The Clippers are 12.5 games out of the playoffs with 21 games to go, all but mathematically eliminated, but all is not lost. Now is the time for evaluation and it begins tonight with the return of Gordon. Head coach Vinny Del Negro now has a lot of room to work and is free at this point in the season to mix up his lineups. He can start different players and mix and match his rotations to see what works best.
The team needs to find out who their starting center is going to be. Will Chris Kaman reclaim his job? Or are the Clippers going to hand over the reigns to DeAndre Jordan? There is a similar situation out on the wings. The Clippers are extremely athletic at the three with rookie Al-Farouq Aminu and the recently acquired Jamario Moon. Del Negro can shift both players in and out of the rotations to see which player fits best with which unit.
Even the positions that are not up for grabs will need to be closely watched. The Clippers need to see how the newly acquired Mo Williams meshes with his new teammates, in particular Gordon and Griffin. Someone is going to have to make some sacrifices. Will Williams defer to his new teammates? Or will he keep his scoring numbers up and help take some of the pressure of the young Gordon and Griffin? I don't think scoring will be an issue on this team, Griffin is the new team leader. I know he had a great season number-wise, but he isn't the type of guy who cares about that sort of thing. Griffin would instantly sacrifice his numbers to help the team win. With Griffin leading the team I see this philosophy trickling down to the rest of his teammates.
In fact Griffin would love to see some of his teammates pick up the pace. He has been seeing a lot of double and triple teams during the Clippers recent struggles. With Williams coming over and Gordon coming back, those trends will hopefully disappear. Even those games where Griffin is getting all the team attention down on the block, he keeps playing. I have never seen anyone like Griffin, he never takes time off, not a game, not a half, or even a sequence. The guy just competes at a high level every play. I've never seen any player, ever, compete the way he does. He isn't even hitting the rookie wall. The guy is so big and athletic sitting at 280 lbs that he has no wall. He has the body and the mindset to take the punishment and keep on going.
As good as he's been though, he couldn't keep the Clippers from falling apart on the road. It was nice to hear the chatter about the Clippers making a playoff push, unfortunately that thought process ended once the team took to the road in January. That's just the way it is, young teams don't play well on the road. You can't pinpoint it to one aspect either. It's the travel, the crowd is against you, planes and buses, and not getting the calls from the referees.
Winning on the road is a mindset the Clippers still need to develop. I can't think of any good young teams that have had success on the road. It's kind of like a right of passage. A young team needs to go out on the road and struggle for a bit before they can all grow up and mesh together. The Clippers will get it together eventually, they just need some time to build some confidence.
