National Basketball Association

LA Clippers: Breaking down L.A.'s new scoring tool

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

The LA Clippers have added a new feature to their offense involving their post play and weak-side action to create more movement and easy scoring opportunities.

The LA Clippers have a great post option in Blake Griffin, and this preseason they have been posting up DeAndre Jordan more than usually in the post, too. As both players have been banging away on one side, the Clippers have been running an interesting weak-side post action that requires the guards to make reads and smart cuts. This new action is actually a wrinkle to a common action, but can yield results for the Clippers.

It begins with the ball being swung from side to side and entered into the post. The most common action on the weakside in the NBA is that a double staggered screen will be set to bring a shooter from the weak-side corner to the top of the key, hopefully resulting in an open look.

When the Clippers ran this action against the Toronto Raptors, Jordan entered the ball into the post to Griffin from the top of the key. Austin Rivers is in the weakside corner and Chris Paul is coming down to set the first screen. As Rivers comes off the first screen, the Raptor defender is not paying attention because he assumes Jordan is coming to set a second screen. Instead, Rivers darts to the basket and Griffin shows off his passing skills, hitting Rivers with an overhead pass to create an and-one.

When the Clippers ran this action against the Sacramento Kings, the ball was entered in the post to Jordan and the Clippers went to work.

In the next clip, J.J. Redick is in the weakside corner waiting to be the recipient of a double staggered screen from Paul (the first screener) and the Griffin (the second screener). As Redick comes off the first screen he immediately rejects the screen from Griffin and cuts to the rim, but Jordan is unable to make the pass in traffic.

Paul has two options: he can take the screen Redick just rejected or he can screen for Griffin, which he does here. Jordan finds Griffin who misses a wide-open jumper.

The LA Clippers’ new weak-side action has many options that they haven’t even shown yet.

The shooter can always go off the double stagger, he can curl the second screen to get to the rim and allow the first screener to come off the second screen. The first screener can also flash to the rim if there’s an opening to do so.

The most important feature of this new wrinkle is that it follows more along the lines of the Clippers not only looking for more ball movement, but also player movement.

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This will generate a few easy looks a game, whether it’s a jump shot or an attempt at the rim, and having Griffin’s passing return only makes matters better.