Old Pals Doc Rivers and Paul Pierce Reunite to Solve Clippers' Wing Woes

The Truth will set you free.

At least, that's what Doc Rivers and the Los Angeles Clippers are banking on.

NBA.com's David Aldridge was among the first to report that Paul Pierce will be ditching the Washington Wizards to return to his hometown once free agents can officially sign on July 9.

Per Aldridge, Pierce's three-year deal—signed by way of the minimum mid-level exception available to luxury-tax-paying teams like L.A.—will see his salary slip to about $3.3 million, or roughly 60 percent of the $5.5 million he would've earned had he stayed in D.C.

In all likelihood, the Clippers will be thrilled to nab a player of Pierce's skill set and experience, let alone at such a bargain. Perhaps that's the power of having Rivers, Pierce's coach in Boston for nine seasons and one championship run, at the front office controls in L.A.

But Pierce's arrival is about much more than a reunion with the man who oversaw Paul's rise into the ranks of Celtics champions. For the Clippers, Pierce could be the final piece in the puzzle of title contention that's confounded this seemingly cursed franchise for decades.

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The Clippers closed the 2014-15 campaign with two main problems to address: the starting wing and backup frontcourt spots.

As far as the former's concerned, the Clippers sported the league's third-least productive pack of small forwards, per hoopsstats.com. That should come as little surprise to those who watched a 35-year-old Matt Barnes start 74 games while the likes of Dahntay Jones, Jordan Hamilton, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Reggie Bullock shuffled into and out of the franchise—and, in turn, second-string duty at the 3.

Now, the Clippers appear to have turned what was once a clear weakness into a potential strength. In mid-June, they dealt Barnes and Spencer Hawes—their third big behind Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan—to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Lance Stephenson.

The team's plan all along was to use Stephenson, a versatile and talented swingman, off the bench. As ESPN's Arash Markazi noted, Pierce's arrival merely confirms this:

As the team's oldest and wisest head, Pierce may well step in to mentor the talented-but-troubled Stephenson, just as he did with Otto Porter Jr. in Washington this past season.

In truth, Pierce's experience with the Wizards points to the wider impact he can have on a team lacking championship credentials. Last season, he took John Wall and Bradley Beal under his wing.

"I tell them, 'Learn from all the stuff I did [wrong] when I was young,'" Pierce told ESPN's Jackie MacMullan this past April. 

"I talk to them a lot about mental preparation and consistency," he said. "I keep telling Wall and Beal, 'You’ve got to make up your mind. Do you want to be good, or do you want to be great? Because if you want to be great, you gotta do it every single night, not just when you feel like it.'"

The Clippers could've used a pep talk like that in May before they salted away a 3-1 second-round series lead to the Houston Rockets.

Like the team Pierce leaves behind, L.A. is long on talent but has fallen short of escaping the second round of the playoffs time and time again—largely on account of a lack of poise under pressure. In 27 minutes of clutch time in this year's playoffs, the Clippers were outscored by 13.2 points per 100 possessions while posting an effective field-goal percentage of 43.9 percent.

And they posted those numbers despite sporting a steadying force at the point in Chris Paul. 

But the perception of Paul in a pinch doesn't necessarily align with reality, as much as his series-winning shot against the San Antonio Spurs from this past spring would beg to differ.

You don't need a Ph.D. in basketball to figure out why that is. Typically, guards of Paul's stature (6'0" and shorter) have a tough time getting good shots off the dribble in crunch time, when the opposing defense is keyed in on one guy.

When he drives, he finds heavy resistance among the trees near the rim more often than not. When he doesn't, he usually winds up with a contested mid-range jumper.

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Rarely does Paul settle for a three-pointer (24 attempts in 128 clutch minutes) in these situations. Rarer still is the sight of Paul, a four-time assist champion, dishing to a teammate (20 assists in those same clutch minutes).

Perhaps with Pierce around, Paul will find passing up late-game shots and dishing out to others to be more palatable. Pierce has long been known as one of the NBA's top crunch-time assassins.

He only added to that sterling reputation during his two-round playoff run with the Wizards, in which he knocked down this game-winning buzzer-beater to defeat the Hawks:

To be sure, Pierce won't return to his roots without a red flag or two. For one, he'll be 38 when the 2015-16 starts. At that age, he'd be hard-pressed to play effectively on both ends through an 82-game season and—what the Clippers hope will be—a lengthy playoff push.

Then again, that may be where Stephenson comes in. If he takes well to his new niche with the Clippers, he could find himself sopping up major minutes either in support of Pierce or in his stead when needed.

And really, if the Clippers can get Pierce to the postseason largely unscathed, that's all that really matters. This team has proven itself more than capable of gliding to over 50 wins during the regular season, as it has through each of the past three campaigns.

What it needs most is someone like Pierce to do his thing in the most important minutes of the biggest games.

To that end, Rivers would do well to take a cue from current Wizards coach (and former Atlanta Hawks teammate) Randy Wittman when it comes to handling Pierce. Wittman's efforts to decrease Pierce's workload during the regular season paid off handsomely once Washington made it into the NBA's Big Dance.

That shouldn't be a problem for Rivers, though. He doesn't need to spend much time worrying about the Clippers' wings the rest of the summer either.

Instead, he can turn his attention to retaining Jordan, an unrestricted (and heavily courted) free agent, and finding a decent backup center—maybe even another of Rivers' old pals, per ESPN's Arash Markazi:

"

Doc tried hard to sign Kendrick Perkins last season. He chose Cleveland but played sparingly. Doc is still interested.

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) July 2, 2015"

Should the Clippers fail to fill those remaining holes, they may need much more than Pierce to puncture their way into the franchise's first conference finals. Then again, Pierce may have a part to play in that effort as well.

Maybe The Truth will set the Clippers free from their tortured history after all.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of NBA.com.

Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.

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