According to TNT’s Chris Haynes, the Clippers are expected to pursue a trade for veteran point guard Chris Paul. While Paul was never expected to return to the Phoenix Suns for another season, this afternoon’s blockbuster deal that sent him to the Washington Wizards as part of a package for Bradley Beal has accelerated talks. Now, there’s a chance he could return to Los Angeles, where he may very well already be the greatest player in Clippers franchise history.

Paul, who just turned 38, is owed $30M each of the next two seasons, though his salary for the 2024-25 season is fully non-guaranteed. While he clearly still has something left to offer a team, he’s a shell of the player the Clippers traded to the Rockets 6 years ago. From a fit perspective, Chris does a lot of what you would want offensively alongside Paul George and Kawhi Leonard: he’ll initiate the offense & get them the ball in their spots, and he can hit threes off of kick-outs. But there’s basically no juice left there–his athleticism is completely gone, leaving him unable to get downhill and in trouble defending speedy opponents.

Of course, any Paul talks for the Clippers bring a comparison to incumbent Clippers point guard Russell Westbrook. There are a number of considerations here. One is fit: as I mentioned above, Paul is a major upgrade from Westbrook as a table-setter and floor-spacer. Fewer turnovers and more threes. But the athleticism gap is so wide (Westbrook is WAY closer to the real Russell Westbrook than CP3 is to the real Chris Paul), with Russ simply having so much more gas left in the tank to get downhill and contribute on defense, that I’m skeptical of the reality of Chris’ hypothetical fit. After all, while Russ’ turnovers and lack of shooting did cause significant issues for the team, they previously struggled with applying rim pressure and point of attack defense. Adding Paul to the lineup will exacerbate those weaknesses. There’s also durability: Paul is notoriously incapable of staying healthy, and Westbrook is a tank. On a team with injury-prone stars, Westbrook adds significant value when one or both of George and Leonard aren’t on the floor–whether that’s keeping their minutes down, or playing games without them.

But the conversation doesn’t start and stop with pure fit alongside 213. It’s also unclear if the Clippers really have much choice here. Westbrook, while aging and flawed, clearly showed a resurgance with LAC late in the season and could have played himself out of the Clippers’ price range. If you know that he’s gone in free agency, the Paul-Westbrook debate becomes pointless. I would also float, perhaps foolishly, the possibility of both: Russ embraced a 6th man role for the Lakers last year, which allowed him to be the featured option instead of attempting to play as a complement to other stars, and Chris is ancient, declining, and needs his minutes monitored anyway. Could one be talked into a bench role? And if so, what would it look like for them to share the floor at times to ensure they both got their minutes? Where would that leave guys like Bones Hyland, Norman Powell, and Terance Mann?

Lastly, there are the mechanics of a Clippers trade for Chris Paul. Fortunately, LAC is flush with expiring contracts, which seems to be Washington’s priority as former Clippers executive Michael Winger attempts a full teardown-and-rebuild. Eric Gordon seems likely to be the centerpiece of any effort, with Marcus Morris, Robert Covington, and Nico Batum all possibilities to help close the salary gap. Paul’s contract is also essentially expiring, so if the trade is as straightforward as exchanging expiring money, expect some sweetener from the Clippers–maybe this year’s 30th overall pick, or a couple of 2nds, or maybe Washington likes Brandon Boston Jr.

But the trade could also be expanded beyond just involving CP3. While the Wizards don’t have any devastating long-term money on their books with Beal gone, Landry Shamet has an extra year of guaranteed money past next season, and it’s easy to see why the Wizards would rather not deal with an underwhelming backup shooting guard standing between them and clean books in 2024. Kristaps Porzingis, who should pick up his player option for next season, looms large (literally and figuratively) as a guy the Wizards would surely like to get a return for as part of their tear-down, although the finances escalate quickly and I’m skeptical of adding any serious return assets (Terance Mann or future 1sts) for Porzingis. Lastly, there’s Kyle Kuzma, who has ended up in an awkward situation: his $13M player option for next year is well below what he’s worth, but the team that owns his bird rights is clearly disinclined to give him a big new deal this summer. Depending on what interest he has from other teams in free agency (people talk behind the scenes… him and his agent will know if anyone is planning a big $20M/year offer), maybe working out an opt-in-and-trade to the Clippers, where he knows he’ll get paid in time, is the smart play.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Clippers Expected to Pursue Chris Paul Trade
Lucas Hann

After a whirlwind of a day in the NBA, let’s take a look at how the Clippers did in the 2020 NBA Draft and recap the action. The team walked away at the end of the night with Luke Kennard, Daniel Oturu, and Jayden Scrubb.

The Deals Not Made

The biggest thing that happened for the Clippers on Wednesday was certainly trading Landry Shamet for Luke Kennard, upgrading their bench shooting role for a player with more size and playmaking. But looming over the deal was another not involving the Clippers: Minnesota’s acquisition of Ricky Rubio in exchange for the 17th pick, with other moving parts in the deal. After Chris Paul and Jrue Holiday joined the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks, respectively, for trade packages far more lucrative than anything the Clippers would have been able to piece together, Rubio was the last player left on the trade market who provided a clear upgrade at starting point guard.

A veteran playmaker who creates good looks for others, has been a strong defender his entire career, and increased his spot-up three point percentage to 40% last season, Rubio checked all the boxes for the Clippers. Unfortunately, that meant he was also appealing to other suitors. LAC only has one more real chance to secure a clear point guard upgrade this off-season, as Goran Dragic appears prepared to take meetings in free agency and could potentially be available for an offer at the full mid-level exception. Other guards are available via trade but present issues of their own as potential Patrick Beverley replacements and are not clear upgrades: Eric Bledsoe gets to the rim more than Beverley, but is a much worse outside shooter who has struggled in the playoffs; Patty Mills is a sharpshooter who doesn’t solve the distribution problems and represents a significant step back defensively; Spencer Dinwiddie put up numbers for a bad team but is a poor defender and floor-spacer to put next to LAC’s stars; George Hill is supremely steady on both ends, but unspectacular.

Kennard In, Shamet Out

In the most surprising and impactful Clipper move of the night, the team sent Landry Shamet to the Brooklyn Nets and Rodney McGruder to the Detroit Pistons in a deal where Brooklyn’s 19th overall pick went to Detroit and Luke Kennard came to the Clippers. The Nets wouldn’t have been able to fit Kennard into the trade exception they utilized on Shamet, requiring them to involve the Clippers.

For the Clippers, it was a free upgrade to get a player whose offensive game resembles what optimistic fans might have hoped Landry would grow into in the coming years. Securing that now without waiting to see whether or not Landry gets there is a nice step in the right direction for LAC. Kennard will make an immediate and substantial impact offensively. As sharpshooters, any difference between the two is negligible–they’re both elite from three at high volumes, with Kennard more capable of launching threes off the dribble (2.6 per game last season at a 37.1% clip, compared to Shamet’s 1.0 per game at 32.7%).

That off-the-dribble creation is where Kennard really separates himself from Shamet. While two-point pull-ups aren’t efficient shots that offenses search for, it’s important for scorers to diversify their offensive repertoire to keep defenses guessing. Kennard took more mid range pull-ups than Landry (2.8 vs 0.5 per game) and hit at a much higher rate (41.3% to 28.0%). He also got into the paint more regularly (23% of his shots, or 2.8 attempts per game to Landry’s 17% and 1.3) and finished slightly better (60% to 56.1%). That ability to create for himself off the bounce forces defenses to react, allowing him to find teammates for good looks. Kennard’s assist numbers weren’t as good in his first two seasons, and he only played 28 games last year due to a knee injury, but his 4.1 per game in that small sample size is a healthy distribution load and he showed an ability to make simple pick-and-roll reads to find the open roll man or corner shooter when the defense overreacted to him on the ball.

Luke has one year left on his rookie deal worth $5.3M. With McGruder’s $5.2M salary heading to Detroit and Shamet’s $2.1M also outgoing, the Clippers actually save $2M in this trade. This provides some flexibility if they attempt to use the full mid-level exception and navigate the hard cap, but they’ll also need to fill the extra roster spot opened by the two-for-one swap. Kennard is extension-eligible, and the Clippers have from now until December 21st to find common ground on a long-term deal that could give him a significant raise while adding up to four additional years onto his contract after this season. If an extension is not signed, he’ll be eligible for restricted free agency next summer with a qualifying offer of $7.3M, which would allow the Clippers to keep Kennard by matching any offer he signed with another team.

