Defense and the Clippers

12 Feb 2012

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Currently sitting atop the Pacific Division at 17-8, the Clippers have seemed to already solidify themselves as a playoff team. The season is more than 1/3 of the way through, and the Clippers have knocked off the Heat, Thunder, Lakers, Blazers, Nuggets, and a handful of other pretty good teams along the way. They’ve had a few slip ups here and there, but they’ve shown that when reasonably healthy, they’re deserving of a playoff spot.

The Clippers chances at contending for a title, however, are a little more cloudy. A lot has been made about the loss of Chauncey Billups, and many seem to think that the title chances now rest on the shoulders of J.R. Smith — a relatively frightening thought when you take a step back and look at it all.

The Clippers certainly have their needs, but none need to be addressed more than their issues on the defensive end.

Despite their impressive start to the season, the Clippers currently rank 24th among all NBA teams in defensive efficiency, allowing 103.3 points per 100 possessions. To give you an idea of the company the Clippers are keeping, the six teams below them in defensive efficiency currently have a combined winning percentage of .316. That’s pretty typical — the teams that are the worst in defensive efficiency are almost at the bottom of the standings. Makes sense.

The Clippers, obviously, are breaking the rules here by rankings as the 2nd best team in the West right now. It raises the question: Are these winning ways sustainable, and can the Clippers really contend for a title with their defense being this bad?

It’s important to look at this from a historical perspective. Here’s a list of the last five NBA Finals teams and their league rank in defensive efficiency during the regular season according to HoopData.com:

2011 Dallas: 7th

2011 Miami: 5th

2010 Lakers: 5th

2010 Boston: 6th

2009 Lakers: 5th

2009 Orlando: 1st

2008 Lakers: 1st

2008 Boston: 6th

2007 San Antonio: 2nd

2007 Cleveland: 4th

***

In the last five years, no team that has ranked lower than 7th in the league in defensive efficiency has made the finals. Again — the Clippers currently sit at 24th. That’s a huge gap.

Even making the playoffs is a bit of a dicey proposition for teams ranking where the Clippers currently do. Over the last five years, only four teams have finished outside of the top 20 in defensive efficiency in the regular season and made the playoffs:

The 2010-11 New York Knicks (swept 4-0 in the first round)

The 2007-08 Washington Wizards (defeated 4-2 in the first round)

The 2006-07 Los Angeles Lakers (defeated 4-1 in the first round)

The 2006-07 Washington Wizards (swept 4-0 in the first round)

Are the Clippers current defensive numbers the product of a little small sample size theater? Maybe. You can certainly point to roster turnover, the new additions, the injuries and everything else as reasons for the poor defense thus far.With that said, the rate the Clippers are winning at seems plenty unsustainable unless the defense improves in a hurry. At the very least, history indicates they’ll have a tough time in the playoffs if this keeps up over 66 games.

No matter how good the Clippers offense may be under Chris Paul, it seems that scoring can only carry the Clippers up to a certain point. If they want to contend for a title, the Clippers have to find a way to fix what’s happening on the other end of the court.

http://Clipperblog.com Benoit Benjamin Buttons

Defense wins championships!
Tom F.

D.J.,

I love your writing, but you completely ignore a huge part of the story. Defensive efficiency is only half of the equation and that’s assuming that each team in the league has played against the same level of competition.

The Clippers are the fourth most efficient offensive team in the NBA. They have played 14 out of the other 15 most efficient teams, including Portland, Utah, Denver and the Lakers twice. They didn’t play a team outside of the top 15 until January 22nd against the Toronto Raptors, meaning they played 13 games before playing a team considered a less than average offensive team. This team was put together, shoved onto the hardwood in two weeks and asked perform well on both sides of the ball against the best teams in the league. This part is no different from any other team in the league, but when you consider the amount of turnover in the roster against the quality of opponents faced, it’s amazing the Clippers aren’t dead last.

