NBA Free Agency 2015

Karen Song

LOS ANGELES – The Clippers feel they’ve put themselves in a legitimate position to win an NBA championship in the 2015-16 season with their moves this offseason.

They made that clear during Tuesday’s press conference, introducing their free agent signings and re-signings, with DeAndre Jordan, Austin Rivers, Paul Pierce, Josh Smith, Wesley Johnson, Cole Aldrich and Branden Dawson all on hand alongside head coach Doc Rivers.

“It’s been a great summer for us,” Doc Rivers said. “I look around this, and, not even including the guys that aren’t here, I love what we’ve assembled. Now, the next step for us is to turn all this talent on paper into a team.”

Doc Rivers, as president of basketball operations, has fought through a tough cap situation to help the Clippers add crucial pieces they hope will allow them to break through past the second round of the playoffs and compete for a title. Now, Rivers, as head coach, knows it’s his job to make the pieces fit and guide the Clippers on their quest.

“On paper, I like us against anyone,” Rivers said. “I’m sure other teams will say the same thing, but we all know from being around this that it’s going to take a group that wants to play together, wants to get together and wants to win together. That’s our goal now.”

And that’s the part Doc Rivers is looking forward to most. He said he “loves this group” and can’t wait to get started to see how the pieces are going to fit.

He added that every team in the West had to get better this offseason in order to compete. He said people forget too often about Oklahoma City, which will be better when healthy. He also said San Antonio got better, as did Golden State because of a title. With the pieces next to him on stage, as well as Lance Stephenson, he believes the Clippers have done the same, adding depth at every position with their offseason additions.

“The one thing I do look at this team is you look at the last two champions, we’ve beaten the last two in the playoffs,” Doc Rivers said. “Two years ago, we beat Golden State. Last year, we beat San Antonio. So the last two teams that have won titles, we knocked them out in the last two years as well, so that tells us we’re right there. But we’re not over the hump yet. That’s what we have to get this year.”

Doc Rivers said he likes having flexibility, but the Clippers, who still have roster spots available, aren’t necessarily done signing players this offseason. Regardless of any other moves the Clippers may make, Rivers likes how the roster looks now after a busy offseason, highlighted by the re-signing of Jordan.

“What we’ve done the past two seasons, we’re going in the right direction,” Jordan said. "We’ve gone through so much the past two years, in the postseason and throughout the seasons, and we’ve overcome a lot of it. I think that we’re close to getting over that hump, and I definitely feel like we have unfinished business with this team and the pieces we added, and I’m comfortable here and that made (the decision to stay) that much easier.”

For all of the signings, the talent on the team and a chance to compete for a title played major roles in their decisions to either return or to go to the Clippers. Here’s some of what they had to say.

Austin Rivers: “Right now, I signed a short deal because I want to come here and help this team win, and that’s my focus. I believe we can do so, so it really made my decision very, very easy to come back and really maybe not even try to venture out and see what else is out there, because I wanted to be here.”

Paul Pierce: “I’m here with the same goal in mind that everybody else’s goal is, and that’s to win the championship. Truthfully, if I didn’t think the Clippers were close, then no matter home or not, I probably wouldn’t have made this decision.”

Wesley Johnson: “Get a chance to win, I think that was my mindset. I want a chance to win. My track record through my career is I’ve been on teams, unfortunately, that have been bad. So fortunately, I’m on the other side and looking forward to the season, looking forward to expectations that we have, like to win a championship. After they started signing the group of guys they did, I think that we’re able to compete with anybody. We have a clear shot of winning it.”

Josh Smith: “We have an opportunity to be able to do something special, and right now this is what I want to focus on…Hopefully we can do something historic for this franchise. I feel like we have the right pieces to do it. We just have to be able to, like Coach (Rivers) said, get it done early on, and that starts in September.”

Cole Aldrich: “Going from New York last year, where we struggled, to being on a contending team, it’s going to be awesome. You’ve got a bunch of guys that are going to come in every day and work hard and have fun doing it. That’s the biggest thing, is we’re a family. I appreciate all these guys welcoming me and my wife into the family.”