Clippers Trade For 33, Draft Daniel Oturu

There was a lot of speculation heading into the draft that the Clippers might utilize Steve Ballmer’s checkbook to purchase an additional draft pick in the early-to-mid second round, but no such opportunity materialized. Cash was used to grease the wheels on several trades last night, but unless I’m missing something no pick was simply sold for solely cash considerations without at least a future second trading hands as well.

Not to be left out, the Clippers utilized a real asset–Detroit’s 2023 2nd round pick–to jump into the early second round and acquire the 33rd overall pick from the New York Knicks. Before talking about the choice to draft Daniel Oturu, I want to explain why I don’t like the trade in principle. LAC’s lack of future draft assets is well-documented, and that situation contributed to their inability to land one of the bigger veteran point guards on the trade market this week. The sober reality is that draft picks, especially outside the top 10, are unlikely to turn into above-average players. Even among the players who will go on to have NBA careers, many make average or replacement-level impacts that are easily replaceable for cheap on the free agent market.

Future picks, however, are important tools in facilitating trades. Without them, you’re unlikely to be able to make many trades. Once that trade currency has turned into a mediocre prospect, it’s no longer effective sweetener in a trade. With their future first rounders tied up by the Paul George trade and their own future second rounder likely low-value picks in the late 50s, this Detroit pick that LAC owned was their last real piece of sweetener to use in a trade this off-season or at the deadline until 2027. Last season, they traded a future first-round pick in order to get pick 27 and draft Mfiondu Kabengele.

The pick they traded for Fi became 19th overall this season; Brooklyn traded that pick for Landry Shamet and Detroit was willing to trade Luke Kennard for it. Imagine if the Clippers hadn’t made last year’s draft-day trade for Kabengele and were able to acquire Kennard without giving up Shamet. In essence, they traded Landry for Fi–who the team was so low on by the end of last season that they didn’t even bring him with them to the Orlando bubble. The 17th pick last night netted Ricky Rubio, the 25th pick, and the 28th pick in this year’s draft. It certainly feels like having pick 19 could have helped the Clippers put a competing offer forward for Rubio. Now try to imagine those offers with Kabengele going to Brooklyn instead of Shamet, or Oklahoma City instead of pick 19. The value simply isn’t there for those teams to even consider it. In terms of liquid trade capital, the Clippers made a big negative move by trading into last year’s first round to take Fi, and their only hope of recouping that value is if he turns into a good or unique enough player as a 27th overall pick that his production couldn’t be easily replaced in free agency. Even if he progresses from last season, earns some playing time, and goes on to have a perfectly nice career, that’s an unlikely proposition.

Similarly, this deal to acquire pick 33 is negative asset management for the Clippers, and it was done to secure an early second-round pick, where players are extremely unlikely to turn into irreplaceable pieces. I think that Detroit’s 2023 2nd might have been a chip for LAC to use in a deal to land a solid veteran role player who became available this season; now, they have no such asset and will be easily outbid by any other interested team. The odds of anyone they selected here doing enough between now and the trade deadline to have more trade value than that future pick are astronomically slim.

Oturu himself is an uninspiring prospect, adding a bit of salt in the wound of the Clippers’ poor-value trade. You can read about his profile here, but I’ll just note that when I wrote about free agent depth center targets two weeks ago I noted a handful of early- and mid-20s third string guys who were fine but unspectacular and would be available at the minimum salary. Oturu may make a career for himself in the NBA, but the likelihood of him bringing more now or long-term than inexpensive free agent centers makes it a puzzling pick when quality guards and wings are much more difficult to obtain for cheap on the free agent market. The one aspect of his skillset that might not be easily replaced by a minimum-salary player is his three-point shot, if it translates to the NBA, but it feels odd that the Clippers would prioritize that when they just made an asset-negative trade to get Mfiondu Kabengele for the same reason last year. It’s even odder when you consider that Oturu’s slow feet defensively will often turn him into a negative on that end when asked to defend pick-and-rolls, despite his quality rim protection and high-motor rebounding.

If purchasing a pick in this year’s second round wasn’t an option, I would have rather the Clippers sat out (I would have been willing to do cash plus a future LAC 2nd, but not the DET 2nd). But if they were going to trade in, they could have done better than Oturu. High-upside French point guard Theo Maledon, a projected first-round pick, went immediately after them at 34. Xavier Tillman, a big man with modern defensive versatility that is a valuable skillset, went 35th. Some highly-regarded point guard prospects who are considered good bets to provide reliable backup minutes, like Tre Jones and Cassius Winston, went later as well.

Jayden Scrubb Drafted 55th

Somewhere along the line tonight, the Clippers ended up with the 55th pick instead of the 57th pick. It seems likely to me in retrospect that this swap was the lowest-stakes way for the Clippers and Nets (who originally owned pick 55) to make the 19-Kennard-Shamet trade legal, as the Clippers couldn’t officially complete the trade without getting something from Brooklyn. Landry for nothing isn’t allowed, but Landry and 57 for 55 is. At this point in the draft, moving back 2 selections really isn’t a big deal, but as the 55/57 flip wasn’t reported with the the initial trade, it caught many–including me–by surprise.

The stakes with a 55th pick are so low that it’s hard to get too worked up either way, but Scrubb seems like as good a bet as any in the closing selections of the draft. Sam Merrill, who went 60th to Milwaukee, is more likely to provide emergency depth this season (a la Sindarius Thornwell), but Scrubb is potentially a higher-upside gamble. After a traumatic childhood caused Jayden to struggle in school, he was able to have success in his later years of high school but needed to go to junior college as he was academically ineligible for NCAA play. That was the only thing keeping him from high-major Division 1 ball, and after an All-American freshman year and National Player of the Year sophomore year, he was set to head to Louisville this year before entering the NBA Draft.

The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie suggested that Scrubb would have been better served by going to Louisville, potentially becoming a first-round pick in two years’ time. For the Clippers, that progression happening in their system is the best possible outcome. If Scrubb spends the next two seasons on a two-way contract and grows according to those projections, he’d be a cheap restricted free agent for the Clippers in 2022, basically giving them a free first-round pick in a year when they won’t have one. Jayden will have a lot of work to do if that scenario is going to become a reality, the first bit of with will be proving he deserves that two-way contract in competition with other undrafted free agent candidates, such as the pair of Saint Mary’s teammates that the Clippers are bringing into training camp.

What’s Next?

Free agency begins at 3pm Pacific time on Friday afternoon, with Thursday serving as decision day across the NBA for a number of team options, player options, qualifying offers, and non/partial guarantees. I’ve compiled a list of these for anyone curious about which players do and don’t end up hitting the free agent market.

The most directly significant news for the Clippers tomorrow will be regarding JaMychal Green’s player option. It seems like a coin flip whether or not the veteran power forward will take his $5M salary for next season or choose to enter free agency. He could get a raise, or at least a multi-year deal at a similar price point, but with such a saturated market for depth bigs and not much money out there for free agents, opting out could be a risk. The Clippers could also attempt to talk him in to opting out and returning for a pay cut, where they could save a little bit of money for hard cap calculations and make it worthwhile for Green by adding additional years of guaranteed money to his deal.

Pending Green’s decision, the Clippers will enter free agency with either 10 players under contract and $26M under the hard cap, or 9 players and $31M. That means that in order to utilize the full mid-level exception at a cost of around $9.3M and still have enough hard cap room to fill out the roster, the Clippers would have to let at least one of Marcus Morris or Montrezl Harrell depart in free agency. In a scenario where Green opted in, Morris returned at a starting salary of $12,000,000, Harrell walks, and the Clippers utilized their full MLE on a free agent, they’d have $4.7M left under the hard cap with 12 players under contract–enough to sign two more minimum-salary players and just short of adding a 15th man to the roster (they could get there with even a tiny reduction elsewhere).

