National Basketball Association

LA Clippers: Doc Rivers wants defensive rebounding to improve

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

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Doc Rivers knows that one of the LA Clippers’ biggest weaknesses last season was defensive rebounding, and he wants that to change next season.

The LA Clippers couldn’t have done much better in Blake Griffin‘s 47-game absence last season. They managed to win 53 games, rank 4th in defensive efficiency and 6th in offensive efficiency, establishing themselves as an elite two-way team when health wouldn’t go there way. However, they ranked a dismal 29th in rebounding rate. It’s something that not even DeAndre Jordan‘s aerial dominance and 13.8 boards per game could change, and Doc Rivers wants the team’s defensive rebounding in particular to improve next season.

Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times reported what Doc had to say after the Clippers’ second day of training camp:

“We want our bigs going to the glass, but you have to be a good defensive rebounding team and we were not last year. We didn’t have Blake [Griffin because of injuries] and we played small a lot, so we get all that, but … I think the outside world looks at total rebounds. I don’t think any team looks at total rebounds. I think every team looks at defensive rebounding.”

Doc also referred to how playoff opponents over the last few years, such as Zach Randolph of the Memphis Grizzlies, “kicked our butts,” when referring to how his team has been out battled on the boards at times.

The Clippers improved a great deal defensively last season. They did go smaller in Griffin’s absence, but Cole Aldrich (unfortunately now in Minnesota) stepped up immensely off the bench, while Austin Rivers improved, Luc Mbah a Moute became a reliable defender outside, and Jordan and Chris Paul led the way to the team ranking 4th in defensive efficiency.

However, even better defenses ensure that their opponents don’t get second chance points after ending their first possession.

This is something Jordan said he and the rest of the team are aiming to improve:

“They said we’ve got to rebound the ball better and I was like, ‘What? I am rebounding.’ But collectively as a team we’ve got to do a better job. We give up a lot of second-chance points. It’s not just the guards. It’s the bigs too.

“There are a lot of long rebounds. We play good defense initially and then we give up offensive rebounds and they get second-chance points. We get a lot of stops. So if we can get that stop and get that rebound, we can be that much better.”

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The return of Griffin will help immediately. He was averaging 8.7 rebounds per game before his quadriceps injury on Christmas day and dominated in the 2015 playoffs to the tune of 12.7 a night, so there’s no doubt a Griffin-Jordan duo can spark some improvement.

However, whether the rest of the team can follow suit is yet to be seen. Can they live up to Doc’s intention and improve such an obvious weakness?

The loss of Aldrich is huge in this regard. Averaging 13 rebounds per 36 minutes off the bench last season, he was the interior defensive anchor that held a host of bench lineups together, and that impact will be missed.

The primary backup bigs responsible next season will be Marreese Speights at center and Brandon Bass, who can both contribute, but not to the extent of Aldrich.

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Better positioning and boxing out by some of the wings and guards would be enough to improve this weakness, though, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for how they step up as preseason approaches.

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