While many commentators praise the L.A. Clippers’ offseason acquisitions, it’s difficult to understand why. How could anyone believe that the team improved through the additions of Paul Pierce, Josh Smith, and Lance Stephenson? Yikes! The Clippers will be disappointingly worse this year.
While Pierce is a certain future Hall of Famer, that future is not too distant. He is not the player he used to be, which is normal. Thinking he can be a full contributor on the court is not normal. Paul has lost quite a few steps, quite a few springs in his hop, and quite a few parts of the gyroscope that guided him though his once-outstanding lateral moves. He has not lost his spirit and his undeniable value as a teammate and mentor, so he’s worth having on the team for those intangibles. But he doesn’t make the Clippers a better team when he’s on the court.
Josh Smith will disappoint, as, sadly, he usually has. He played very well for Houston in the playoffs last year, but that was a rare short sample in a run of recent seasons where to call him inconsistent would be polite. He’s a fine athlete and probably a great guy, but his decision making has always called into question his basketball IQ. In short, he’ll dazzle with short bursts of virtuosity that will only leave the Clippers scratching their heads through the longer episodes of erratic play detrimental to victory. Josh Smith does not make the Clippers a better team; in fact, he has the potential to make them a much worse team.
Lance Stephenson doesn’t make any team better, and the last team that needed an infusion of Lance is the Clippers. It’s not like they don’t have enough quirkiness or personality. Even for the very short time that Lance was considered a top tier player (2013-2014 with Pacers), his antics on the court were sometimes hard to fathom—and forgive. He’s a bit more than eccentric or odd, and he’s not that good of an NBA player, so where is the upside to having him on the team?
The Clippers were a top-notch team last year. Maybe they thought they needed something extra to push them up to toppest-notch. These players aren’t that something.