Now that the Los Angeles Clippers have lost their center, they will have to be forward-thinking. This isn't about 3s and 4s, in the basketball terminology; it's about going all-in on the way the NBA is headed and embracing life without a big man.
DeAndre Jordan is going to Dallas and depriving the Clippers of the 15 rebounds, two blocked shots and all-over defensive coverage he gave them every game. (Literally every game. He played all 82 the past three seasons and all 66 of the lockout-shortened season before that). There isn't a center available in the Clippers' price range who can come close to replacing that. So why bother try?
Why not emulate the shorter lineups the Warriors used in the latter half of the NBA Finals? Why not go for long stretches with a group similar to what the Clippers used in the most important five-and-a-half minutes of their season in the fourth quarter of Game 7 against the San Antonio Spurs?
The Clippers were down by five points when Jordan came out at the 5:26 mark. Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, J.J. Redick, Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes were on the court. That's 6-feet, 6-foot-10, 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-7, if you're going by the tape measure. Jordan played only a few defensive possessions in the final 13 seconds. The Clippers put up 19 points in 5 minutes, 26 seconds, including the game-winning shot by Paul with one second left. The downside: The Clippers allowed 14 points and a whopping seven offensive rebounds in that stretch.
Yes, in that instance, they sacrificed defense and rebounding. Now they don't have much choice.
In order to win, the Clippers will have to fine-tune an offense that was second in the NBA in scoring and third in 3-point shooting the past season. If they don't have their own big man on defense, they should punish the teams that do by spreading the floor on offense and using spacing to nullify the height. Free agent Paul Pierce, who will replace the departed Matt Barnes, will help in that regard.
Of the big men available via free agency or trade (Amar'e Stoudemire, Brendan Haywood and Roy Hibbert), only Hibbert averaged more than 17 minutes a game the past season. The Clippers had turned to Glen "Big Baby" Davis as a backup center by the end of the season, so the second unit played without a true big man. The team might as well ask the first unit to also do so on a regular basis.
It's not as if the Clippers have to switch from being a post-up offense; they never ran plays for Jordan anyway. But he could throw down those lobs like no one else, and the threat of his doing so often kept his defender attached to him and opened the lane when other players drove.
The Clippers, Cavaliers, Trail Blazers and Warriors each attempted about 27 3-pointers per game the past season. The Clippers might have to bump that north of 30, like the Houston Rockets did.
It will be curious to see how much the Mavericks actually feature Jordan on offense, given that's what he wanted. The past season, 69 percent of his baskets were assisted, and he just left the league leader in assists (Paul) and the leader in assists among power forwards (Griffin).
That's one of the reasons Jordan's move is a bigger loss for the Clippers than it is a gain for the Mavericks this season. Jordan's arrival, along with that of free agent Wes Matthews (coming off an Achilles tendon injury), doesn't boost the Mavericks past the Warriors, Rockets, Spurs or a restored Oklahoma City Thunder.
But it does drop the Clippers below that tier.
The Clippers' championship hopes just got smaller. If they want to resuscitate them, their lineup should get smaller on a regular basis as well.