National Basketball Association

LA Clippers may play Austin Rivers more at small forward

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

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The LA Clippers have some depth and versatility at their disposal, and that includes using Austin Rivers at small forward more often.

Austin Rivers at small forward? It’s hardly something you’d expect to see, what with Rivers being a 6’4″ guard and not quite matching up with the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Kawhi Leonard or LeBron James. That still won’t be be the case, and the LA Clippers and Austin’s father, head coach Doc Rivers, never intend it to be.

However, using Rivers at small forward is something they intend to do more often after starting him at the three in their last preseason game against the Toronto Raptors.

Dan Woike of the Orange County Register reported a comment from Austin:

“It’s not like the 90’s where they had all these heavy-set wings where guards couldn’t really guard them. Now, everybody’s face-up. Everybody’s running up and down, shooting 3’s. Threes (small forwards) are like Chandler Parsons, Andre Iguodala – slashers. I can guard those types of wings because they’re not heavy-set post-up players.”

Rivers also said that he’s going to be playing more one-on-one with Blake Griffin in practice to get more used to guarding stronger, taller opponents. At the same time, Griffin gets practice defending quick guards.

Last season, Rivers spent most of his time between point guard and shooting guard, spending only seven percent of his minutes at small forward in Doc’s three-guard lineups (per Basketball Reference).

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As the younger Rivers said, though, the NBA is getting smaller and not all small forwards will be powering past him in the post. Against opponents looking for more of their offense outside, Rivers showed he can defend them with his breakout defensive performance last season, and clearly the Clippers want to use that more heading into 2016-17.

Doc commented on the idea of using Austin more at small forward, and said speed offers a real advantage to defend drives, as Austin did so well last season:

“A lot of guys are out at the 3-point line. And a lot of them have the advantage off the dribble. Even the bigger threes who are athletic and can handle the ball, their advantage is a three guarding them. They have a dribble advantage, too, and quickness. But when you put a smaller guy, you take the dribble advantage away and then you turn them into post players, which is still just two points. So, there’s some benefit to it. You can’t do it every night, obviously. It’s nice to make it very hard to do.”

The preseason is a chance for the Clippers to try this out. Against the Raptors, Chris Paul started in the backcourt alongside Raymond Felton with Rivers at small forward, and the new starting lineup played well. As Doc said, Austin can’t be overused at the three, but against the right opponent, he can offer more speed and defense.

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The LA Clippers continue their preseason on Monday night (10:30 PM ET) against the Utah Jazz at Staples Center.

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