The Clippers are my pick to win the West

It's a whole new offense with James Harden

BY DAVID THORPE

The pick-and-roll has taken the Clippers’ offense to new heights. RICH SCHULTZ/GETTY IMAGES

It’s been five years since James Harden set the league on fire. Over that time, he has hopped from the Rockets to the Nets to the 76ers. So it didn’t strike me as earth-shattering when he moved to his fifth team, the LA Clippers. 

But that changed a little in November, when I heard Harden was staying after practice with center Ivica Zubac, a skilled screener and crafty finisher, I remember thinking: That’s interesting. I brought it up on the TrueHoop podcast that day.

With Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the Clippers have always been an excellent jump-shooting squad, but they never did a great job of creating easy opportunities for each other. A lot of their plays are simple isolations. If you thought of Harden as another star, he might help. (In the early going, the Clippers had the league’s 24th-best offense, and the story of scoring was all about the run-and-gun Pacers or the dominant Celtics.)

But if you thought of Harden and Zubac after practice as a method to activate a fourth scorer—Zubac—then, well, that activated my coaching imagination. When a player pulls defenders to him, they call it gravity. 

Harden is a Picasso of gravity. 

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A few months later, though, wow. Harden and Zubac have unleashed the Clippers’ full spectrum of gravitational forces with the magic of pick-and-roll. Defenses designed to stop Kawhi and George in isolation freeze as those All-Stars stand in the corners, Harden dances around a screen, and Zubac rolls to the rim.

The Clippers still lead the league in isolation frequency and hover near the top of the league in pull-up shooting, but what’s new is that now they rank as one of the most potent offenses off the pick-and-roll. It works.

This season has been about scoring—with such big point totals there’s talk of an intervention or a rule change. And since December 1, the methodical Clippers, 21nd in pace this season, have been near the top of the league in offensive efficiency and wins. In November, the Clippers had the league’s 24th-most efficient offense as they figured out how to play together. In the month of January, their offense was literally the best in the league. The Clippers’ pick-and-roll has become one of the NBA’s most formidable weapons. It’s not only a way for Harden and Zubac to score, but a way to activate everyone on the court, to score when Kawhi and George sit, and—looking ahead—a way to get a bucket when the defense gets serious in the playoffs. 

Yes, the Clippers (minus George and Zubac) just lost a big game to the Lakers—meaning they have now dropped five of their last eight. Nevertheless, they’re still my pick to win the West. 

Let’s dive into some film and explore how the pick-and-roll makes the Clippers a real championship threat. 

Timing and finishing

When we talk about “stretching the court,” everyone thinks about 3-point shooting, which stretches outward. But you can’t stretch a rubber band from just one end: Something has to be stretching to the rim, too. 

The trick is getting to the rim—and the key to that trick is timing.