Los Angeles
Clippers
Pacific
| 2011-12 Team Rating | |
| Offense | Defense |
| 103.5 | 103.8 |
| 8th Overall | 23rd Overall |
2011-12 Season Stats
W
33
L
33
PCT
.500
GB
8
CONF
23-25
DIV
9-5
HOME
19-14
ROAD
14-19
LinksVideo | Statistics | Tickets | Team
|
Category | Grade | ||
 The Blake Griffin intrigue never stops. Now the world watches to see how he recovers from knee surgery, while DeAndre Jordan tries to recover from last season. Welcome to a world where Grant Hill is the healthy forward.
|
B |
||
 Chris Paul will be an MVP candidate again and probably better than 2011-12, when he was traded late and played while surrounded by major trades and hurt teammates. Now to find a dependable shooting guard.
|
B |
||
 The Clippers are decent, but a team with Paul and a rim-protector like Jordan should be better. That means they have potential, or that they have underachieved. The addition of Hill should help.
|
B- |
||
 If the Clippers get anything close to the 2010-11 Lamar Odom rather than the 2011-12 version, this becomes a very good bench. It should be one of the best in the league anyway, with established backups all over.
|
A |
||
 No coach enters the season with the same win-or-else pressure as Vinny Del Negro. But if he gets some of the blame for struggles last season, he also deserves some of the credit for the first round.
|
C |
||
B
Summary
Last season, there was anticipation, albeit on the fly, minus the typical offseason buildup, when training camp was late and rushed because of the lockout and then, in the middle of the calendar swirl, Paul was acquired just before the schedule opened. This, though, is more. This is pressure like this group of Clippers has not faced.
There is the one negative development that must be addressed from the summer of positives: Griffin's recovery from knee surgery. Early indications were positive, that he is expected to be ready for camp. If that holds and the All-Star resumes his schedule of improvements, the Clippers have even more optimism.
--Scott Howard-Cooper
Explanation of Marking System
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