Among the worst of last season's woes for the Clippers stemmed from their lack of supply on the bench, and the management has taken every opportunity this offseason to bolster the second unit. Blake Griffin provided his take on the team's acquisitions, including his heightened expectations for a deeper squad during the playoffs.
"It’s huge," Griffin told Clippers.com about the team's big offseason. "Our season could’ve gone very differently or our roster could look very different."
In addition to retaining DeAndre Jordan and Austin Rivers, the Clippers added Paul Pierce, Josh Smith, Lance Stephenson, Wesley Johnson, Pablo Prigioni and Cole Aldrich, while managing to squeeze Branden Dawson out of a pick-less draft.
With the Clippers burning out as quickly as they did in Game--*ack*, excuse me, Game Si--*coughcoughcough* dammit, you know the game--some help off the bench during the regular season will obviously help with the team's longevity in the postseason.
"My third season in the league, when we had that unbelievable bench, I think I dropped to like 32 minutes a game in the regular season," Griffin said. "You definitely feel fresher toward the end, but you have to find that right balance of not holding back too much, being able to give everything. Having an elite bench is going to help us tremendously, especially come playoff time."
Training camp won't start for another month, but Griffin, Jordan and Chris Paul managed to sneak in some time together during USA basketball's mini camp in Las Vegas earlier this month. Once the Clippers able to fully get together and begin training camp in late September, it'll be interesting to see if the bench can manage to take on that whole Suicide Squad persona, but heck, I'll take A Tribe Called Bench Part Deux any day.