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No. 4: Los Angeles Clippers
Last season: 56-26
T-2nd place in West; lost 4-3 to Houston in Round 2
It might not be explicitly expressed as such, but the Clippers are entering a do-or-die season.
Scratch that. A mere five months after saying there's no need to blow up a team that was a quarter away from reaching the Western Conference finals for the first time in franchise history, coach and president of basketball ops Doc Rivers had an about-face during training camp, stating that it might be time to dismantle the team if the Clippers don't realize their championship aspirations this season.
For all of Rivers' rhetoric (in whichever direction), the fact is he has achieved in two seasons what his predecessor, Vinny Del Negro, achieved in three: one division title and no playoff trip beyond the second round. Job security won't be an issue for Rivers, but the legacies of several players will be on the line this season.
Unlike the 2013-14 campaign, the Clippers' starting lineup remained relatively healthy last season, with Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan appearing in all 82 games. Blake Griffin missed the most games (15) due to elbow surgery after a staph infection. With the lineup relatively intact, the starting five led the league in minutes played, raw plus-minus and were fourth in net rating among all lineups with a minimum of 250 minutes played together. On the other hand, their bench was among the worst in the league, with one of the lowest percentage of minutes played and net ratings. Simply put, you could describe any given Clippers game as a race for the starters to build a lead big enough that the bench couldn't blow.
Among the starters, Griffin's continued evolution as a multifaceted superstar talent allowed for the Clippers to continue to push the creative bounds of their offense, with a good deal of success between Griffin and Jordan connections on lobs as defenses tried to prevent Griffin from finishing off rolls to the rim. Jordan enjoyed a career year, leading the league in field-goal percentage for the third consecutive season and leading the league in total and defensive rebounding rates for the first time in his career. That led to a spirited, if misguided, debate as to whether Jordan ought to be the defensive player of the year, an argument that was debunked by ESPN Insider Tom Haberstroh.
Elsewhere, Rivers became the first NBA coach to coach his own son after the Clippers acquired Austin Rivers in a three-team trade in January. While much maligned during his short NBA career, Austin Rivers experienced a bump in efficiency and productivity once with the Clippers -- albeit not enough of one to make him actually efficient or productive.
While the Clippers enjoyed their greatest playoff moment in franchise history by dispatching the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in the first round, they arguably suffered their lowest playoff moment in franchise history by blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Houston Rockets, including Game 6 at home when they led by double digits in the fourth quarter.
Without question, the most entertaining offseason storyline was the loss and subsequent recovery of Jordan in free agency. In what was more consistent with a Hollywood script than real life, the Clippers managed to woo back their starting center after he had committed to signing with the Dallas Mavericks, then barricaded themselves in his home, allegedly to prevent Mavs owner Mark Cuban from repitching Jordan on their verbal agreement. Losing Jordan would have been a catastrophic event for the Clippers, as they lacked the sufficient cap flexibility to effectively replace him through free agency or trade.
Beyond the Jordan saga, the Clippers made other changes, trading starting small forward Matt Barnes and 2014 free-agent signee Spencer Hawes to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for the underachieving Lance Stephenson. Stephenson is definitely a talent, with versatility on both sides of the ball. However, his maturity has always been a question mark, and his inferior shooting hurts the Clippers' spacing. Also joining the mix is 17-year veteran Paul Pierce, a former Doc Rivers favorite and now a professional hired gun in the twilight of his career. And they added their usual bargain grab bag of vets, with Josh Smith, Cole Aldrich, Pablo Prigioni, Wesley Johnson, Chuck Hayes and Luc Mbah a Moute all coming over for veteran minimums.
You know all about the drama surrounding Jordan's decision to re-sign with the Clippers. But did you know about the role that Snapchat played in the whole thing? Yes, the social media app played a surprisingly pivotal role in Jordan's return to L.A.
Once Jordan began having second thoughts, he reached out to Rivers' son, Spencer, via Snapchat to ask for the Clippers' coach.
"The Snapchat said, 'Tell your dad to call me,' " Spencer Rivers recalled earlier this month.
Days later, Jordan wound up back in Los Angeles, and the Clippers' core was intact. The Los Angeles brain trust also addressed the club's biggest weakness this summer -- depth -- by signing Pierce, Stephenson, Smith, Prigioni and Aldrich. On paper, Rivers' club looks like one of the deepest in the league.
The big question is: Can the depth help the Clippers in the postseason?
They have failed to make it out of the second round for four straight seasons. So it's up to Rivers to figure out how to blend all of the talent into a title contender. "We have a lot of promise. We've had a great summer. It's a great summer where we've collected a lot of people, but they have to become a team. If we can do that, I think we're going to be great," Rivers said. -- Ian Begley
Projected Real Plus-Minus for starters
Chris Paul, PG: +7.8
J.J. Redick, SG: +0.7
Lance Stephenson, SF: -0.1
Blake Griffin, PF: +3.4
DeAndre Jordan, C: +3.9
Scouting reports on every player on the Clippers
Using shot data from 2014-15 and projected starters, Grantland's Kirk Goldsberry ranks each team's offensive efficiency based on square footage.
If your team insists on the efficacy of the long 2, CP3 is a great guy to have; he shot an über-efficient 51.1 percent from 10 to 19 feet.
Thanks to the dominant duo of Jordan and Griffin inside, the Clippers topped the NBA in field goal percentage from inside 5 feet (63 percent).
All About The Space: 1st (562 square feet of above-average offense)
To identify players who stretch offenses the most, ESPN Stats & Info created the Kyle Korver effect -- a metric on a 1-100 scale, factoring in 3PT%, 3-point attempt rate (percentage of total shots that come from 3-point range) and influence on teammate FG%.
Korver effect: Redick (94.2) projects to 61.2 percent true shooting (accounting for 2s and 3s), No. 2 among all guards.
There's no question the bench is vastly improved over last season's offering, but it still has a lot of question marks when it comes to dependability and shooting. There's a reason the Clippers were able to procure so many guys on vet minimums: partially because of their status as a contending team with minutes to offer, but also due to a lack of high demand for the services of many of these players. Outside of Pierce, most of the additions are low-gravity-inducing shooters, meaning given the choice of staying home or sagging to help, most defenders would choose to sag and allow their Clippers counterparts to shoot.
But the truth is the Clippers don't really need their bench to be excellent, or even very good; they just have to be not as terrible as they were last season. As long as the main nucleus of Paul, Redick, Jordan and Griffin are intact, the Clippers will enjoy long stretches of good net ratings, which will inflate their wins. The question is if they can finally overcome the monkey on their backs of 45 seasons of ineptitude and break through to at least a Western Conference finals appearance.
West No. 3 | West No. 5 | Full List