By no means is this team great defensively, but it’s better than most people seem to believe. Defense is a team skill developed with time, chemistry, hard work and consistent effort. Time is what I’ll give the Clips. The chemistry, hard work and effort is what I expect they’ll contribute. Let’s come back to this one at the end of April.
- http://www.clipperblog.com D.J. Foster
  
  That’s an excellent point about the strength of the opponents they faced. Definitely something I should have taken into consideration along with the small sample size.
promotedeandre

One thing that I keep on thinking about is the Chicago bulls. With vdn they were one of the worst defensive teams in the league. They bring in tivido or how ever you spell there new head coach they are the best defensive teams in the league and they go onto the conference finals. Are the defensive problems we are dealing with now die to the coaching style of vdn or our players. I think vdn was a great coach for us prior to cp3 I thought he would do a great job developing Gordon and griffin but times have changed in clipperland and the time is to win now. I unfortunatly don’t think vdn is the guy that is gonna be able to do it.
- Tae
  
  VDN is not a coach at all. He’s just some bum the Bulls hired because the owner was cheap and always hired former players that wouldn’t cost much.
  
  Defense is as much a system as it is effort. The VDN Bulls weren’t that bad defensively, if you look back. They had effort, but no system to maximize Noah and Deng.
  
  The Clippers would hope to get Jerry Sloan out of retirement at best, but they need an upgrade at coaching first. Or at least find a better defensive coach like the Knicks did to improve from dead last to a respectable top 13.
- brad
  
  I would like to think that when VDN was the coach of the bulls the guys were young and still evolving but Vinny was crucial to instilling a defensive mindset that they display today. They lost two hard fought first round series(necessary battle wounds) and were poised to make the leap until Vinny was let go because of a lack of faith by management and Tib-eee-doe was able to carry the momentum already established by VDN…..Thats what I tell myself anyway
Pat

The Clippers don’t allow 103.3 points per possession. If they did, teams would average about 10,000 points per game against them.
- http://www.clipperblog.com D.J. Foster
  
  Those damn four point plays add up quick
  
  Thanks for picking up on the typo — fixing now.
griffin

Defense wins games but I have to say clipper let lesser opponets score on them more. When playing elite teams clippers have actually locked in on defense and elite teams have yet to score more then 100 points on the clippers. The only less then a handful of teams score 95 or more when playing clippers. Those defensive stats maybe true but misleading when concerning the clippers they tighten up when they play elite teams
WC

How did the Clippers rank defensively the last time they made the playoffs?
- Pat
  
  In 2006, Clippers held opponents to 95.6 points per game (11th best in the league).
  
  They allowed 103.6 points per 100 possessions (8th best in the league).
  
  http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAC/2006.html
- Pat
  
  Although those numbers looks eerily similar to this year’s numbers, I believe teams scored more across the board in 2006, so the ranking relative to other teams is what’s important.
NRM

The 2007 Warriors played no defense, and they made it to the 2cd round of the playoffs. You also missed that.
- D.J. Foster
  
  That Warriors team finished 17th in defensive efficiency that season.
JoeLuis323

So are we seeing an improvement on Defense from january to february?
I believe that what makes it misleading is the amount of games we’ve won due to CP3 going perfect in the last min. Many of these ‘W’s could’ve easily been ‘L’. They’ve made the plays when it mattered. (for the most part).
ClipsFan4Life

Slowly but surely we are getting better at defense! We are at 96.0 points per game thats 18th best in the league….At the beginning of the season they were 27 i believe. So slowly but surely they are getting better!
Isaac

I think its pretty simple.. We simply don’t have many good defenders.. I’m okay with our front court, now with K-Mart.. But our best wing defender is Butler.. that just can’t happen. We need to add a defensive wing if we want a shot at winning.. I still think we can beat anybody in the west as currently constructed.
Clip

off topic real quick… Do you guys think the Clippers will make another move (moves) before the trade deadline? Whats the deal with J.R.?
Tim

This team has 1 weakness, perimeter defense. Who cares! That’s not enough of a weakness to keep us from winning the title. So we aren’t that good at stopping teams from taking shots from distance. So what! It’s a low percentage shot to begin with right? Just close out, get a hand up, box out, and rebound. As long as you keep the scoring wing from getting points in the paint, we’re fine. Kobe can take as many jump shots as he’d like, he’s not getting any thing around the basket. We’re fine.
WC

Am I the only one that sees a JR signing as a bad move? The chemistry with these guys is fantastic and I would hate to see it ruined by the erratic Mr. Smith.
Scott

How bout a trade for Raja Bell? He would be a true shooting guard, who can defend and shoot the three. It may not take much to get him from Utah if they don’t stay in the playoff hunt, or they decide they want to play hayward, miles, howard, and burks on the wing more. Or perhaps Sam Young from Memphis, he doesn’t get much run there, and that would put Memphis under the tax line. Both guys would fit into one of the trade exceptions, and would be better chemistry guys than JR Smith
- Tim
  
