The Hidden Genius of the Clippers Offense

The Hidden Genius of the Clippers Offense

James Harden kawii Leonard and Paul George are all having the most efficient seasons of their careers yet none of them are averaging ridiculous scoring numbers and they look like a well-oiled machine on the offensive side of the ball as opposed to a team packed full of stars that doesn’t actually have any

Concrete approach this is arguably the most refined offense that we’ve seen from a team that’s put multiple high-scoring stars on the same roster to the point that it’s become borderline Unstoppable the Clippers have been the second best offense in the NBA over the last 15 games putting up

124.80 per 100 possessions and 112.8 points per 100 possessions in the half court before we can truly understand why the Clippers offense has become such a well-oiled machine Let’s examine the backbone of their offense the good old James Harden pick and roll They Don’t Really spam it quite as often as you

Might think but it’s available to them at any time when he’s on the floor not only is James Harden having a career year and efficiency overall but he’s also shooting 40 37.4% from the field in the pick and roll and 46.9% from three as the pick and roll ball handler at the

Start of this possession Kawai is going to come and ghost this screen on aogi for Harden and you can actually see Kevin Durant call out the switch now Kawai is going to pull aogi with him away from the action while Daniel Ty comes up to screen for Harden by having

Kawai ghost that initial screen to get aogi off of Harden it made Kevin Durant have to match up and guard Harden and Kevin Durant’s not a bad Defender but he’s not as strong a screen Navigator as a kogi which is the important thing and so it allows Harden to get KD stuck on

The screen behind the play and it leaves Drew U banks in a drop in a two-on-one situation and the weak help from aogi doesn’t really do anything to stop Harden from getting what he wants at The Rim now on this pick and roll the Suns actually do a pretty good job defending

It by blitzing with nkit which forces the Clippers to have to reset but zubot is going to set this flat screen making it a little bit difficult for Booker to know which direction Harden’s going to go and once he gets Booker stuck behind him and nurkic is in a two-on-one Harden

Makes the pocket pass now the wrinkle here is that Grayson Allen sinks in from the corner but all that really does is leave teren man wide open in the corner for the shot now let’s look at this one where Harden does the same thing making

The pocket pass to zubot on the roll and then finding Powell in the corner Grayson Allen here does a good job closing out and preventing the initial three-point shot but all Norm pal does is take a dribble right into a mid-range pull up with zero contest on this play

The important thing to notice is the chemistry that Harden and zubot have clearly developed in the pick and roll they’re going to look like they’re setting up for a standard pick and roll but Harden makes one cross and zubot knows to just skip the screen entirely and start rolling since Harden has nkit

Duck in a drop with nurkic more focused on Harden zubot is going to slip right past him to get an easy finish off of the lob this last pick and roll that we’re going to look at the Suns actually defended pretty well aogi funnels Harden

Into the drop Allen sinks in to help on zubot if Harden passes and nurkic has a good angle to cover anything inside the paint the only problem is Gordon sinks off of the strong side corner which leaves teren man open one pass away and it turns what could have possibly been a

Two-point play into an easy three for the Clippers James Harden has the maximum amount of space available to work with as the pick and roll ball handler because if you help off of any guys like kawh Leonard or Paul George it’s going to be punished since Harden’s

Going to have zero issue finding them when the defense sags off additionally Harden is having one of the best off ball seasons of his career allowing Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to operate as the pick and roll ball handler on occasion as well creating all sorts of

Issues for the defense trying to know when they need to help and when they need to stay home on their shooter you can see on this play from the Raptors game Harden’s bringing the ball up the floor and kawhi’s going to call for the ball to get the post up and the second

That Harden makes that pass Scotty Barnes is going to go trap and I get what the Raptors are doing trying to get someone like Kawai to have to pass out of double teams and make quick decisions but it resulted in James Harden getting a completely wideopen look from three on

This play kawhai is going to drive on the close out and it’s going to force Tim Hardway Junior to come in and provide that help and Bones Highland is going to pull out to the top of the key and notice James Harden flaring out to

The weak side of the floor and the off ball movement gets hard in a wide open look from three what is a defense supposed to do when James Harden Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are all shooting 43% or higher from three off the catch at that point sagging off of

Any of them is going to be punished on this possession against the Knicks we see them actually use Harden as the screener for Terence man with Randall on kawhai Barrett on Paul George and Sims on zubot man gets into space on the drive to get to the rim and Sims is

Going to slide over to contest but man dumps it off to zubats for the slam since Randall couldn’t really risk helping off of kawhai in the corner here with Paul George as the ball handler It’s Quickly in Grimes covering pal and Harden on the weak side with Brunson on

Man on the other side of the floor you don’t really want to leave Harden or Pal open on the Wing but they need somebody to slide over to help if Ty gets the ball in the roll so it’s going to be Brunson that sinks in and it leaves