That calculation, though, assumes that the rest of the Clippers’ roster remains static. If Patrick Beverley and/or Lou Williams (who may be more likely to depart following the acquisition of Kennard) are traded in an attempt to shuffle the team’s guard rotation headed into next season, the team wouldn’t have very much wiggle room to add salary in a deal while still being able to pull off using the full MLE to add a higher-impact free agent. If the Clippers can’t build their roster under the hard cap, they’ll have to avoid triggering it and instead use the smaller, $5.7M taxpayer exception.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Clippers 2020 Draft Recap: Kennard, Oturu, Scrubb
Lucas Hann

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the LA Clippers will trade Landry Shamet to the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets will send the 19th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft to the Detroit Pistons, who will select Saddiq Bey, and the Pistons will in turn send young wing Luke Kennard to the Clippers. Rodney McGruder will also depart the Clippers for the Pistons in the deal.

Landry Shamet came to the Clippers at the 2018 trade deadline as part of the deal that sent Tobias Harris to the Philadelphia 76ers. He immediately stepped into a starting role, hitting big shots in the playoffs. However, he suffered a bit of sophomore regression due to a combination of unfortunate circumstances–a move to the bench due to the arrival of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, injuries throughout the team pressing him into duty at different positions, injuries to himself preventing him from fully rounding into form. He also tested positive for COVID, causing him to have a delayed arrival to the league’s Orlando bubble and a minutes restriction as he worked on his conditioning.

Kennard, for his part, is a step ahead of Shamet at this point in their careers. A more polished all-around scorer and prolific shooter in his own right, Kennard averaged 15.8 points and 4.1 assists per game for Detroit last year in his third NBA season while shooting 39.9% from three on 6.5 attempts per game. Unfortunately, he was limited to 28 appearances due to knee tendinitis. His per-game averages were more modest in his first two seasons in lower minutes, but his efficiency and volume from deep have been consistent. He’s 24 years old, not turning 25 until next June, meaning that the Clippers did not move one of their only valuable young players without getting youth and upside in return. He will make $5.3M next season, quite a bit more than Shamet’s $2.1M salary.

That’s where Rodney McGruder comes in. McGruder’s $5.2M salary goes to Detroit as filler to satisfy the league’s salary-matching rules. The scrappy depth wing had an underwhelming 2020 campaign with LAC after being more reliable for the Miami Heat before coming to the Clippers, and moving his contract will give the team additional flexibility under the NBA’s hard cap to potentially use their full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which is worth around $9.3M. That possibility will ultimately be determined by the cost of retaining players like Marcus Morris and JaMychal Green.

Clippers Trade Landry Shamet; Acquire Luke Kennard
Lucas Hann

Now that the Clippers’ 2020 season has reached its disappointing end, 213Hoops will work through the roster player-by-player for our “Exit Interview” series. Today’s exit interview features sharpshooter Landry Shamet.

Basic Information

Height: 6’4″
Weight: 190 lbs
Position: Shooting Guard
Age: 23
Years in NBA: 2

Key Stats: In 53 regular-season appearances, Landry had 30 starts and played 27.4 minutes per game, averaging 9.3 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists while shooting 40.4% from the field and 37.5% from deep.

In the playoffs, Landry appeared in all 13 of the Clippers’ games, starting 4 and averaging 18.7 minutes per game and 5.2 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists while shooting 40.7% from the field and 35.7% from deep.

Contract Status: After finishing the second year of his inexpensive rookie contract, Landry will make just over $2 million next season. He has a team option worth about $3.75 million for the 2021-22 season, which the Clippers will have to make a decision on (they will certainly accept it) before next season begins. Then the summer of 2022, he will be a restricted free agent with a qualifying offer of $5.5 million, meaning the Clippers would have the right of first refusal on any contract Shamet agrees to with another team. His production, inexpensive deal, long-term team control, and youth and potential make him a valuable asset for the Clippers to either develop or trade.

Expectations

After a truly stellar rookie season that saw Shamet–first drafted by Philadelphia–excel enough as the 19th overall pick to become the centerpiece of a trade for Tobias Harris and then start for the Clippers upon his arrival, it’s safe to say expectations were high for the sharpshooter in his sophomore campaign. In a short post-deadline stint for LA as a rookie, he moved cleverly without the ball in a way that could only remind fans of former Clipper J.J. Redick, and he was lethally efficient, making 45% of his triples on over 10 attempts per 100 possessions. Defensively, he was unspectacular but solid, a rarity among rookie guards.

Entering the off-season, the 22-year-old looked like the kind of player who could be a start for the team for the next decade, particularly because of his extremely friendly rookie contract paying him less than $2M a year.

Changes above Shamet’s pay grade altered that plan. After all, when you can play two positions and your team acquires a player from the prior season’s All-NBA 1st team at one and the reigning NBA Finals MVP at the other, it’s going to change your role a bit. Still, Landry was going to have his opportunities to be a big contributor to a contending team, and faith was high in his ability to come through. Paul George would miss the opening weeks of the season as he recovered from double shoulder surgery. Kawhi Leonard wouldn’t play in back-to-backs as he managed a persistent quad injury. And even in the biggest games when both were playing, the team would use Shamet as their main wing option off the bench when George and Leonard sat–not to mention the widespread assumption that the team’s best lineup would ultimately be a smaller one with Shamet, George, and Leonard playing together at the 2, 3, and 4.

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Reality

In a bizarre and disappointing season, perhaps no Clipper faced more disappointment than Landry. A starter last year, it was of course understandable that he would be demoted this season, but would get his chances as a starter in the early weeks as George recovered from surgery. That made a pre-season wrist injury all the more excruciating. Shamet would play though it, but it would clearly hurt his shot as he hit just 39% from the field and 36% from deep in his first ten games before being forced out of the lineup with an ankle injury.

After missing 17 games with that ankle sprain, Shamet returned to the lineup with an inconsistent role. In the 37 games between his return and the season’s suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Landry would see 17 starts at different positions, with his minutes dipping as low as the teens and skyrocketing as high as the 40s depending on who else was available. When Reggie Jackson joined the team after the trade deadline, Landry’s minutes faced an even stronger squeeze, dipping into the teens multiple games at a time and even falling as low as 8 minutes played in the team’s big March match-up against the Lakers.

Things didn’t stabilize much in the bubble. Landry tested positive for COVID in July and was delayed in arriving to the bubble, missing the team’s Orlando training camp and starting the team’s seeding games with a minutes restriction. He moved in to the starting lineup in the team’s fourth, fifth, and sixth seeding games–each at a different position in place of Patrick Beverley, then Paul George, then Kawhi Leonard. Then, he missed the last two seeding games with a foot strain and came into the playoffs behind Reggie Jackson in the rotation… until Jackson’s underwhelming play in place of the injured Beverley caused Doc Rivers to turn to Landry Shamet at point guard, a position he had rarely played in the playoffs. He thrived in the role, starting in games 3-6, and then was immediately demoted upon Beverley’s return in the second round and saw scarce minutes as a backup.

One can hardly blame Landry for falling short of expectations considering the circumstances–repeated injuries with inconvenient timing, an inconsistent role that thrust him into multiple positions as a starter and backup with drastically varying minutes, and an unimaginative offensive scheme that removed many of the actions that generated good looks for him last season.

Future with Clippers

Despite an underwhelming sophomore campaign, there’s little doubt how important Landry is to the Clippers. Despite Lawrence Frank’s optimistic remark about how many under-30 players the team has, the reality is that most of them are 29 years, and Shamet and Zubac at 23 years old are the team’s only actual young players who have proven that they’re capable of playing in the NBA.

For a team that won’t control their own first-round draft pick until 2027, that–and hitting on second-round selections–means a whole lot in terms of long-term team building. On the one hand, Landry is crucial to the team as their only young guard, in tandem with 32-year-old Patrick Beverley and 34-year-old Lou Williams. If George and Leonard choose to stay in LA after their free agencies next summer, Landry is one of the few role players who won’t eventually need to be replaced around them. If those two depart, he’ll be one of the team’s best building blocks going forward.

On the other hand, if the Clippers do want to make any kind of short-term upgrade to their roster for next season, Shamet will also likely have an important role to play. While the team would hate to part with him for the reasons discussed above, their lack of first-round picks to trade means he’s their best trade chip, even after a disappointing year.

Just like last summer, Landry’s fate is going to be determined by transactions (or lack thereof) above his paygrade. We’ll just have to wait and see.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Clippers 2020 Exit Interview: Landry Shamet
Lucas Hann

You’ve probably seen the meme where Spider-Man points at himself. If I could pick one picture to encapsulate where the Clippers currently stand, that’s my choice. Following a brutal game seven loss to the Denver Nuggets, the Los Angeles Clippers are in a position where they can only blame themselves.