  The problem with Bell is, he is suppose to be a defensive stopper, but scoring wings like Kobe light him up, so whats the point? Plus he stands around beyond the arc, making himself easy to defend. A player like Kobe can easily cheat off of Bell, then rotate, and force contested ill-advised shots if they ever get the ball around to Bell. The best way to make a player like Kobe miss shots, is make him work on the defensive end. Force Kobe into isolation situations vs a smaller guard, who can break him down off the dribble, ala JJ Barea, Chris Paul, and the like. A tired Kobe will shoot a lower percentage, ball hawg more, leaving his teammates less interested. A defensive stopper plays into the hands of a D-Wade or Kobe.
- Clips4
  
  I’d like to have Raja Bell….. if this was 6 or 7 years ago. Bell is old and washed up. It’s not about so much having necessarily a defensive stopper but a long and lanky guy to defend the perimeter (a la Tayshaun Prince type) that can hit 3′s. Because Kobe will just take Bell into the post and destroy him there. Kobe is the best one-on-one iso player in the league and has the best post game as a guard in the league.
  - Tim
    
    6 or 7 years ago, Bell still got lit up by Kobe, whats the difference? Kobe will light up Tayshaun Prince too. You stop Kobe by making him play defense, forcing him into isolations where he has to defend a smaller quicker guard who can score layups, and set up others for easy baskets, not a guy who stands around the 3 point line waiting for a pass. A defensive stopper who can’t stop Kobe, and can’t make Kobe work on defense, is the blue print for Kobe’s success. Nice try though.
    - Clips4
      
      Out of all defenders though, Shane Battier has has the most success in guarding Kobe. Kobe can’t post up Battier because he is too big. But Battier uses the hand in the face method that he does to disrupt. Kobe is one of the best conditioned players in the league. Having him play defense won’t do much.
      - Tim
        
        Kobe is less likely to share the ball, if he’s getting broken down, and scored on. His pride gets in the way, and Kobe slips back into Kobe vs 5 mode, forgetting he has 4 other team mates. Battier doesn’t slow Kobe down, any more than any other defender. But Kobe knows where to find Battier, standing around the 3 point line, easy to guard, and cheat off of. Fact! The less shots Kobe takes, the harder it is to beat the Lakers. You want Kobe in 1 on 5 ball hawg mode, and you do that by isolating him, and making him guard smaller quicker guards that he can’t stay in front of. Kobe gives up a couple of easy lay ups, and Kobe gets mad, pride gets in the way, which brings out Kobe-the-ball hawg. So then Kobe takes 40 shots to get his 35pts, and the Lakers lose. We see this time and time again. No lockdown defender can stop Kobe. Kobe in 1 vs 5 mode stops Kobe and Lakers regularly. Stop being in awee of 35pts on 40 shots, that’s not impressive, especially when it results in a loss.
Pboy

I also think JR Smith is a bad signing. I think a trade for Ray Allen would be perfect for the Clippers, the guy could still play defense and has that great shoot from the three.
Metal Matty

I don’t believe even the MOST brain dead panic artist of a fan is pinning the Clippers title chances on the shoulders of J.R. Smith at this point.

There may be one or at the most two lazy sportswriters with no real knowledge of the team outside of catching the tail end of a Blake Griffin dunk montage doing that.

Not sure that constitutes “many”.
Tim

Personally, I could see JR Smith in a Clipper uni. Its not the worst thing in the world, just make sure he’s content with taking less money to come off the bench. The idea of Mo and JR jacking up 3′s is better than, Mo and Bledsoe jacking up 3′s. Let Reggie and KMart chase down the loose balls. How bad could it be? Just don’t let Gomes inbound the ball, especially in crunch time, what is this?
Metal Matty

How much would the Clippers love to have Kahwi Leonard. Wow.
ClipsFan4Life

I dont think Signing JR would be bad… if there was a time were he would have to behave and play his heart out its this year and its with the clippers because he will be playing for a long term contract. Another thing is that this all sounds alittle familiar… i remember alot of people not wanting Butler and how he was a bad fit for the clips. Hows that working out now??? So i say lets see what happens.
- Tim
  
  I agree. He would sign for less money, to come off the bench, just to be a mal-content? I think Smith and Williams with Kmart off the bench could be potent. I like to reserve judgement until after the deal is done, but I don’t see Smith being a problem. We don’t need that lockdown defender anyway, we need points. This year, the Clippers are looking like the highest scoring team in the Association, you heard it here 1st!
DeMote DeAndre

This article hits the nail on the head in a general way: the Clippers have a huge problem on defense and that defensive problem is going to keep them from getting out of the first round of the playoffs.