Branden Dawson: “I come from Michigan State, always been competitive. Playing with Tom Izzo, it’s something that he instilled in me, just being competitive, playing with energy. I’m going to do whatever it takes. I love to win and I like being around a good group of guys. I’m willing to do anything, so I’m excited.”

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Clippers Introduce Free Agent Signings

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Photos: Introductory Press Conference: Free Agents | 7/21/15

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Free Agent Press Conference 2015

LOS ANGELES – Josh Smith is the latest versatile forward to join the Clippers.

Smith officially signed Thursday afternoon, continuing to bolster the newfound depth at the forward spots for the Clippers, who already added Paul Pierce, Wesley Johnson, Lance Stephenson and second-round pick Branden Dawson this offseason.

Most of Smith’s career was spent in Atlanta, playing nine seasons for the Hawks, before playing the 2013-14 season in Detroit and splitting the 2014-15 season between Detroit and Houston. It was in Houston where Smith finished last season, as Clippers fans are well aware.

Smith scored 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting in Game 6 of the second round against the Clippers and 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting in Game 7 to help the Rockets reach the Western Conference Finals.

After averaging 12.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.4 blocks between the Pistons and Rockets during the regular season last year, Smith went on to average 13.5 points while shooting a postseason career-high 38 percent from 3-point range in the playoffs. For his career, Smith holds career averages of 15.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and two blocks per game.

The 11-year veteran can serve a multitude of roles and has experience both as a starter and bench player. He’s started 765 of his 836 career games, but he only started seven of his 55 regular season games for the Rockets last season. They changed that strategy after the Clippers took a 3-1 lead in the series, as Smith was then inserted into the starting lineup.

Smith, a career 45.5 percent shooter, shot 43.8 percent from the field last year while playing for the Rockets. But Smith, a career 28.5 percent 3-point shooter, found better spacing in Houston and finished with one of his better deep shooting years, hitting 33 percent of his shots from 3-point range with the Rockets.

With Smith on the court last season, the Rockets scored 7.4 more points per 100 possessions than they allowed. With Smith off the court, they allowed more points per 100 possessions than they scored. His net rating in Houston was twice as high as the Rockets’ net rating as a team.

The Clippers, who already have one of the league’s best passing big men in Blake Griffin, now add another frontcourt player adept at that skill in Smith, who’s averaged at least three assists per game in each of his last six seasons.

Despite the Clippers’ cap restraints this offseason, they’ve continued to fill the roster on the cheap with pieces who’ve contributed at high levels in the NBA. Smith was recognized for his defensive contributions in 2010, when he was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive Second Team. That same year he became the youngest player ever to record 1,000 career blocks. He also won the 2005 NBA Slam Dunk Contest his rookie season.

Press Release: Clippers Sign Josh Smith →

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Forward Depth Continues With Josh Smith Signing

The L.A. Clippers announced today the team has signed forward Josh Smith.

An 11-year NBA veteran, Smith joins the Clippers after playing in a total of 83 regular season games last season with the Houston Rockets (55 games) and the Detroit Pistons (28 games), averaging 12.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.4 blocks in 27.7 minutes.

The youngest player in NBA history to record 1,000 career blocks, Smith, 29, is just the 25th player in NBA history (seventh active player) to tally over 10,000 points, 5,000 rebounds, 2,000 assists and 1,000 blocked shots.

Originally selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the 17th pick in the 2004 NBA Draft, Smith has appeared in 836 career regular season games with Atlanta, Detroit and Houston and owns career averages of 15.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.0 blocks in 33.6 minutes. Smith is the only player in NBA history with career averages of at least 15.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.0 steals per game.

A member of the 2009-10 NBA All-Defensive Second Team and 2004-05 All-Rookie Second Team, Smith has twice been named NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week and also finished second in the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2010-11.

The Georgia native won the 2005 NBA Slam Dunk Contest and has made 69 career Playoff appearances, averaging 15.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 32.9 minutes during the postseason.

Smith was a 2004 McDonald’s All-American and drafted by the Hawks after his senior year of high school at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia.

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LA Clippers Sign Josh Smith

LOS ANGELES - Getting Lance Stephenson back on the move could reap the benefits results the Clippers are looking for this year from the 24-year-old.

