The acquisition of Rasual Butler immediately puts the the Clippers’ starting small forward spot in play.
Butler would undeniably give the Clippers’ starting unit a headier defensive presence on the perimeter and a greater ability to stretch the floor offensively. Mike Dunleavy has been looking for a small forward who can do two things: hit the corner 3 and defend.
With Butler, the Clips get a shooter who drained 71 out of 158 last season (44.9%) from the corners, and a defender whose length, quick feet, and instincts enable him to stay in front of the league’s quicker SFs — and funnel those he can’t into the teeth of interior D.
Butler doesn’t arrive in Los Angeles without some serious shortcomings. Butler was a lousy rebounder when ranked as a shooting guard. As a small forward, he’s downright atrocious. For those who want to see the Clippers get out and run, that deficiency in Butler’s game — along with his average handle (at best) — won’t do much to ignite the break. Butler is far more effective in a halfcourt game. Although he can space the floor, Butler doesn’t have the vision or finesse to create shots for others, and can’t honestly be characterized as the glue guy the Clippers need at the fulcrum of their offense.
All that said, placing Butler to Eric Gordon’s right along the perimeter, should help EJ tremendously, as defenses will have to think twice before leaving Butler alone in the corner. Whereas Thornton is useless without the ball in his hands, Butler demands attention from 20 feet. In Las Vegas, we saw that Blake Griffin (like most PFs) struggles with double-teams. Situating Butler in the right corner will prevent defenses from collapsing on Griffin down on the block. If they do, Griffin has demonstrated the skills and wherewithal to find his shooters against pressure. Who’d you rather have as Blake’s intended target — Al Thornton or Rasual Butler?
2008-09 comparison
| Hoopster | PER | TS% |
Def Rtg1 | 3p% | REB Rate |
AST Rate | TORate | WS2 |
| Butler | 11.82 | 54.1 | 108 | 39.0 | 6.3 | 7.6 | 6.0 | 4.4 |
| Thornton | 12.67 | 50.2 | 114 | 25.3 | 8.0 | 7.2 | 9.1 | 1.3 |
1Defensive Rating: An estimate of points allowed per 100 possessions, according to Basketball Reference
2Win Shares: An estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player, according to Basketball Reference
26 Responses
since butler’s coming from a winning team, he’l be a good locker room presence and won’t allow no kaman/davis-like whining allowed in the locker room.
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Why does everybody refer to Eric Gordon as EJ? Am I missing something?
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andrew Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Eric Gordon Jr.
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Why don’t you put up Rickey Davis’ numbers in the chart next to them. Well the year before he went to the Dunleavy.
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yep Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
ugh…..
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FireDunleavy .com Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Um, was that “ugh..” needed? As you would say, how does that relate to the topic? I get that you work for the Clippers or have some relation to Dunleavy. You don’t have to keep reminding us.
Last 2 years before the Clippers Ricky Davis is 39.7% and 40.5% from 3pt and put up some great numbers. I don’t know what source those are pulled from(Couldn’t find hoopster), that’s why I’d wonder what his numbers would look like. You can take it that those numbers above don’t make a difference, or that Dunleavy didn’t handle Ricky Davis right.
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Ian Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I agree with the “ugh.” Besides, RD is hurt…
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Starting Butler over Al makes all kind of sense; too bad he is not a better rebounder. I guess, our bigs are gonna have to step it up on the boards.
I wonder what this Butler pickup means for Novak. If he gets an offer sheet I don’t think the Clippers match at this point.
Now let’s bring in Sessions and we are set for a good run. *knock on wood*
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Ben S. Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
i forgot to mention that….
ill give Al that he is a great rebounder he gets up high and grabs boards mercilessly…….
but dunleavy is going to have to decide what hes going to need more Als rebounding or Rasuals 3 pt shooting,….
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Got it.
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Not very impressive numbers from Rasual….i expected them to be better.
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
clippers r gonna be good but they dont really need session, he looks to shoot first rather than pass and we dont need that, we need to work as a team here
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Stian Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I think you’re confusing Ramon with Baron. Sessions is not a certified shotjacker a la Davis; he actually looks to pass the ball.
