Los Angeles Clippers: The role player that will shock the league
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Clippers are being touted as the favorites to win the NBA Championship but that does not exclude them from some surprises in 2019.
The Los Angeles Clippers are going to be a scary team to come up over the next two years, that is no surprise. Not only do the Clippers have one of the best superstar duos with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, but they are prime to be the best defensive team in the league.
The Clippers have two of the five best defensive forwards with Kawhi and George and one of the three-best defensive point guards in Patrick Beverley (if not the best). Throw in Montrezl Harrell, who is on the border between a great defender and elite defender, and the Clippers are going to be hard to score against.
Oh and let’s not forget that the team has the best bench player in the entire league in Lou Williams, something that is going to be huge during the playoffs.
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With all of this in play, it is safe to say that there won’t be that many surprises for the Los Angeles Clippers. It seems like everyone knows who is going to have what role and how impactful they are going to be.
However, there is one surprise in store as the Clippers are going to have a role player that has a much better year than expected. That role player is second-year guard, Landry Shamet.
Clipper fans know exactly who Shamet is and it may not be that surprising to the fanbase when he has a great 2019 campaign. While he is a household name for Clipper fans, he is anything but that in terms of the average NBA fan.
Shamet has everything it takes to be successful in this Clippers team and is going to get decent minutes as part of the second unit backcourt alongside Williams.
Shamet can shoot, as evident from his 42.2 (45.0 on the Clippers) three-point percentage last year. We likely will see a leap in his assists numbers as well as he will most likely be the second unit’s point guard, as the position is no longer crowded with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander traded.
Shamet is more than capable of running the offense and can even be a threat off-ball with his size and wingspan at the point guard position. Quite frankly, Shamet presents Doc Rivers the opportunity to be flexible with the second unit, something most bench guys do not really provide.
He may have played the two-guard last season but he is the perfect lengthy point guard to have in the second unit. Heck, if Shamet shows some of the facilitating ability that we saw at Wichita State then he could even work his way into some crunch-time lineups or the starting lineup.
The Los Angeles Clippers could definitely run a smaller lineup of Shamet, Beverley, George, Leonard and Harrell during crunch time if they need defense and to burn the clock.
Sure, Williams is left out of the fold, but Shamet’s size would play nicely defensively alongside Beverley and his ability to facilitate the offense would be good to draw out longer possessions.
Next. Why Montrezl Harrell is the third-most important player. dark
The most important thing about Shamet is his versatility and that versatility is going to lead to him becoming a household name on one of the league’s top contender