Stephenson was a hot commodity after his best NBA season in 2013-14 with the Pacers, averaging 13.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game, helping Indiana get to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight season. He parlayed that season into a three-year, $27 million deal with the Hornets, where things didn’t go as swimmingly, averaging 8.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. 

“It was a tough season,” Stephenson said in his introductory press conference with the Clippers, who traded for the versatile guard this offseason after he spent one season in Charlotte. “Coming from the Pacers to the Hornets, different organizations, it was very different. It was a struggle for me. I just want to put that behind me. Just looking forward to a great season now.”

In order to make that happen, the Clippers will want to get him in transition and get him some of the looks that made him successful to begin with. Here’s a look at what the Clippers could look to do more often for Stephenson.  

The Hornets got in transition a league-low 9.6 percent of the time last season and averaged the second fewest fast-break points in the league (9.2).

Needless to say, that left Stephenson with fewer opportunities to get out on the break. During the 2014-15 season, Stephenson had 1.4 possessions per game in transition and 1.1 points per game in transition. The year prior in Indiana, he had 2.5 possessions per game in transition and 2.3 points per game in transition.

This past season in Charlotte, 11.2 percent of Stephenson’s points came in transition. Three years ago in Indiana, as the Pacers made their first of back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals appearances, the number was at 27.4 percent for Stephenson.

The Clippers were in the middle of the pack last season when it came to their pace, but they were seventh in possessions per 48 minutes a year prior, and this past season they led the league in both points per possession in transition and effective field goal percentage in transition, which adjusts field goal percentage to account for the importance of 3-pointers.

The hope is getting Stephenson back on the move and on the run can get him better looks, which leads to the next point.

Charlotte finished second to last in the league last season in field goal percentage and last in the league in 3-point percentage during the 2014-15 season. The Hornets didn’t have a bevy of shooters to space the floor, plus Stephenson dealt with an injury.

In the end, Stephenson ended up taking 47 more pull-ups and 221 fewer shots from inside 10 feet than he did in his breakout season a year prior. Two seasons ago, 50 percent of Stephenson’s shots came from inside 10 feet. Last season, only 38 percent of his shots came from that distance.

Delving further into his shooting distance, more than twice as many of his shots came from the restricted area as it did from mid-range two seasons ago. Last year, he had 22 more mid-range shots than attempts from the restricted area.

Stephenson went from averaging 2.4 pull-up jumpers per 36 minutes with Indiana to 5.6 with Charlotte. Despite playing 17 fewer games last season than he did two seasons ago, he still ended up shooting 37 more mid-range shots. He shot roughly 34 percent on such shots each of his last two seasons.

Considering he’s hit at least 50 percent of his shots from inside 10 feet each of the last two seasons, that’s an area of the floor he needs to find more often.

Getting on the run can should help him get more looks inside the paint, and so should the spacing created by the Clippers’ offensive stars.

Stephenson only attempted nine corner 3-pointers last season after going 24-for-48 on corner threes during the 2013-14 season in Indiana. While the catch-and-shoot game hasn’t been his forte, he seems to do better with those looks than he does on 3-pointers from above the break.

It’s on Stephenson to get his 3-point percentage back up near the 35.2 percent career-high mark he had two years ago in Indiana, but the spacing and open looks typically generated for small forwards in the Clippers’ lineup should help.

Stephenson saw 125 wide open 3-point attempts his final season in Indiana and only 54 last year in in Charlotte. He also had 92 open attempts with the defender four to six feet away his last season in Indiana and only 34 such attempts last year. It’s no mystery the more open the shot, the better the success rate.

Few guarantees exist when a player goes from one team to another as he adjusts to a new system, but head coach Doc Rivers believes he can get the best out of Stephenson.

“You’ve got to look at the whole thing,” Rivers said when Stephenson was introduced. “Lance has proven what he can do. He’s also proven he can have a tough year like anyone can have. You lean on a lot of stuff when you’re trying to make a decision…We did a lot of research, and we like where we came out.”

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Optimizing Stephenson’s Game

Marcus Fong

LOS ANGELES – The Clippers’ Kansas connection continues to run deeper.

After bolstering the depth at the small forward spot with former Kansas Jayhawk Paul Pierce, the Clippers moved on to big-man depth by adding former Jayhawk center Cole Aldrich.