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mario1p Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
true sessions is good and all but we have telfair already and hes an automatic pass first type of guy and plus if we get sessions it would be a long term deal
but baron seems like he really is motivated to get in shape and aktually not be the dumbass he was last year especially with all the talent we got on this team
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Stian Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Mario, yes, Telfair is pretty nice – better than the backup scrubs we’ve had recently. As for Baron – even if he shows up this year, the goal should be to get rid of him by next summer if the right deal comes along. Baron quit on us once – he cannot be relied upon when the going gets tough. He is not a true leader/warrior – he is a whiner/quitter/backstabber. That’s why we need Sessions (who will cost us less than half of what Baron makes) so we can get him ready to take over as our starting PG as of 2010/11 if not sooner.
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mario1p Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
i can see where you are going with this so we’ll see as the season goes by
mario1p Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
i can see where you are going with this so we’ll see as the year goes by
Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Couple additional notes:
1. Rasual Butler has an expiring contract this year. His 3.9 million dollar salary comes out of the 7.3 million dollar trade exception gained from the Zach Randolph deal. So, that leaves the Clippers 3.4 million dollars from that exception to use in their next deal.
2. This trade does NOT take the Clippers out of the running for Sessions. With Novak though, this gives the team 14 players on the roster, and Dunleavy typically doesn’t go over that amount. I assume someone could get bought out if the Clippers want to bring back Novak and add one more piece.
3. The MLE is still very much in play for the Clippers to use. With the 2/3 slot filled, Dunleavy can now zero in on bringing in a backup point guard like Sessions.
4. Essentially, Mobley and Thomas were traded for Craig Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Mark Madsen, Rasaul Butler, 3.4 million dollars in trade exception and whatever cash was sent over in this deal. Most importantly, all those contracts are expiring ones.
5. Props to Dunleavy for this one. I’ll have more on this trade as soon as I can dig deeper into it, but upon first few glances I love it.
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Chris. Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Telfair isnt an expiring contract. Great stuff otherwise. No need for Sessions, he’d be long term and not 1 year. Let’s see what we have and save the money for the changes by mid-season trade deadline or 2010 FA so we can see where we need improvement on the floor because we are solid again on paper.
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Hmmm…I do like the Butler pick up. Another good move by GM Dunleavy this summer. However, it seems that while our roster is now much stronger and more promising than last year, we are adding alot of one dimensional players with tremendous strengths and weaknesses.
Kevin, you mentioned that Butler would be a complement for EJ, but EJ is also a sub-par rebounder due to his stature, so our wing players would get beat on the boards consistently if Rasual starts. Craig Smith, on the other hand, is a ferocious rebounder and a scoring machine but can’t play a lick of defense. Telfair is a good ball handler/distributor but lacks a shooting touch and his height is a huge detriment defensively. Novak can hit the outside shot but that’s about it. DeAndre can rebound and block shots but lack any consistent offense.
It seems to me that the pieces are there for a team to be successful, but it will take some masterful coaching by Dunleavy to exploit each player’s strength and minimize their weakness. We are adding 4-5 new players to the team who will play significant minutes, so that chemistry issue become a major factor again. Dunleavy, the coach, has his work cut out for him in making all the pieces fit. It will be an interesting season, to say the least.
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john Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Lots of good points.
It will be very interesting to see. That rebounding hole that we’re facing at the 2/3 does stand out as a particularly dangerous issue… we’ll have to see if these guys can step it up, or mdsr can change the system a bit to help them out.
All of these unbalanced players are also, for all their faults, a hell of a step up from what we looked at last year.
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
damn i love how this blog is updated up to the minute with Clippers news
but anyway…id rather see Rasual start and have Al coming off the bench……
Al isnt much of a dead eye shooter and i have seen Rasual play for a longtime and he is…..
Al is very inconsistent and he still thinks he can be a shooter in this league when his strength is his ability to get to the hole and finish…..
he camps out in the perimeter when he should be taking the ball to the rim……
start rasual ….Al should give us that spark off the bench but someone needs to tell the guy that he needs to drive instead of try to rain Js alll day….
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
who is this firedunleavy guy he claims to be a clipper fan but most the time all he does is talk negative about them
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Q.D. Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Get used to it, it’s common around here.
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
mario1p
You must be new to the blog.
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Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
no i just hardly ever comment by i do read all comments that are made
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Posted on August 13th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
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