From Deep: Kawhi Leonard returns to a Clippers team that is loaded -- maybe overloaded -- with options
CBSN
Smallball! Switching! Spacing! Shapeshifting! The Clippers are the most 2022 team imaginable
The NBA does not award a Most Versatile Team trophy. The word "optionality" is in vogue around the league, though, because playing just one way doesn't work anymore. Championship teams must win four series, which might require four drastically different rotations. Contenders want to be able to deal with zones, traps, drops, switches, size, speed, spacing and physicality.
The Los Angeles Clippers can do all of that because they have it all: superstars and super-subs, spacers and slashers, creators and connectors. They have point forwards and stretch 5s, movement shooters and downhill drivers. They have the ability to play lineups big and small, fast and slow, orthodox and oddball.
To the Clippers, flexibility is a weapon -- coach Tyronn Lue is known for playoff adjustments as much as he is for the Iverson stepover -- and it is armor. Their depth makes them less vulnerable to injuries, matchup problems and specific schemes. In the 2021 playoffs they fell down 0-2 in consecutive series, but they had countermoves.