But, first and foremost, I want to acknowledge Michael Malone and the rest of the Denver Nuggets players and coaching staff. Coming back from a 3-1 deficit twice in the same postseason is a feat accomplished by no one in NBA history. All credit goes to Denver, but we have to remember that Denver can’t achieve this if L.A. had closed them out earlier in the series.

Game 5

After the Clippers defeated the Nuggets 96-85 in game four, both teams began the first quarter of game five pretty tight. In the second quarter, the Clippers started to pull away. Lou Williams made baskets inside the arc and Landry Shamet and JaMychal Green hit some key triples off the bench to provide the starters with critical help.

An and-1 from Marcus Morris Sr. saw the lead extend to 56-40, which would be the largest lead held by the Clippers. L.A. went into the second half with a twelve-point cushion, but the Nuggets made the necessary adjustments to make a run. Denver didn’t take over right away, but following crucial baskets from Paul Millsap, who arguably turned in his best game of the bubble, Denver set themselves up to make an all-or-nothing run in the fourth.

Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray needed to step up on the scoring end, and needless to say, they rose to the occasion. The one-two game between Jokic and Murray clicked at the right time, and Denver flipped the score to take a six-point lead with five minutes remaining. Kawhi Leonard hit some big threes and earned trips to the free-throw line to slow the game down, but the game fell in the hands of Michael Porter Jr., who drilled the biggest shot of the game. Denver outscored L.A. 38-25 in the final 12 minutes.

The Clippers sat on a 16-point lead but watched it slowly evaporate as Denver outplayed them on both ends of the game to force game six.

Game 6

This game gave the Clippers a second chance of closing the series out, and the Clippers started the first half strong yet again. A dominant 16-2 stretch to end the second quarter was exactly what the doctor ordered, but the Clippers were too stubborn to take the medication. Despite Paul George and Leonard taking over the end of the second and setting themselves up to finish Denver off, they allowed Denver to take advantage of their poor tactics on both ends of the court.

After scoring 34 points in the first quarter, the Clippers managed just 35 points in the entire second half. Sixteen of those came in the third quarter when Denver made their huge run to trail by just two to enter the fourth. George took responsibility for 10 of those points, but he didn’t receive any help and Denver hunted the Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams mismatches to burn the Clippers on defense.

A similar theme from game five appears in this one: if you fail to keep your foot on the pedal, you’ll be passed up. You can’t offer a team like Denver the chance to see light, otherwise, they’ll climb out of the dark hole and bury you instead. Once Denver regained momentum, they grasped it with both hands and rode it to victory.

George and Leonard couldn’t carry the load themselves, whereas Jokic and Murray, though doing their jobs efficiently, were supported by Monte Morris, Gary Harris, and others who stepped up because of the momentum switch. The Clippers ended up being the team who lost by double-digits and did the one thing they couldn’t afford to do: go to game seven.

The uncertainty of a game with colossal implications is one the Clippers couldn’t afford to participate in, yet their own mishaps led them tumbling into a game where momentum didn’t favor them.

Game 7

Just like the last two games, both teams kept the score tight, except Denver didn’t allow L.A. to go on a run to end the first half. The Clippers maintained the edge, but the storyline of blowing a significant lead wouldn’t materialize on post-game headlines.

However, the Clippers’ inability to score in the second half did. L.A. only managed 33 points in the second half of a win-or-go-home game. Whichever way you put it, that’s inexcusable. Fifteen of those came in the fourth quarter, where the Clippers showed zero fight; they were ready to go home. It was a relatively low-scoring quarter, but Murray and Jokic opened the floodgates just enough to drown their desiccated opponents.

Obviously, it didn’t do the Clippers any favors that their two stars shot a combined 10-38 from the floor. That’s 26% in a semifinal closeout game; there’s no justifying that type of performance. The two notably scored zero points in the fourth quarter. It’s also why L.A. couldn’t let game seven occur. You never know if the worst-case scenario for your team would happen in the biggest game of the season, but you don’t have to ponder those thoughts if you closed out responsibly.

And if Harrell is your leading scorer after 48 minutes, something went drastically wrong. Denver didn’t completely suffocate L.A. on defense either, because L.A. had open looks. But, you saw George clanking an open corner three off the side of the backboard, which made up one of his nine missed triples from the game. Again, you need to avoid game seven if you can prevent it.

Other Factors

In-game decisions made by Doc Rivers played a massive role in L.A’s downfall as well. Giving Harrell numerous minutes when Ivica Zubac and Green were much better players/matchups definitely cost L.A. points. Harrell’s inability to be a defender at any decent level saw Jokic and company torch Harrell. This stat certainly supports the eye test:

Montrezl Harrell and Nikola Jokic went head-to-head for 35 minutes over the final three games of this series. The Los Angeles Clippers were outscored by 47 points in those minutes.

— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) September 16, 2020

Patrick Beverley fouling out early in game six played a large part, too, as L.A. lost his versatility on both ends and needed to play Williams more often. Beverley quietly turned in arguably the best performance from a Clipper in game seven, but it’s going to be swept under the rug now due to the loss.

Landry Shamet quietly disappeared and couldn’t help offensively either. Shamet’s best asset couldn’t be weaponized efficiently against Denver, as he shot 4-18 (22%) from deep in the series. He played limited minutes in game seven due to injury, but it’s hard to imagine him making a positive impact anyway.

Mike Malone, to put simply, out-coached his counterpart. When Harrell and Williams shared the floor, Denver attacked L.A. with pick-and-rolls, resulting in open looks. Because Lou Williams struggled often and Beverley dealt with foul trouble, Reggie Jackson saw minutes too, which certainly didn’t help the defense any. If Leonard and George couldn’t score, Rivers didn’t have a reliable third option, yet he kept insisting that Harrell and Williams would solve those issues. It might’ve worked in the regular season, but the bench duo was unsurprisingly exposed when it mattered most.

The Clippers are now 0-8 all-time when they’re about to clinch a conference finals berth, fittingly ranking them first in that category, per Elias Sports. Just like their blown 3-1 lead in 2015, the blame falls on the entire Los Angeles Clippers organization. With the expectations coming into the season, the lasting effects of this loss could be incalculable.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

The Los Angeles Clippers Can Only Blame Themselves
Sanjesh Singh

The Los Angeles Clippers came into Orlando with numerous concerns surrounding some of their key players. While this might be concerning, it also means the Clippers’ best basketball is still to come.

Here’s just a quick summary of some of the setbacks the Clippers have faced. Ivica Zubac and Landry Shamet arrived to the bubble late due to having positive COVID-19 tests. Marcus Morris came late as well, and is expecting the birth of his son soon, which will cause him to depart the bubble again. Montrezl Harrell and Patrick Beverley, who were already in Orlando, both left due to family emergencies. Lou Williams also departed the bubble to attend a family funeral in Atlanta, but a stop for wings made him quarantine for ten days upon returning.  

The Clippers don’t have to worry about losing their playoff spot in the Western Conference, but since basketball hasn’t been played in four months, it’s imperative to have the main rotation in form sooner rather than later. Team chemistry, conditioning and shaking off the rust is top priority for a team primed to make a deep run in the playoffs – and keep the best seed possible. 

The three scrimmage games every team in Orlando played was designed for that purpose. For the Clippers, however, the scrimmages primarily showcased the young guys they have at the end of the bench – and Joakim Noah. Terrence Mann, Amir Coffey and Rodney McGruder played hefty minutes due to the shorthanded roster, which is good for them, but didn’t help the Clippers get into their real rotations. 

Fortunately, the Clippers got reinforcements with Zubac, Shamet and Beverley returning for the Los Angeles Lakers matchup. However, Montrezl Harrell still isn’t with the team as he grieves the death of his grandmother, Williams’ quarantine just ended, and he looked quite rusty in his first game back – he’ll need more time to get back up to speed.

Still, the Clippers are improving after not playing in so long, and as the players find their rhythms, it’s clear that the best is still to come for the squad. 

