It was an up-and-down offseason for the Los Angeles Clippers, but fortunately for them, it ended on a high note when DeAndre Jordan decided to go back on his deal with the Mavericks and re-sign with LA.
Now with Jordan back in tow, plus the additions of Paul Pierce, Lance Stephenson, and Josh Smith, Lob City should be in the mix for the West’s NBA Finals beside the likes of defending champion Golden State, a revamped San Antonio squad, and the Houston Rockets.
In a recent interview at Team USA minicamp, Clippers all-star Blake Griffin chronicled how the new additions will help the Clips for the better.
Via NBA.com:
“It’ll help a lot,” Griffin said. “My third season in the league when we had that unbelievable bench, I think I dropped to like 32 minutes a game in the regular season…You definitely feel fresher toward the end, but you have to find that right balance of not holding back too much, being able to give everything. Having an elite bench is going to help us tremendously, especially come playoff time.
The Clippers bench was pretty godawful last year, in the postseason especially. Despite having a solid starting five, once the Clippers had to rely on the likes of Glen Davis and Hedo Turkgolu to play important playoff minutes, it wasn’t a good look. To Griffin’s point about minutes, both he and Chris Paul ranked in the top ten for minutes played per game, which is something that Doc Rivers will try not to duplicate this season.
It’s likely Pierce will start and take the place of Matt Barnes (who signed with Memphis), which means the Clips bench will be made up of: Stephenson, Smith, Austin Rivers, Jamal Crawford, Pablo Prigioni, Wesley Johnson, Cole Aldrich, along with the returning Davis and Turkoglu.
That’s not a bad unit overall, and should definitely be one of the better groups of subs in the West. If the Clippers can get away with resting some of their older players, like Pierce and Crawford, along with their stars, and still win a high number of games, that will be an even bigger luxury for Rivers and his staff.
(Via: NBA.com)