Aldrich averaged 5.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last season for the Knicks, posting career highs in both categories.

Much like recent Clippers signee Wesley Johnson, Aldrich was a coveted pick from the 2010 NBA Draft. Aldrich went No. 11 overall, getting his draft rights traded from New Orleans to Oklahoma City, where he spent his first two seasons in the league.

Press Release: Clippers Sign Rivers and Aldrich →

He suited up for the Rockets and Kings during the 2012-13 season before playing for the Knicks each of his last two seasons. For his career, Aldrich has played in 196 games with 18 starts, averaging 3.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per game in 10.3 minutes per game.

The center was a 2008 NCAA Champion and the 2009 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year at Kansas. The former McDonald’s All-American also played 21 games in the D-League during the 2010-11 season, averaging 10.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game for the Tulsa 66ers.

Last season marked the most action Aldrich had received in his NBA career, averaging a career-high 16.6 minutes per game. The 6-11 center has always been able to hit his free throws, shooting 78.1 percent last year and shooting 78 percent from the line for his career, but last season also gave him an opportunity to post career highs in almost every major statistical category.

The Knicks had a better defensive rating with Aldrich on the floor. He also took full advantage of his starts late in the year, scoring 19 points to go with 14 rebounds April 11 against the Magic. His season finale was even better, scoring 24 points and pulling down 15 rebounds April 15 against the Pistons.

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Clippers Add Cole Aldrich

LOS ANGELES – The Clippers made it clear after the season ended they wanted to bring back both DeAndre Jordan and Austin Rivers.

That job is now complete, as the Clippers re-signed Rivers on Monday, just a few days after finalizing Jordan’s new deal to stay in Los Angeles.

Rivers averaged 7.1 points, two rebounds and 1.7 assists in 41 games last season for the Clippers, who received Rivers in a three-way trade midway through last season, sending Reggie Bullock to the Suns and Chris Douglas-Roberts and a 2017 second-round pick to the Celtics.

But last year’s story for Rivers was more about what he did when the regular season ended.

He put on a show more than once in the playoffs, scoring 16 points in Game 4 of the first round against the Spurs to help the Clippers win in San Antonio, and, most notably, scoring 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting to go with six rebounds in 23 minutes against the Rockets in Game 3 of the second round.

Rivers, who had never played in the postseason before last season, averaged 8.4 points on 43.8 percent shooting from the floor and 37.1 percent shooting from 3-point range in 14 playoff games.

Immediately when Rivers arrived with his new team, he knew he liked the fit.

“This is the happiest I’ve probably been in my life,” Rivers said during the season. “It feels great just to play free and not worry about a mistake or a missed shot.”

His most memorable performances in a Clippers uniform occurred in the postseason, but he had his standout moments during the regular season, as well. After missing a game with foot pain, Rivers returned Feb. 21 and scored a career-high 28 points against the Kings, going 11-of-19 from the floor and 5-of-9 from 3-point range.

Rivers scored in double digits 11 times for the Clippers during the regular season after getting traded in mid-January. Three of those double-digit scoring outputs were 20-point games, and two of those 20-point games came in March, when he averaged 8.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game for the month.

“I just love his aggressiveness on offense and his willingness to attack the ball,” Blake Griffin said during the season. “He’s a dog on the ball. He’s tough to get around.”

Rivers was a former 10th overall pick from the 2012 NBA Draft out of Duke, where he averaged 15.5 points and 3.4 rebounds per game in one season. He went to the Pelicans, where he played the first two and a half years of his career. The Pelicans declined Rivers’ fourth-year option, so to bring him back, the Clippers could only pay what that option would’ve been.

“His contract is tough for us because the whole league has an advantage, if you know the contractual part of him with the trade,” head coach Doc Rivers said immediately after the season ended. “We can only pay him a certain amount and everyone else can pay him whatever they want. I don't get how that's a rule in our league, but it is. It's funny, we brought this up in the competition committee a year ago, and now it's coming back at me; so it'll be his choice, obviously, what he wants to do.”

His choice was to stay, and the Clippers made that happen, as Austin Rivers became the latest Clippers player to re-sign with the team this offseason.