A two-point loss to the Lakers isn’t bad at all considering the circumstances. You can point to any missed shot by the Clippers as deciding the outcome, but the game was winnable. Beverley, on a minutes restriction, scored 12 points in 16 minutes. Zubac got into foul trouble and saw 15 minutes of action where he only scored two points. Marcus Morris went scoreless in 19 minutes, Shamet couldn’t buy a basket, and Reggie Jackson’s decision-making on offense looked rough.

Still, the Clippers knocked down 16 threes on 36 attempts, good for 44.4%. That’s a tremendous rate to hit on opening day, with Paul George’s six triples playing a big role in that success. Kawhi Leonard started off slow but got into a rhythm as the game went on and finished with 28 points. The two stars did their jobs, but they needed assistance. 

Against the New Orleans Pelicans, George and Leonard received help and it showed on the scoreboard. Following a successful game from deep against the Lakers, the Clippers somehow managed to top that rate. The Clippers shot 25-47 from deep, good for 53.2%. Again, George was the forefront of the team’s success by hitting on 8-11 attempts, but the players who struggled on opening day began to assert themselves against the Pelicans. 

Morris hit a three en route to nine points, Shamet knocked down two threes for his only field goals, and Zubac grabbed nine rebounds in 24 minutes. Beverley, who started but was still on a minutes restriction, provided his usual consistent presence from deep going 3-5 for nine points. Jackson came off the bench to lead that unit, scoring 15 points in 20 minutes and knocking down 3-4 threes. 

The hot shooting from the entire team proved to be too much to overcome for New Orleans and illustrated how dangerous the Clippers can be when the players are at their best. That level of shooting for L.A. is definitely unsustainable, but considering the fact that Williams and Harrell didn’t play, it could’ve been worse for the Pelicans. 

The scorching hot shooting for the Clippers cooled off massively against the Phoenix Suns, but games like that happen every now and then. George and Leonard struggled to hit their shots despite being the team’s leading scorers. As a team, the Clippers shot just 8-29 from deep, a clip of 27.6%. That could lead to believing the Clippers were blown out by their opponents, but that wasn’t the case. Though the Suns were the team on fire from three (17-32, 53.1%), it took a tough turnaround jumper at the buzzer by Devin Booker to win. 

In good news, Morris and Zubac were a combined 13-17 from the floor, with Zubac grabbing 12 rebounds. Zubac notably arrived in Orlando late, and to see him put up a performance that was desperately needed (besides the late crucial turnover) gives the frontcourt additional versatility going forward while JaMychal Green continues to be a perfect floor space at center. 

Williams made his return following his 10-day quarantine, but he naturally didn’t play as well as he could’ve. Williams grabbed six rebounds and dished out six assists, but he couldn’t provide the points off the bench that he’s known for. With Beverley leaving the game early, the Clippers should be relieved that Williams is back now rather than later, as Beverley’s injury is one to watch going forward. 

Now that Williams is back, it’ll be interesting to see how Doc Rivers gets him going. Williams won’t have his main PnR partner in Harrell available yet, but as mentioned, Beverley’s injury sets the team back in some areas. With Beverley being out, more of the ballhandling and playmaking duties will fall on Lou, which could be rough as he gets into shape, but will be good for him in the long term. 

It may take a few games for Williams to find his footing again. One key thing for Lou will be hitting his outside shots (he didn’t hit one against the Suns). He’s not elite from the arc, but he’s a respectable threat and with Beverley’s shooting currently out of the equation, Williams will need to step up on that end as well as providing his usual scoring inside the arc. 

The Clippers play the Dallas Mavericks next, and that’s a team that hasn’t looked sharp defensively. Guards have been scoring with ease against them, making it a good opportunity for Williams to shine.

When Harrell makes his return to the bubble, there’s no doubt the Clippers will see a big boost in energy and interior scoring. Due to the recent passing of his grandmother, we could be seeing Harrell with more energy and passion than ever. Writing that sentence alone gives me goosebumps.

https://twitter.com/MONSTATREZZ/status/1290734117907308548?s=19 

Harrell’s presence in the paint would’ve been vital in a game as against the Suns where nothing fell from deep. Green’s spacing has provided the Clippers with an alternative if having Zubac or Noah on the court isn’t ideal, but nobody can match Trez’s ability to score and create in the paint. His scoring and energy simply isn’t replaceable. 

The Clippers losing two games by four points in the final seconds against two good teams speaks volumes to how great they can be when Williams and Harrell return. The Clippers haven’t been fully healthy for the most parts of this season, but they’re getting close to it (despite Beverley’s injury). Once that happens, the chemistry and execution should start to pick up as well.

Reintegrating Williams and Harrell into the rotation should serve the team better than giving Patrick Patterson and Shamet minutes right now, even with Lou and Trez being rusty. With those two back, the Clippers not only get stronger on paper, but also gain new dimensions on the court that will make a huge difference in games against competitive teams. Other Western Conference opponents should fear the opportunity to play a Clippers team that hasn’t reached their best in Orlando yet.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

The Clippers’ Best Bubble Basketball is Still to Come
Sanjesh Singh

After over 4 months without meaningful basketball, we’re all a little eager to talk hoops. So, in addition to 213Hoops contributor Thomas Wood’s excellent game recap from last night, I wanted to chime in this morning to offer five takeaways from Clippers – Lakers on opening night.

Now, as exciting as the game was, and as important as it felt, I feel the need to start by reminding us all that at the end of the day, it was just one regular season basketball game. Sure, these teams share a city and are the presumptive pairing for the Western Conference Finals in September, but they’re also both using low-importance seeding games to warm up for real action in the upcoming playoffs. On top of that, the Clippers’ Orlando camp was disjointed, as Marcus Morris arrived late, Ivica Zubac and Landry Shamet had delayed arrivals due to positive COVID tests, and Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, and Montrezl Harrell had to depart the bubble for family emergencies. While the other four played last night, Williams is unavailable as he undergoes a 10-day quarantine, and Harrell is still with family outside of the bubble.

So, my apologies, but you won’t find a meltdown over a 2-point regular season loss on 213Hoops. As I share my takeaways from last night, you also won’t find major overreactions. I’m not going to say that Marcus Morris is a bad player based on his abysmal game against the Lakers (even considered alongside his other abysmal game against the Lakers in March). But, we all watched 48 minutes of basketball last night, so let’s look at five takeaways from Lakers-Clippers and figure out what we learned:

Clippers Lakers Takeaway Number One: The Clippers need Patrick Beverley

Signing Reggie Jackson to a rest-of-season minimum deal was a steal for the Clippers. After months of discussing uninspiring potential mid-season point guard additions, Jackson, a 300-game NBA starter, fell into the Clippers’ lap. He was great for them in 9 regular season games off the bench before the season’s suspension, and provides a far better fill-in option at point guard when normal starter Patrick Beverley is unavailable than any of LA’s alternatives.

But he’s still not Pat. Jackson, who had an embattled and hotly criticized tenure as a starter in Detroit, showed some of his worse attributes on Thursday, often allowing his speed to carry him into tricky situations and difficult drives. He finished with 3-10 shooting, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers in 34 minutes, and his presence on the court rarely inspired confidence.

Beverley, playing on a de facto minutes restriction as he returns to action following a family emergency, contributed 12 points in 16 minutes, including 8 fourth quarter points as the Clippers fought back to make it a tight game in the closing minutes. While Jackson makes more things happen offensively than Pat, those things aren’t always good–in a lineup replete with high-efficiency scorers, there’s something to be said for a point guard who is patient with the ball and defers to the stars while playing elite defense and hitting a high percentage of his threes.

Jackson has an important role to play on this team, but tonight was a reminder of just how important Patrick Beverley is to the Clippers.

Clippers Lakers Takeaway Number Two: Zubac and Shamet need time

Look, sometimes we just have to be patient. Ivica Zubac and Landry Shamet are not only two of the Clippers’ best players, but they’re the Clippers two best young players, both 23 years old. While Zubac had a stellar year for the Clippers, and Shamet was inconsistent but remained the team’s best pure shooter, it’s possible that both will see their minutes reduced in the Orlando bubble.

After each testing positive for the coronavirus in early July, Zubac and Shamet did not arrive in Orlando until last week, missing not only weeks of important team practices but also going weeks without doing conditioning work or getting shots up. It takes a while for a human body to build from weeks of inactivity to having the conditioning to perform at a high level in the NBA, and symptoms of COVID–such as fatigue–can take weeks or months to clear up after a patient has otherwise recovered.

