Doc Rivers is still trying to make things work on the basketball court with his son Austin.
After orchestrating a three-way January trade for his son with Boston and Phoenix, giving up what many thought was too high a price at the time, Doc is betting on Austin becoming the catalyst for a Los Angeles Clippers second unit that has been in the league’s bottom third this season in both points scored and allowed.
Austin has played 10 games so far for Los Angeles and he’s still trying to pick things up offensively.
“I think he’s playing well, but I don’t think you could get integrated that quickly,” Doc told SheridanHoops before Monday’s last-second loss to the Nets. “At the position he’s playing, it takes a while. He’s your point guard and you can only call a certain amount of plays because he doesn’t know half of them yet. So it’s just going to take him some time.”
With just four games separating two through six in the Western Conference standings right now, the Clippers need to win as many games as they can now to ensure they play as many postseason games as possible at the Staples Center. Right now, L.A.’s bench isn’t helping their cause very much.
Los Angeles is currently 21st in the league in bench points per game and 24th in bench points allowed, according to HoopsStats.com. Depth is going to be a huge factor in the playoffs, and it doesn’t seem like the Clips’ depth is good enough right now.
“If you look at our second unit scoring,” Austin told SheridanHoops, “it wasn’t really that…” Austin didn’t finish the sentence, but the Clips’ bench scoring hasn’t been very good.
“That was the first thing that they actually really told me was scoring,” Austin said, referring to the moment when his dad and his front office cohorts mentioned acquiring him. “Right now we have Jamal [Crawford]. All the other guys can hit shots and make plays but we need another scorer in there.”
How has Austin done in the scoring department so far since the trade from New Orleans to Los Angeles via Boston? See for yourself:
| Austin Rivers 14-15 | Games | Minutes | FG % | 3 FG % | Points | Assists | PER | O Rtg | D Rtg | WS/48 |
| Pelicans | 35 | 22.1 | 38.7 | 28 | 6.8 | 2.5 | 10.1 | 103 | 111 | 0.046 |
| Clippers | 10 | 16.8 | 41.1 | 33.3 | 5.6 | 1.7 | 9.6 | 97 | 110 | 0.024 |
In short, not so great right now. His shooting numbers are better with Los Angeles than they were earlier this season with New Orleans, which is encouraging to an extent. What is not encouraging is how his offensive rating has slipped six points with the Clippers.
Los Angeles is minus-1.4 points per 48 minutes with Rivers on the floor, not terrible considering the way the team’s bench has performed this season, but without Rivers on the court the Clippers are plus-15.2 points per 48 minutes, according to NBA.com. Off-court numbers are similarly ghastly for Clippers players who come off the bench.
Despite his defensive rating being 110, not very good, Doc is encouraged by the way Austin has performed defensively thus far with the Clips.
“Defensively I think he’s pretty close to where we need him,” Doc said. “The offensive part will just keep coming.”
“We need someone who’s going to bring energy and defend,” Austin said. “Just go out there and be grimy on defense. That’s what I do on defense.”
Doc said that his Clippers have only had two or three practices since Austin was acquired, limiting the amount of learning Austin can do away from in-game situations. In turn, second-unit sets with Austin at point guard have been limited and simplified until he can get up to speed.
“A lot of the stuff we’re running for that second group has been a lot of open-court stuff, because we haven’t had time,” Doc said.
“Offense for me has come easier here,” Austin said. “It’s more about knowing the sets, but here for our second unit I just try to keep it simple. Pick-and-rolls, get up and down because with the guys we have in the second unit it’s better. I just try to get up and down, look to score and let everything come.”
Austin said he’s working on his mid-range game, and overall abilities, with assistant coach Sam Cassell, who spent last year working on John Wall and Bradley Beal’s development with the Wizards. Austin hasn’t really taken many mid-range shots since the trade, as indicated by his overall L.A. shot chart:
Austin only took seven total mid-range shots in his 10 games with the Clippers. What he really needs to work on is his shooting in the restricted area which is nearly nine percentage points below the league average, as indicated in the chart.
“I’ve been a scorer my whole life, that’s how I got to the league,” Austin said. “I wasn’t a lottery pick because I played great defense at Duke. I was picked because I can score the ball. That’s what I’m here to do.”
Both Rivers men, Doc and Austin, father and son, have taken criticism this season. One surefire way for that criticism to stop? Austin helps spark Doc’s poor-playing bench and the Clippers make a deep playoff run. Anything short of that will ensure that Doc will take a significant amount of heat for going out of his way to acquire his underperforming son.
Shlomo Sprung is a national columnist for SheridanHoops who focuses on analytics, profiles and features. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. You should follow him on Twitter.
He is a bust … If not for his father , this guy should go to China or Italy … It would be a disaster again if they decide to bring him back …
BIG PICTURE, the kids speed is a breath of fresh air for what was a bad and only getting worse Clipper’s bench. The stats are not there yet but the kid also has far from fallen on his face. He has come up with some big plays and the trade was a lot about potential rather than anyone thinking Austin was a quick fix. The bench needs to find itself regardless of with or without Austin. Thankfully, they are not particularly short on talent (for bench players) so it is a matter of fitting A LOT better than what has been going on thus far.