With one franchise stud already in place, the Boston Celtics managed to secure both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen
in the summer of 2007, all for the price of lottery pick Jeff Green,
some expiring contracts, and Al Jefferson. It was a stunning haul that
immediately established Boston’s “Big Three,” which later led the team
to the championship in 2008.
The coach of that squad was Doc Rivers, who is entering his first year running the Los Angeles Clippers
from the sideline. Though most observers would easily sign off on
giving the Clippers their own “Big Three” while including Rivers’
established and well-regarded acumen alongside point guard Chris Paul and forward Blake Griffin, the Clippers coach would prefer that an actual active player take his place in that triptych.All while setting the sky as the limit for a Clippers team that hasn’t even played its first exhibition game yet. From ESPN Los Angeles’s Arash Markazi:
"They should be better than any team I've ever coached, I really believe that," Rivers said. "They're more athletic. They don't have the veteran IQ but they should be in that area. We have a couple of individual defenders that can be dominating on defense. We have great speed but we don't have the size in some ways as some of the teams I've coached."
[…]
"That's our big three, I like our big three," Rivers said. "I like what DeAndre [Jordan] gives us. He gives us something a lot of the guys in the league can't do. He can block shots, he can run the floor, he can defend, he's talking and he's in the best shape of his career. He's doing a lot of great things for us."
Rivers said he expects Jordan to be in the running for defensive player of the year this season and has spent the first two days of the Clippers' training camp in San Diego focusing on defense. Rivers expects the Clippers to be one of the best defensive teams in the league this season.Sure, it’s true that DeAndre Jordan “can defend,” as Rivers states, but years of NBA evidence points to clip after clip of DeAndre working as a terribly limited defender in spite of all the shots he sends back. Jordan and Blake Griffin’s pick and roll and help defense needs serious help, but with a consistent defensive philosophy in place (something that former Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro was criticized for being unable to cobble together during stops in Chicago and Los Angeles), the Clippers are hoping to turn that around. This is why most consider Doc Rivers one of the more significant acquisitions of the 2013 offseason.
Beyond that, it’s hard to quibble with the idea of Rivers comparing his Los Angeles and Boston teams. Despite that the idea of a Clippers “B** Th***” likely sounds like an expletive to Celtics fans who watched their Big Three return a downtrodden franchise back to the glory days.
Yes, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen
had 21 All-Star appearances and one MVP award to their combined credit
when they hooked up prior to the 2007-08 season, and it’s true that even
in a best case scenario Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan
won’t end up with anywhere near the total accolades that Boston’s Big
Three eventually will, but this triptych could top the team in one
category: NBA championship rings.