There’s no way around it: both Zubac and Shamet were awful last night against the Lakers. But I can also say with full confidence that neither is an awful basketball player. Give them time to get their legs under them and figure things out–even if it means reduced roles in Orlando and a healthy start next season.

Clippers Lakers Takeaway Number Three: Amir Coffey has climbed the depth chart

This might be the least consequential of the bunch, but I promised five takeaways from Clippers – Lakers and I intend to fulfill that promise. Plus, who doesn’t love Coffey–the undrafted guard who starred for the Clippers in summer league last year, signed a two-way deal, and ultimately was chosen to come to Orlando over the team’s first-round pick from the same draft.

It’s basically impossible for Coffey to earn regular minutes on this team, as the Clippers have star-studded wings and quality guard depth. But beyond the starting unit of Beverley, George, and Leonard, and the second trio of Jackson, Williams, and Shamet, it’s likely that at one point or another in the playoffs Doc will run into the right combination of minor injuries, foul trouble, and off nights and need a few minutes from someone. Tonight, with Williams quarantined and Beverley and Shamet both limited, Coffey was that someone for Doc Rivers, playing a few minutes in each half and contributing a made three in his only recorded stat.

Rivers’ choice to trust Coffey over veteran wing Rodney McGruder is not only noteworthy as a predictor of where he will turn in future situations, but also compelling when considering each player’s future with the team beyond this season.

Clippers Lakers Takeaway Number Four: JaMychal Green and Patrick Patterson both deserve minutes

I’m not sure that there’s a right answer for Doc Rivers at the power forward position. Currently firmly entrenched at starter is versatile scorer Marcus Morris, the veteran forward who was averaging 20 points per game and shooting 44% from deep for the New York Knicks before the Clippers paid a high price for him at this year’s trade deadline. Then, battling for backup minutes are JaMychal Green and Patrick Patterson, two more traditional stretch 4s who play a lot of pick-and-pop game while battling defensively.

The biggest problem Rivers faces isn’t which backup forward’s number to call on a given night–it’s that both backups have been far superior than the guy starting ahead of them since his arrival in Los Angeles. Now, last night was just Marcus Morris’ 13th game as a Clipper–even without his New York efficiency, we have a decade of data to look at and know he won’t be as bad over a large sample size as he’s been so far.

Going away from Morris now would be a mistake, not because it would make the trade look bad, but because he is a potentially valuable weapon for the Clippers in the postseason. But even last night, where Morris played 19 minutes to Patterson’s 22 and Green’s 29, it felt indefensible for Rivers to keep his starter on the floor for as much of the fourth quarter as he did.

I don’t have a broad, sweeping conclusion to the discussion of how to handle these power forward minutes. Maybe it varies drastically based on match-up. Maybe Morris can pick up extra minutes as the second-unit small forward, where he’d get more touches playing behind Kawhi Leonard instead of along side him. There may come a point where JaMychal Green needs to be inserted into the starting lineup over Morris, but we aren’t there yet.

For now, the takeaway is just that the Clippers have a legitimate question mark at the power forward position.

Clippers Lakers Takeaway Number Five: The small-ball lineup has potential

The most important of my five takeaways from last night’s Clippers – Lakers game also has to do with the team’s power forwards. After Rivers frustrated fans all season by limiting JaMychal Green’s time at center following his excellent performances as a small-ball 5 in last year’s playoffs, limited depth has finally forced Green to center in Orlando.

With Zubac and Noah each unable to play huge minutes, and Montrezl Harrell not with the team, Green has consistently gotten center minutes in the team’s scrimmages and opening seeding game. When Green and Patterson play together, the Clippers’ offense takes on a new dimension: with two floor-spacing bigs, the opposing center is dragged out of the paint, freeing up driving lanes for the Clippers’ stars. When defenses collapse around Leonard and George, Patterson and Green are reliable spot-up and pick-and-pop shooters that punish the opposition. It’s been a sneakily effective way for the Clippers, who have sometimes struggled to find a good flow offensively to open up passing lanes and create more fluid possessions.

The Clippers aren’t the Rockets–playing small probably shouldn’t be their identity. When they go small, they miss Zubac’s rim protection and rebounding, Noah’s passing and defensive mobility, and Montrezl Harrell’s energy and elite interior scoring. But just as each of those centers brings a unique wrinkle to the Clippers’ lineup, so does the defensive versatility and floor-spacing ability of the Patterson-Green pairing (and perhaps a Morris-Green pairing, if Marcus can make a shot as a Clipper).

Doc Rivers will have to be willing to stick with them when they’re losing on the glass (though more minutes for Patrick Beverley going forward will help the team’s rebounding) and getting pounded inside, but this tandem has the potential to create more additional points than they concede, and potentially force larger, slower big men off the floor by making them defend on the perimeter.

There you have it: my five takeaways from last night’s opener between the Clippers and Lakers. If you disagree, or noticed something I didn’t mention, let me know in the comments!

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Five Takeaways from Clippers – Lakers
Lucas Hann

When Landry Shamet arrived in Los Angeles after being part of the shocking deal that sent Tobias Harris to the Philadelphia 76ers, not many fans knew a lot about the 26th pick in the 2018 NBA draft.

Shortly after the trade went down, Doc Rivers received a text message from a former Clipper, and Shamet’s teammate in Philly, that endorsed the rookie with high praise. “Redick told me what we were getting back when we got him. He texted and told me ‘You won’t believe how focused this guy is. This guy does not act his age’,” Doc told the media.

JJ Redick, one of the greatest shooters the game has seen, saw something in Shamet that transcended his ability on the floor. It took Shamet all of one game as a Clipper to prove to his new team that the praise from Redick was perhaps even an understatement.

It took Landry Shamet just one game to win over his new fanbase. In the first game after the trade deadline, the Clippers were in Boston for what felt like a season-altering showdown. The Clippers’ front office had stayed consistent about their goal of pursuing the playoffs despite dealing Tobias; however, the play on the court in the first half of that Boston game left fans feeling as if the lottery was inevitable.

The Clippers were narrowly holding onto the 8th seed in the Western Conference, and at the time it seemed as if keeping their lottery pick that ironically was owed to Boston if it fell out of the top-14 would be the wisest course of action. A feeling of bittersweet contentment fell over the fanbase after going down 28 points in that first half, because while it seemed like the playoff hopes were dark, the future was not.

This notion lasted for about as long as halftime did, because Landry Shamet and the rest of the squad began asserting their will on that ballgame. The Clippers would go on to come back from what was at the time a franchise record 28-point deficit, and defeat the Celtics on the road. They were led by Shamet’s 17 points and 4 threes, all of which came in the 4th quarter.

It was mentioned that the 28-point comeback in Boston was the largest in franchise history “at that time.” That’s because just two months later, the Clippers pulled off the greatest comeback in NBA Playoff history by overcoming a 31-point deficit to defeat the Warriors on the road. Like his first game as a Clipper, Landry Shamet was right in the middle of this historic comeback as well.

Shamet’s go-ahead shot off the pass from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is arguably the most iconic shot in franchise history. It can only be rivaled by CP3’s Game 7 winner, but ranks right up there with it. The rookie sniper was only a Clipper for a few months before the summer hit, but everyone who watched him could tell that the Clippers got a good one.

A transformative summer saw the Clippers go from a gritty 8-seed starting two rookies, to the favorites to win it all. With this new ceiling came new expectations. High expectations always come with the territory of being a team with championship aspirations, with each member of the organization put under a microscope. Highly coveted sophomore Landry Shamet was no exception to this reality. Fans have seen it happen with Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell, Doc Rivers, and even Paul George. Every flaw, miscue, and shortcoming is magnified when building a championship caliber team. Despite making the radical transition from a specialist on an 8-seed to a pivotal key to a team’s title hopes, Landry Shamet has proven that he is made for this.

Shamet broke rookie records with his three-point shooting last season, so the expectations coming into the 2019-20 campaign were immense. He has exceeded all expectations in ways that are obvious and in ways that are more abstract. Despite a new role with new expectations, his shooting has not missed a beat. Sham is shooting 43.6% from the field, 41% from behind the arc, and 91.8% from the charity stripe. Those marks accumulate for a 62.1 TS%, which is up from the 60.4% mark he posted in his record-breaking rookie campaign. The expectations went up, and so has Shamet’s play.