Teren man wide open to get the pass and attack the close out so that he can get to his spot and get the shot to fall the defense ends up having to just pick their poison on who they want to leave open and live with the results so we

Know that a team with James Harden and competent Rim running big men is going to be good at pick and rolls it’s tried and true we’ve seen it for years now but what’s interesting is that while we can see that they’re one of the most efficient pick and roll teams in the NBA

They’re actually towards the bottom of the league in pick and roll possessions per game and that’s because their offense is a lot more diverse than that let’s start digging into some of the other major pieces of the Clippers offense starting with this play called motion strong motion strong is great if

You have guys who can shoot coming off of pin Downs or guys who can curl off of screens to attack the basket and it also does a good job of creating mismatches let’s see it in action here Paul George and zubot set the staggered screens and Allen who is ini initially on Paul

George is now on man and Booker is now on Paul George once man curls off of the screen then Paul George is going to get a pin down from zubot and with man’s curl keeping nurkic from closing out Paul George is going to get a wide open

Look off of the pin down in this variation Paul George is going to get the staggered screens from man and zubot but instead of getting the pass he’s going to curl and zubot is going to set the screen for Harden Grayson Allen is going to overplay the screen to try and

Force him to reject it but with gets dropped Harden’s going to capitalize on the free space with an open three now this time it’s Westbrook bringing the ball up and Kawai is the offscreen cutter he comes up to get the ball but KD fights through to close out on him

And prevent the shot and once the action’s over Paul George is going to move to the weak side of the floor with Westbrook and when they cross paths with one another it creates some confusion between Booker Gordon and Allen not really knowing who they’re supposed to be covering leaving Westbrook open to

Cut to the strongside dunker spot Allen is going to come to guard him and Westbrook is going to post up and back him down until nurkic overh helps just a little bit and then Westbrook just dumps it off to zubot for the finish on this one from their game against the Pelicans

They’re going to do things a little bit differently looking like they’re going to run motion strong for Paul George but instead Kawai is going to flip and get a screen from zubot so he can get the ball flowing into the pick and roll now there

Are two things to note on this one CJ McCullum digging at the nail off of Harden leaving him open up top and then the rooll by zubot is going to cause Zion to sink way off of the corner and it leaves man completely open for an easy catch and shoot three another set

That you’re going to see the Clippers run constantly is the double drag also known as 77 it’s two staggered screens usually early in a possession and it does a good job of generating advantages if the team has poor screen Navigators or weak off ball Defenders the Clippers

Get into it on this possession insanely high in the half court forcing CJ McCullum to have to navigate back to harden but it keeps Zion away from the paint and it gets valent Tunis backpedaling trying to keep Harden away from the basket and it’s going to leave

The pass to zubot open and he’s going to slam it down off the roll on this possession the Clippers start with a stack out with Paul George getting this down screen from zubot at the elbow to get the ball from Harden and then the fun part is that from there the Clippers

Are going to roll into the 77 with Harden as the first screener and the ensuing chaos generates enough space for Paul George to come off the screens so that he can get a good look from three so at the beginning of the last possession I mentioned something called

Stack out on this possession Dyson Daniels is going to be top locking Kawai because he’s expecting that pin down at the elbow so instead of coming up to get the pass or trying to fight through the defense kaai just slips it and goes to the basket leaving the pass over the top

For him to get it near the basket and he can capitalize on the opportunity all of this isn’t to say that the Clippers are bad in isolation and that they don’t do it at all as a matter of fact they’re the most isolation heavy team in the NBA

Right now but they’re also one of the best isolation teams in the NBA that’s what really makes them such a nightmare of a team to defend these guys are hard enough to guard as it is when defending them one-on-one but now tyo has them playing a diverse offense full of off

Ball movement and halfcourt sets that maximize the strengths of their star players their isolation attempts are usually a direct result of the actions that they executed earlier giving them a favorable mismatch or they’re a last resort when a possession breaks down most of the time Jam a bunch of star

Players together and expecting them to take turns cooking over and over doesn’t really work but the big difference now is how the Clippers are playing within an unselfish system that allows guys to not have to work nearly as hard to get easy looks and put numbers on the board

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The Los Angeles Clippers have been one of the most dominant teams in the NBA when they’ve had Kawhi Leonard healthy and in the lineup alongside James Harden and Paul George. Despite questions about whether or not teams constructed with three seemingly “ball-dominant” players can word, the LA Clippers offense is firing on all cylinders and dominating teams on a nightly basis.

James Harden is having one of the best off-ball seasons of his entire career on the offensive end, and the trio of James Harden, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard are all having career-high years in terms of catch and shoot efficiency. This isn’t by accident; it’s intentional. Ty Lue has orchestrated a masterful offense for the Los Angeles Clippers around this group of guys, and it’s make the James Harden trade look genius.

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