Why Every Basketball Fan Should Care About This Season’s Los Angeles Clippers

Clippers, Doc
Getty Image

The 2015-16 NBA Season starts soon, preseason hoops are in full swing, and playoff prognostications have begun in earnest. Since season previews can get bogged down by team-specific minutiae, and we cover every basketball team, we’re providing our readers reasons why you should care about all 30 teams in the Association.


DIME MAG’s 2015-16 NBA Season Previews


Like last summer, after Chris Paul foolishly fouled Russell Westbrook on a three-point attempt in the Western Conference Semifinals, the Clippers are again coming off a bad playoff dream, but this time it’s even worse. Up 3-1 on the Rockets, they got blown out in Houston, but were up by 17 points with under 14 minutes to play in Game 6. We know what came next and Houston won again in Game 7 to advance and drive the final nail in the Clipper collapse coffin.

After an offseason that saw them deal Matt Barnes to the Grizzlies to bring in Lance Stephenson, Paul Pierce and — coincidentally, the man who played a significant role instigating their Western Semifinal failure — Josh Smith. They’re reloaded, we guess, and ready to see if this is finally their year.

The really odd thing about Clippers discussions, at least last season, stemmed from how quickly people jumped on and off the bandwagon. Twitter, especially, that millennial town square, has turned into a day-by-day dive into whatever’s fashionable. Sometimes the Clippers led the NBA horserace, sometimes everyone thought they should just blow it up.

The summer emoji theatrics behind DeAndre Jordan’s decision to re-sign just reiterated that fact more. If DJ had left it would’ve been a huge blow for this team, especially defensively. But does that mean Doc trades CP3 and Blake and starts again? Does that mean their title chances disappear completely? NO! It’s tempting to make all-or-nothing statements (i.e. your Twitter account after too much post-dinner sherry), but the Clippers would’ve still been one of the top teams in the West. Would they cease to be contenders, completely? Of course not.

You only get a few windows to win it all and they’re still in one. So now what? DJ is back, Blake is healthy. CP3 is still cranky. Doc is still poking his in-state rivals to the north and getting into it with other coaches.

The Clippers are perpetually in the midst of a tantrum, but it works for them. We think Jamal Crawford’s probably the only Clipper we’d actually want to play with, but that’s because we like laughing on a basketball court. There’s no laughter in Clipper land. The NBA adage that it’s “just a business,” is never more apt than with LA’s only remaining title contender. Maybe that’s what they need? Less lob city and more sob gritty.

Doc and Gillian Zucker divide, how does it affect the players/team?

Doc Rivers, Gillian Zucker
Getty Image

This wasn’t going to be about Blake Griffin.

The Los Angeles Clippers have an entirely different kind of chemistry to worry about other than on the court in the locker room. Doc Rivers and Gillian Zucker, the team’s president of business operations, reportedly quarreled last season to the point that one free agent didn’t even consider signing with the Clippers. Whether that’s true or not doesn’t really matter; that it even could be is reason enough to believe that tension among Los Angeles’ two foremost front office members exists.

Many would say that’s firmly ancillary to how the Clippers perform on the court. But every little details matters to a team chasing a championship. The line between winning and losing at basketball’s highest level is razor-thin, and Los Angeles, talented as its roster may be, isn’t good enough to withstand any kind of turmoil and win a championship. Such is life in the West.

Keep an ear to the ground for rumors surrounding the relationship between Rivers and Zucker. They could prove damning for the Clippers in 2015-16.

Even so, there’s no way to know for certain how that conflict would be manifested on the court. We prefer analyzing actual basketball as opposed to its business-related strife anyway, and the wholly unique talents of Griffin inspired us to do just that.

The 26-year-old has become one of the most versatile offensive players in the game, a reality we expected to see on a nightly basis throughout the 2014-15 season. But Griffin conserved his energy while helping the Clippers to a 56-26 record, garnering All-NBA Third Team honors in the process. It was the postseason, unsurprisingly, when he flipped the switch from being just a great player to one of basketball’s several best.