Not only are these shooting marks impressive in their own right, but they rank among the league’s best. Of all players taking at least 6 3PA per game, Shamet ranks 7th at 41%. Due to his role in the offense, the majority of these looks come off of catch and shoot attempts. He has been even better on these shots, as his 42.1% clip on catch and shoot threes ranks 6th in the league among players taking at least 5 per game. Landry Shamet is a special shooter.

It was previously mentioned that Shamet’s acclimation to his new team came through his clutch gene. That has not left him this season, as he is literally yet to miss a clutch 3PA in the 2019-20 campaign. Of the five threes that Sham has put up in clutch minutes this season, all five have found the bottom of the net.

Shamet being this elite a shooter does wonders for the Clippers’ offense. This was on full display in a game on the road earlier this season against the Miami Heat. It was evident from the opening tip that Miami was going to force the ball out of Kawhi’s hands by running a double at him every catch. Shamet was the beneficiary of this defensive decision by the Heat, and ended up draining six threes in a big 122-117 win against the league’s best home team.

The game against Miami was not a rare occurrence, as teams have often shown a desire to trap Kawhi any given chance. With the addition of Marcus Morris, defenses can no longer trap Kawhi without leaving at least one of three or four prolific shooters alone. Shamet’s ability from beyond the arc forces teams to either play Kawhi straight up, or risk leaving a shooter open for three.

The stats support this assertion that Shamet’s mere presence on the floor is a game changer for Kawhi and the entire offense. Kawhi and Shamet have played 633 minutes together, and that duo has posted a 115.9 ORTG. In the 730 minutes Kawhi has played without Shamet, that ORTG drops to 112.8. Both marks are exceptional, but Kawhi is undoubtedly able to operate to his fullest potential when playing alongside Sham.

There is no debating the impact that Shamet has offensively, but as previously mentioned, each player on this roster is operating under a microscope. The critiques of Shamet this season have come on the defensive end.

After analyzing the stats, there is a real correlation between a player who is bad on defense and a player who plays too many minutes next to Lou Williams. As a 6’4″ 190 LB guard, Shamet holds his own on the defensive side of the ball. The problem is that his backcourt running mate in the 2nd unit does not. Landry Shamet has played 1,110 minutes this season; 640 of these have come alongside Lou, and the other 470 have come without Lou. In the 640 minutes Sham has played with Lou, the duo has a 110.5 DRTG and -1.0 NRTG. In the 470 minutes Sham has played without Lou, he has a 101.6 DRTG and +10.2 NRTG. That is a drastic difference.

This brings up a dilemma. If the Lou/Shamet lineups are so bad, and the Shamet without Lou lineups are so good, why has the majority of Shamet’s playing time come with Lou? That is a question that is going to need answering before the Clippers set their rotations for the playoffs. Lou tanks the DRTG of literally everyone he plays with, so it is understandable that Shamet could be perceived as a poor defender when he plays the majority of his minutes alongside one of the league’s worst.

On the other hand, Shamet’s DRTG alongside Kawhi is superb. As already mentioned, the duo of Shamet and Kawhi has played 633 minutes together. Of those 633 minutes, 385 have come without Lou. The duo is posting a 101.3 DRTG in the non-Lou minutes. When Lou is added into the fold, the DRTG inflates to 107.5 in 249 minutes. It doesn’t matter who Lou is playing with, the defense is going to suffer.

To further solidify the case that Shamet is not the problem defensively, let’s analyze a few more lineups. The trio of Patrick Beverley, Kawhi Leonard, and Landry Shamet, boasts a 96.2 DRTG and +23.8 NRTG in 274 minutes together. Those are absurd marks. Now, for the trio of Shamet, Lou, and Trezz, the numbers are not so great. In 460 minutes together, Sham, Lou, and Trezz post a 110.9 DRTG and -1.0 NRTG. Injuries have played a factor in the minutes disparity between these two lineups, but the sample size is large enough to show that Shamet does not belong with Lou.

The numbers previously discussed are not just a product of Sham’s shooting ability. What separates his ceiling from a guy like JJ Redick, is his ability to create off the bounce and get his own in the short mid-range or at the rim. With a player as deadly of a shooter as Shamet is, defenses are going to close at him hard. This opens up the opportunity for him to get inside the defense and pull up for that short mid-range shot, or continue driving to the hole.

The two shots previously mentioned are synonymous with one another. After being chased off the three-point line, we have seen Shamet put the ball on the floor and either rise and fire from the free-throw line area, or continue his drive to the cup. So far this season, Shamet is shooting 66.7% (26-39) within 5-feet and 61.5% (8-13) from 10-14 feet. While neither one of these shots are Sham’s primary weapon, just having them available adds to his versatility.

Another opportunity that Sham’s gravity creates, is the chance to find his teammates. Whether he is playing on the ball, or capitalizing on over-aggressive closeouts, Shamet being a capable passer adds to his impact on the entire Clippers’ offense. Shamet’s 2.33 AST/TO ratio, while not overwhelming, is more than serviceable for the role he plays. For reference, that mark ranks above proven passers such as Ben Simmons, Lonzo Ball, and Jrue Holiday. Now, clearly Shamet is in no way the passer that those three are. Those players all handle the ball at a much higher rate than Shamet does; however, it is still a good reference to use when analyzing how effective of a passer Shamet is in the opportunities he is given.

With a team headlined by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, it can be easy to overlook essentially everyone else. For a guy like Landry Shamet, who outside of his own fanbase is known as just a solid shooter, it is even more likely that the level of player he is will often go unappreciated. There are players who can thrive on average teams with no expectations, Shamet did that. Then there’s players who can thrive on a title team with championship expectations, and Shamet is also doing that.

It is time to start shining a light on Landry Shamet and how important he is to a team pursuing their first championship in franchise history.

Landry Shamet: More Than a Shooter
Joey Linn

After weeks of speculation, including my foolish-in-retrospect refrain that “the Clippers always do something that we didn’t see coming,” Jerry West, Lawrence Frank, and the rest of the Clippers’ front office did exactly what many have been expecting them to do for months: trade Maurice Harkless, Jerome Robinson, and LA’s 2020 first round draft selection for the Knicks’ Marcus Morris.

The price ended up being slightly steeper: the Knicks also pried Detroit’s 2021 second round draft pick from the Clippers, as well as the rights to swap first round selections in the 2021 draft (top-4 protected). The latter is overwhelmingly unlikely to mean anything, as the odds of the Knicks having a better record than the Clippers in the 2020-21 season (and thus exercising the swap rights) are incredibly low. The former, however, stings a bit: the Pistons are seemingly on the verge of a full rebuild, and could bottom out next year, making their 2021 second round pick in the early 30s. For a pick-depleted Clippers team (they do not have a first round pick to trade until 2026 or their own 2021 second round pick), that Detroit selection would have represented their best chance to be a buyer at next year’s trade deadline.

Still, acquiring Morris for Harkless and Robinson makes this team better on the court this season, and that’s significant. The Clippers have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in their primes on two-year contracts. Even if the team’s championship window is extended by new contracts in the summer of 2021, Leonard’s chronic injury issues could mean an earlier-than-usual retirement for the two-time NBA Finals MVP. The team already forfeited any present/future balance by trading Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a bushel of picks to acquire George. It’s clear: the time is now, the Clippers are all-in.

Morris isn’t necessarily only a short-term piece, though. At 30 years old, he roughly fits the Clippers’ timeline even beyond this two year window (George is 29, Leonard 28), and when Morris’ $15,000,000 contract expires this July, the Clippers will be able to re-sign him to a deal starting at as much as $18,000,000–more than enough to keep him around.

One of the Clippers’ oft-discussed weaknesses this season has been a sometimes stagnant, isolation-heavy offense with their starting unit. The obvious answer would be to add a distribution-oriented point guard, but such an addition would be complicated: no such target was readily available, and changing the offense so drastically would take the ball out of George and Leonard’s hands. Also, Patrick Beverley’s unique skillset, intangibles, and leadership would be difficult to replace with a more traditional point guard.

The next-best alternative, then, seems to be playing an elite shooter in lineups with Pat, Paul, Kawhi, and one of the team’s centers. Landry Shamet, likely the team’s best three-point shooter, has had an up-and-down year but has clearly made large a positive impact in recent weeks as he’s found his rhythm. To a lesser extent, the Clippers’ offensive fluidity has seemed slightly better when Patrick Patterson, a capable and willing shooter, has played at power forward.

