Stars on the Mend Part 1: The L.A. Clippers
The Clippers have built a potentially devastating wing-focused ecosystem to integrate Kawhi Leonard and Paul George into.
This piece is the first installment of a three-part series looking at the impact the return of star players could have on a trio of Western Conference teams: the L.A. Clippers, Denver Nuggets, and New Orleans Pelicans. We’re heading to the City of Angels today. Let’s dive right in.
Los Angeles’ second favorite team failed to advance from the play-in tournament after managing a 42-40 record in the regular season without superstar Kawhi Leonard (recovering from a torn ACL), last year. The Clippers record - though barely cracking the .500 mark - was a fairly impressive reflection of the team’s resilience, particularly given the fact that Leonard’s co-star, Paul George, missed 51 games to injury in his own right.
L.A enters the current campaign at full strength and ready to realize a considerable jump in the standings. The Clippers have built an incredibly deep bench of big guards and two-way wings, desperate for a player capable of serving as their organizing principal on offense.
George can fill that role against most opponents. He’s a slithery, smooth shooting self-creator, capable of using his long frame to fire over shorter defenders and glide to the bucket around less mobile impediments.
George has never proven quite capable of being the number one option at the game’s very highest level though, and he doesn’t have the playmaking chops to fully leverage the attention he draws. Leonard checks both those boxes. He’s an immovable basketball death machine who utilizes his nearly superhuman strength to get wherever he wants on the court. Send too much help to slow him down and Leonard is a good enough passer to pick you apart.
The reliability of Leonard’s mid-range attack provides a foundation from which an elite-level offense can be built, and pushes George down the pecking order to a place he can shine.
The duo has played shockingly little together since teaming up in L.A. in 2019, but when they have shared the court, the Clippers have been nearly unstoppable. Lineups featuring Leonard and George together have outscored opponents by 15.74 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions, per Cleaning the Glass.
L.A. may have the best collection of talent to surround its stars with since acquiring them, and head coach Ty Lue has been refining a small-ball-heavy approach that both players should should integrate into relatively seamlessly. The Clippers have the depth to roll out multiple five-man units in which every single player can pass, dribble, and shoot, while maintaining a menacing, switching defensive identity.
Take your pick of Norman Powell, Reggie Jackson, Nicolas Batum, Terance Mann, Robert Covington, Marcus Morris, or John Wall. Almost every combination will yield a terrifying alchemy beside George and Leonard.
There are some risks to the wing-heavy approach. L.A has just one true big man on its roster in Ivica Zubac. If he goes down with injury or gets in foul trouble, there will be no safety net in the form of more conventional lineup configurations. Then again a safety net might not be necessary. The Clippers five-out approach may simply drive and kick opponents to shreds.
The bigger concern is that for L.A.’s small ball units to hold up defensively against the NBA’s best teams, Leonard and George will have to be healthy and ready to take on the slog of matching up with bigger opponents. They both have incredible positional size, strength (particularly in Leonard’s case), and defensive instincts. The Clippers can’t replicate what their two stars bring to the table, and unfortunately both Leonard and George have a history of being absent from the table entirely.
Every contender in the NBA needs its stars to be healthy come playoff time, so in that sense L.A. is no exception. But that reality is particularly noticeable in the Clippers’ case, in part because of the injuries that Leonard and George have sustained in the past and in part because of the potential upside of the pairing. This team could win a title if it gets good health.