5 NBA teams that need a New Year’s Resolution
By Jared Wade
The Clippers, Celtics, Wizards, Pacers, and Grizzlies all have some self-improvement to do in 2016.
We all want to be better in 2016. For many, that means a better diet or more trips to the gym. But what can a squad of professional athletes who already go to work in a gym everyday pledge to improve?
For most, it is simply running their game plans better, improving their shot selection, committing to play better defense, and cutting down on mistakes.
But several teams need to look at some of their fatal flaws and change their approach. After pouring through some statistics, we’ve found these five NBA teams that could be a whole lot better next year if they would just fix one of their biggest blemishes.
Los Angeles Clippers Must: Rebound Better
Only three teams in the NBA rebound worse on the defensive glass than the Los Angeles Clippers, per NBA.com, and this is a huge plunge from last season when they finished 9th in the league. They were particularly bad in recent defeats to the Houston Rockets, when they gave up 13 offensive boards, and the Spurs, when they gave up 17 second-chance points.
The Clippers continue to look like a pseudo contender that cannot get signature, marquee wins that show they are much more than a talented collective that can win on skill alone. And until they get back to their grittier rebounding ways, this is unlikely to change.
Their falloff from last season also goes to show that team rebounding and individual rebounding are not always tied together.
DeAndre Jordan is second in the NBA with 13.2 rebounds per game while Blake Griffin is averaging 8.7 per game, a jump over last year. But the team at large is not managing to win the battle of the boards often enough, and this will continue to hamstring them in big games unless they can clean up their strategy to control the glass.
Next: Boston Celtics