67 million. The following year's is making a jump of more than $20 million. In 2017, it's taking another massive leap. Even if a max deal for DJ seems like an overpay in today's environment, it won't in a year or two, since the max is based on a percentage of the cap during the first year of the contract.
A Three-and-D Wing
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It's hard to say what the Clippers' biggest need was this past season. Depth in general would probably be the cop-out answer, but within that category, you could argue a wing defender was missing most, even if that wasn't the direct reason L.A. fell to Houston.
The Clips actually did a decent job defending wings during the postseason. Kawhi Leonard had a slow series in the first round, and J.J. Redick and Matt Barnes teamed up to do a respectable job against James Harden throughout the seven games of their heartbreaking second-round loss. But without any viable backup options to go to, the Clips found themselves in serious trouble.
By the end of the Houston series, the Rockets were helping off Barnes in the corner so much, it was almost like they weren't even guarding him anymore. The Clips were playing four-on-five offense because of that, and Barnes only received 22 minutes of burn during a Game 7 when he shot 0-of-2 from the field.
Find a capable defensive wing who can shoot threes, and you don't have that issue.
Barnes became overly criticized this season, mostly because he was the face of the Clippers' wing issues (plus, a dreadful preseason set the narrative against him nicely), but this wasn't his fault. He remains a legitimate contributor. He even shot 36 percent from three-point range, his best percentage in eight years, while playing quality on-ball defense for another year in blue, white and red.
The Clips can bring him back; that's fine. What they need are additions for when Barnes struggles or when his 35-year-old legs aren't quick enough to keep up with bigger, faster, stronger offensive players.
Depending on how the Clippers work this offseason (and when they make their signings), they may or may not have the mid-level exception as we all know it. Re-signing Jordan in conjunction with other moves could take away that exception, instead turning it into the taxpayer mid-level exception, which is more than $2 million cheaper. Still, the Clips might be able to reel in an Alan Anderson type.
They may be not be able to splurge, but even settling for a "three-or-D" player on the cheap would be better than nothing. Former Clipper Al-Farouq Aminu is a free agent. So is Wesley Johnson. So is K.J. McDaniels. So is (cough, cough) Jared Dudley, who could decide not to pick up a player option and instead hit the open market.
There isn't one way to do it, but the Clippers need to upgrade their depth on the wings. Whether they pull it off via trade or free agency, we'll likely see some movement there in the coming weeks.
A Third Big Man
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Spencer Hawes wasn't that guy.
Big Baby hasn't been that guy.
Hedo Turkoglu hasn't been that guy.
What do the Clippers have to do to get a third big man around these parts? (And don't say, "Sign Byron Mullens.")
Rivers has spent the past couple of offseasons trying to bring in a specific big to back up Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.
You know the type. It's the one who can shoot threes and stretch the floor, the one who can play either the 4 or 5, the one who may not be the best defender but whose offensive skill set is complete enough to pair next to Chris Paul in pick-and-rolls and pick-and-pops.
Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out, namely because Doc Rivers misevaluated those players.
The Clips didn't ruin a part of their future when they signed Mullens two years ago, but they did allow him to assume a role he wasn't ready for, eventually trading him away for essentially nothing after just 27 games.
Hawes was supposed to be this year's Mullens...but better. Much better. Except he wasn't.
The bigger issue is Hawes is locked into a deal that has him under contract for the next three seasons. In a league where anyone is tradable, the Clippers might be able to unload him—might—but it's not likely without any draft picks to attach to him in a swap.
L.A. still needs a viable backup for Jordan and Griffin. Maybe this will be the year. Or not.
A Backup Point Guard
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People don't think of point guard as a weakness for the Clippers because of the man who starts at the 1, but when Chris Paul is off the court, the offense has had some serious trouble scoring.
Sure, the bench needs help in general. And sure, finding a respectable backup for CP shouldn't be one of the one or two biggest priorities of the offseason, but it is essential.
The Clippers don't need the best backup floor general in the league. They just need to uncover competence.
It was almost like L.A. was thumbing through a flip book of backup point guards this past season.
Doc signed Jordan Farmar last summer but waived him midway through the year after Farmar disappointed both on and off the court. Then came all of the possible replacements, none of them particularly effective.
Austin Rivers manned the backup point guard duties for a bit, but the coach's son is clearly more of a 2 than a 1. Nate Robinson came in on a couple of 10-day contracts, but between injuries and poor play, he couldn't find a way to get signed up for the full season. Lester Hudson was the eventual backup point guard once L.A. headed into the postseason, but he played exactly 38 playoff minutes in L.A.'s 14 games. Ouch.
By the end, Blake Griffin was the Clippers' de facto point guard—clever improvisation from Doc in desperate times, but not something you want to construct a roster around during an offseason.
There are plenty of quality free-agent point guards this summer. The Clips have to find one of them. Even Beno Udrih or Sergio Rodriguez would be an upgrade for this roster.
A Front-Office Shakeup
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Ousting Rivers from his front-office position is never happening—at least not in 2015—but Clippers fans can dream, right?
Rivers is still a top-10 coach, even after he saw one of his teams let go of a 3-2 series lead for the fourth time in his career, but his upper-management skills have rightfully been under the microscope since he took over as president of basketball operations last summer.
First, let's be realistic: Rivers is still going to hold the same management job at the start of next season. It would be uncouth to believe otherwise, especially since he signed that massive extension just last summer.
Any reasonable person could still argue this year's roster, even with all its flaws, was good enough to go to the Western Conference Finals. Actually, that same person could make another argument that the Clips, if they'd actually held it together with a 3-1 lead over the Rockets, could've been the league's second-best team behind the Golden State Warriors, helped by injuries to the Cleveland Cavaliers and some slower play by the Atlanta Hawks.
Still, the Clips could find some help for Rivers in the front office without taking away his elite front-office status.
Right now, Dave Wohl is the in-name general manager while Kevin Eastman sits at the vice president of basketball ops spot. But wouldn't Doc be greatly helped by having a cap expert as his right-hand man, instead of just a longtime assistant coach who had never held a front-office position before this year like Eastman?
Maybe if he does, he doesn't make the mistake of using up both the full mid-level and biannual exceptions like he did last summer, hard-capping the Clippers and leading to a series of moves that would contribute to their eventual demise. With everything we hear about Steve Ballmer, about his willingness to spend and his desire to win, L.A. doesn't necessarily need to fire anyone to make a hire like that happen.
Bring in a cap expert, give him a specialized position and let him add some craftiness for a front office in need of that exact trait. The Clips may still end up bringing in guys who peaked as Eastern Conference contributors in 2009, but at least they won't have one of the worst cap situations in the league because of it.
Follow Fred Katz on Twitter at @FredKatz.
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of May 18 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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