The article ignores the main specific reason why the defense is so bad: DeAndre Jordan.
Legitimate size opposing centers have been destroying Jordan on a nightly basis ever since he got put into the starting lineup last season. This season he’s been every bit as bad on defense as he was last season. All of that off season improvement so many here have been prasiing him for is non-existent except in the pipedreaming head of those praising him. He’s been getting torched so much he’s a lock to win this season’s human torch award. Oh, yes, I keep forgetting, he’s a league leader in blocked shots. Great, Torchedman is once again out of position and recovers enough to swat a ball into the stands. Way to go Torchedman. Of course, the opposing team then usually gets the ball back and then puts in the basket anyway.

Jordan’s defense is even worse than allowing opposing centers to torch him every night. He also fails to protect the paint from other players on the opposing team who continually are attacking the rim and scoring big.

This has to stop or the Clippers are going nowhere in the playoffs. There’s only one way to do it. Torchedman has to be traded for Dwight Howard.
- Metal Matty
  
  The way moving picks are allowed in this league, everybody is covering everybody and nobody spends more than three seconds at a time guarding one person.
  
  It seems to me that this year DeAndre, on the rare occasion he is actually guarding someone ONE ON ONE, is MUCH MUCH better than he was early in his career including last year. He doesn’t jump at pump fakes and really bothers guys and panics guys.
  
  The mindless blather you continually spew IS accurate with regards to Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynam. But those other scrubs that keep piling up numbers are doing so in large part because…
  
  A. ILLEGAL picks (defined as ANY pick where the defender is not completely stationary prior to contact and NOT leaning in or over at the last second) have ruined the game and destroyed the one on one nature of the NBA. Nullifying individual defense.
  
  and
  
  B. The other Clippers defenders are a sieve leaving DeAndre as the only chance for Clipper success via block or intimidation on many posessions.
- bongstradamus
  
  Only you would agree we have a problem with defense and then suggest trading our best defensive player.
- WC
  
  Don’t you ever get tired of bashing DJ? Ok we get it….you HATE DJ.
- Clips4
  
  The reason why the Clips keep getting killed on defense… two words: dribble penetration
DeMote DeAndre

Less than a month now before the Clippers are allowed to trade Jordan . . . March 12 and the trading deadline is March 15.

Just to make sure everyone is clear, the pipedreaming rumor recently spread here that Jordan couldn’t be traded until next December is 100% false. He can be traded three months after the Clippers matched the Golden State offer sheet, which was December 12. Three months after that is March 12.
- Scott
  
  he would have to approve any trade before december, which many think he is unlikely to do
  - DeMote DeAndre
    
    No. That was the rumor being spread here awhile back, but it is 100% false. Jordan can be traded three months after his Golden State offer was matched. There is no truth to his having to approve it. The offer was matched December 12 and that means he can be traded March 12. The only limitation is that the trading deadline is March 15. If Jordan is not traded by the March 15 trading deadline, he then can be traded in the summer free agency period in a sign and trade for Howard.
    
    It’s not going to surprise me if the Magic do not trade Howard before the deadline, so it’s likely that he will sign as a free agent. His best bet is to sign as a free agent with the Clippers, and if so Jordan likely would then go to Orlando as part of a sign and trade deal.
Metal Matty

SACK SMITH
DeMote DeAndre

Here is the article by Mar Stein last Friday in which he clearly says Jordan can be traded. It’s at the end of the article. Here is the key part from it:

“There are also a few restricted free agents who either re-signed with their old teams or saw offer sheets matched since the lockout was lifted that can’t be traded until after March 1 because of various restrictions, which apply when the salary in the first year of the new contract is greater than 120 percent of the player’s salary in the final season of his previous contract … and when the player’s team is over the salary cap. *Under the league’s new labor pact these players can’t be traded for three months from their signing date or January 15, whichever falls later.* Here are some notable names who, because of this rule, are trade-eligible for only a small window in March:

L.A. CLIPPERS DeAndre Jordan (tradeable March 12-15)”

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-120210-11/nba-dwight-howard-more-trade-chatter
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