That’s where Morris can provide the Clippers’ offense with a big boost. A solid career shooter from deep (36.9% on 7.4 attempts per 100 possessions for his career, and 37.2% on 8.6 attempts per 100 possessions across 2017-19 in Boston), he’s shown elite marksmanship this season, hitting 43.9% from deep on 9.3 attempts per 100 possessions, good for fourth in the NBA. Even if his shooting numbers regress slightly–and they already are, as he shot 56% from three in November, 36% in December, and 40% in January–he brings a drastically more willing, efficient, and reliable shooting option at the power forward position than Harkless, who was reluctant to even attempt threes, and Patterson. The situation is slightly murkier with the Clippers’ JaMychal Green, who was a major contributor last year (and shot 41.3% from deep) but has been inconsistent across health, minutes, and effectiveness this year.

In contrast to Shamet, Morris potentially gives LA an elite shooter with size, meaning that they can hope to replicate the spacing of a Beverley – Shamet – George – Leonard quartet with Morris at power forward and George and Leonard on the wings, protecting Kawhi from defending big men. Morris likely won’t imitate Shamet’s movement offensively with regards to navigating off-ball screens, but he’s more capable in terms of creating his own shot or driving against close-outs on the perimeter.

One bigger disparity will come in ability to create for others. While Shamet is not exactly a major initiator, he has a higher assist percentage than Morris (9.0% to 6.9%, measuring what percentage of teammates’ makes they assisted while they were on the floor) despite a drastically lower usage rate (13.3% to 24.3%). In fact, Shamet is averaging more assists than Morris despite playing fewer minutes per game and seeing drastically fewer touches.

Morris also has a well-established tendency to be a ball-stopper, which could exacerbate the Clippers’ issues. Of 98 players with usage rates above 20%, Morris is one of 13 with a single-digit assist percentage, and of those only Terrence Ross, T.J. Warren, and Kyle Kuzma have lower assist percentages than him. Of 57 players with usage rates above 24%, Morris is one of five with a single-digit assist percentage and ranks dead last in the category. While there may be some sympathy for his situation with the woeful Knicks, the career numbers are only marginally better: 20.3% usage rate with 8.7% assist percentage.

At the very least, it will be interesting to see if Morris’ shooting helps to open up the Clippers’ offense, or if his mid-range-heavy, ball-movement-light tendencies bog it down. That balance will likely be the biggest determining factor for his success in LA.

Defensively, Morris isn’t as good as Harkless as an individual or team defender, nor is he as versatile as the smaller, quicker Harkless. The Clippers frequently used Moe on opposing guards. However, the need for such cross-matching from the power forward position was always questionable at best, as the Clippers’ starting lineup features three top-tier perimeter defenders, and seemingly was not enough to offset Harkless’ offensive deficiencies. Morris can’t defend across as many positions as Moe, but he is slightly bigger, stronger, and a little grittier, which could end up being a slight net positive by replacing a redundant good defender with a better fit for an above-average defender.

The largest question unanswered, though, lies at the center position. Clearly the Clippers’ biggest weakness heading into the deadline, this deal does little to address the critical combination of Doc Rivers’ lack of trust in Ivica Zubac and Montrezl Harrell’s lack of defensive effort and ability. Morris could hypothetically play center in extreme small situations (like against the experimental Houston Rockets), and his presence as a more legit power forward might make JaMychal Green center minutes more viable than the smaller Harkless, but ultimately he is not going to be a consistent option at the position.

The Clippers do have two open roster spots, and–thanks to a salary-dumping trade of Derrick Walton Jr.–enough room under the luxury tax line to sign two rest-of-season deals in the buyout market. My guess is that Beverley, George, Leonard, Morris, and Zubac start while Lou Williams, Shamet, Green, and Harrell serve as key rotation pieces. The underwhelming Rodney McGruder, then, is the Clippers’ emergency wing, while Patterson is their emergency power forward. At point guard and center, however, the team would have to turn to Terance Mann or Jonathon Motley, and you’d hope that neither would see playoff minutes this season, so I’d expect them to pursue veteran options at those positions to fill out the roster.

The reality, though, is that it would be unrealistic to expect anyone that the team could add at center at this point to actually bolster their interior defense. The Clippers’ largest weakness went unaddressed at this deadline, and they’re banking on the addition of Marcus Morris providing enough offensive potency to make up for it.

213Hoops is an independent Los Angeles Clippers blog and fan community founded in February 2020 by a group of dedicated, long-time Clippers fans, writers, and podcasters.  You can support us by following us on twitter @213Hoops and subscribing to our Patreon for rewards and bonus content.

Clippers upgrade at deadline, but questions remain
Lucas Hann

Summary

While maybe not the dominant blowout that Clippers fans were hoping for, this was still a straightforward, wire-to-wire victory for the Clips at home. The contest started out choppy, with the refs blowing a ton of foul calls and slowing the game to a crawl. Neither team could get in a rhythm, and there were a whole lot of free throws. However, in the middle of the 1 st quarter, things got untracked, and soon both teams were putting up points in abundance. The Clips were led by a scorching hot Kawhi Leonard, who remained unstoppable and put the Clippers up by eight entering the second.

The second quarter, by contrast, was a chore to watch. The Clippers bench continued its recent struggles by turning the ball over and failing to slow the Wolves. If it weren’t for the Wolves’ misfires from deep, Minnesota might have retaken the lead. As it was, the Clippers let a double-digit lead slip away and went scoreless for several minutes in the middle of the period. Only the return of Kawhi Leonard returned order, and Leonard singlehandedly pushed the Clippers lead up a bit again, scoring on all manner of shots and from the free throw line.

The third period went much the same way. Kawhi and Paul George hit back to back threes right after halftime to push the lead to 13, and it seemed like the Clippers could blow the game open. However, they were not able to sustain that kind of lead, mostly due to their fouling on defense. Rather than staying in front of opposing players, the Clippers seemed content to bump or hit them, sending the Wolves to the line time and again. Fortunately, after a quite first half, Lou Williams got going a bit, scoring several buckets in a row to get the lead back to double digits. From there, Paul George took the baton, knocking down a couple tough jumpers and flexing a little.

George continued feeling himself in the fourth, and his ability to score from all three levels was on full display. The Clippers, behind PG’s scoring outburst, broke the lead open to 18 points, and from then on cruise controlled to the finish. The Wolves were able to close the gap at various points, but they never felt like a real threat the rest of the game, and the Clippers were able to score just enough baskets to keep the game out of reach. The final result was a comfortable 118-106 Clippers victory with all key players getting a nice amount of rest.

Notes

• PG Sharp: In Paul George’s second game back from a troublesome hamstring injury, he looked as he has since the start of the season, shooting the ball aggressively while also attacking the basket and securing rebounds in traffic. His defense might not be quite at the rarified air that he’s attained in previous years, but his ability to take over games offensively was crucial for the game-winning run in the late 3 rd and early 4 th quarters. The Clippers don’t have many shot creators, and George adds a much-needed element to the Clippers attack in that regard. This might not have been MVP-level PG, but it was certainly All-Star PG, and with Kawhi playing at the level that he’s at, that’s plenty to beat most teams.
• Doc’s Healthy Rotation: This was only the second game the Clippers have played all season with a fully healthy roster (the other being Christmas Day), so we finally got to see Doc Rivers’ regular rotation. He played 10 guys in non-garbage time minutes, with no surprises. Rodney McGruder is the clear 10th man, and the player who would be most likely to have his minutes cut entirely in a playoff game, or given to someone else. Meanwhile, Landry Shamet, even though he didn’t start, played by far the most minutes of any Clipper with 33, and seems like a strong candidate to close out some games as well. Doc did say after the game that “eight or nine” guys seem to be “obvious” in the rotation, which does leave a couple spots up for grabs, but this is the rotation that was predicted before the season and makes the most sense now. Patrick Patterson is the most likely candidate to break in, especially against bigger teams, but expect this configuration on most nights.

The Clippers next face the surging Spurs on Monday as their homestand continues. Continue to follow us
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Clippers Defeat Timberwolves, 118-106
Lucas Hann