There’s no reason for Griffin to play with the consistent reckless abandon that marked his first few years in the league. He’s skilled enough to impact the game playing a more controlled, deliberate style until the stakes rise come spring, and the exhibition slate indicated that Los Angeles will count on him to do it this season.

Below is one example of the Clippers leveraging Griffin’s unique blend of all-court playmaking prowess to its absolute maximum. How many other power forwards in the league can post-up on the block, come off a pin-down for a jumper, and work the pick-and-roll to absolute perfection? None.

And Rivers knew it when devising this awesome set for his multi-faceted superstar.

https://giant.gfycat.com/EagerFaintHen.gif

Griffin has the option of using Jamal Crawford’s cross-screen to free himself for a right block catch or as the springboard to an awaiting pick from DeAndre Jordan just above the free throw line. He chooses the latter route, and immediately recognizes Draymond Green cheating under his teammate’s screen to meet him on the other side upon catching a pass from Austin Rivers. The 6’10, 250 pounder reacts like a guard, immediately dribbling with his weak hand to draw the help defender before lobbing a pass to Jordan.

Lob City.

When Los Angeles is humming offensively, it plays as beautiful a brand of hoops as any team in the league. The problem has been the Clippers’ tendency to get bogged down offensively when jumpers aren’t falling, transition chances don’t come easily, or Chris Paul goes to the bench.

But that might not come to pass at all if Griffin takes the next step toward all-around dominance. And if this play is any indication, Los Angeles will give him every chance to do it.

How the Pierce, Smith and Stephenson additions will affect a locker room led by CP3 and Doc

doc, cp3, blake
Getty Image

We’re gonna keep this section brief, but there are a lot of characters in the Clippers locker room now and the pastiche of personalities will go a long way towards explaining their 2015-16 season.

You’ve got the supremely talented, uber confident Brooklyn malcontent who just cratered in Charlotte last season after designating himself “the man” the summer before; the talented hybrid forward out of high school who has shown flashes of elite-level play on both ends of the floor throughout his career, but hasn’t ever made an All-Star team and was actually waived by Detroit last season despite the fact they’re stilling paying him tens of millions not to be there; and then there’s the sure-fire future Hall of Famer who might be the single coolest OG in the NBA today.

Quick aside here. I — this is Spencer writing now — went to a charity event for Deron Williams a couple autumn’s ago. It was back before Pierce’s first season in Brooklyn, and there were a bunch of Giants players and other Nets in attendance at the event. Even Omar Little — Michael K. Williams — from The Wire showed up (our date and most of the athletes were star-struck when he casually sauntered in). But even Michael K. Williams wasn’t as cool as Pierce, who spent most of the time upstairs with his daughter, just kicking it and shaking the hands of players bold enough to come over and say hi. We’ve spoken to Pierce a few times, even once that fall, and there’s just no way to explain his confidence. It’s like a bubble of belief that surrounds him everywhere he goes. The Clippers need that.

crossover, truth, dj
Getty Image

But they already had leaders before Pierce showed up. Namely, their coach, and former Pierce mentor, Doc Rivers. Combined with Chris Paul, those two are going to keep a locker room in line.

Can Josh Smith and Lance Stephenson get a little self-involved? Sure, but can’t we all? Aren’t most basketball BLAUGHers just trying to elbow in with their opinions? Pierce, Paul and Doc will be enough. They’d probably be enough to keep a middle school classroom in order, so you gotta hope they can keep a locker room full of grown men on the path towards to first base with Larry O’Brien’s hardware.

If those three leaders — real leaders, not the kind you talk about in preseason when you’re still on a rookie deal — can’t keep the egos at the door, then no one can. But, oh boy, is it gonna be fun to see whether things splinter or they all come together under the common cause. We think they’re poised for a long run, but who knows because this group is batsh*t crazy. It’s combo of headaches and stars. Get out the Excedrin and prepare for lift off.

×