The Los Angeles Clippers announced a few days ago that they reached an agreement with free agent forward Matt Barnes. The Barnes addition adds to a revamped Clipper bench that includes Lamar Odom, Grant Hill, Jamal Crawford, Willie Green, Ronny Turiaf, and Ryan Hollins. The moves are more in line with the New York Knicks than the Brooklyn Nets or their city rivals, the Lakers, but I think it makes the Clippers a much better team. The bench is becoming a more important part of a NBA team.
Last season, the Clippers bench was a mix of solid role players and young players not quite good enough to start. The latter were Eric Bledsoe and Nick Young and the former were Kenyon Martin, Reggie Evans, and Mo Williams. The problem with this bench was that each of these players had defined specialties, and aren't all-around players. Martin and Evans were rebounders while Young, Williams, and Bledsoe were scorers. Sure they could all do other things besides their specialty, but not very well. Lamar Odom is a true all-around player as he can score, assist, and rebound very well. Grant Hill is very similar to Odom, as well. Barnes is an elite defender and a 3-point specialist. As you can see, they've added people to the bench that can help in more ways than one. They've made their bench more complete.
They have also made the team more versatile. Right now their starting five is Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups in the backcourt and Caron Butler, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan in the frontcourt. But say you are facing a team with an elite shooting guard or small forward, like LeBron, Durant, or Kobe, and you want a good defender on them. Billups is playing out of a position at the shooting guard and Caron is just a decent defender. Well, Odom, Barnes, and Hill have all started in the past. If you want a feisty defender on LeBron, Durant, or Kobe, then you can have Billups (or Caron) come off the bench and you slide Barnes into the starting lineup. Billups and Butler are veterans who would understand coming off the bench a handful of games so that the team matches up better against an opponents star player. A potential downside to this is that Bledsoe, who would suffer the most from this switch, might not be too happy seeing his minutes dramatically decrease because he is young and probably not as understanding as veterans like Billups and Caron.
Besides becoming more complete and versatile, they have added much-needed length, as well. Last year, no bench player on the Clippers was over 6-9. They were undersized in the frontcourt with Evans and Martin. Now they have Odom (6-10), Turiaf (6-10), and Hollins (7-0) in the frontcourt, which would certainly bode well when they have to face the newest Laker, Dwight Howard. They have also gotten taller at the guard position with the adds of Crawford, Green, and Barnes. Last year their back up guard was Mo Williams, who like Billups was playing out of position. With this newly acquired height, the Clippers should be better defenders.
While they didn't form a big three or four, like the Nets and Lakers, they did improve their basketball team. I think this should be enough to make Chris Paul re-sign in the offseason. Remember, he is not signing an extension this year because there is more money and years if he waits til the end of the season. Paul re-signing in L.A. was virtually a lock anyways, but adding the veterans that they did this offseason will only help the Clips retain him. It wasn't anything eye-popping, but the Clippers did keep up this offseason. Next we'll find out if they can keep up on the court.
References
http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/8378626/free-agent-matt-barnes-signs-los-angeles-clippers
http://espn.go.com/nba/team/depth/_/name/lac/los-angeles-clippers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%9312_Los_Angeles_Clippers_season#Roster
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