After NBA Twitter roasted James Harden's debut and the dust started to settle on the Clippers' loss, it was pointed out by Justin Russo that the starting lineup for the team was minus-13 in their minutes together. The Clippers ran out Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and Ivica Zubac.
Part of the reason the Clippers struggled on the offensive end was because the team was adding Harden into the lineup. The All-Star is one of the better offensive players in the league but his type of offense is extremely ball-dominant. This requires a lot of team practice for it to be incorporated into the offense.
The other issue for this lineup is the fact that they don't have a lot of good rebounders/size. This will most likely require the team to bench Russell Westbrook at some point in favor of big man that is acquired at a later point of the season.
The team could opt to put Mason Plumlee at the four spot but that would not really help with the squad spacing. Of course, the added big presence is yet to be added but the Clippers starting lineup will get better at some point. The question is when this starting lineup will get better.
How will it take for this new starting lineup to get better?
It will probably take a couple more games for this team to get used to James Harden in this offense. If the All-Star is willing to dish out the ball, then he will be the missing offensive playmaker that this team has missed for their entire run of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.
Still, the Clippers starting lineup should get better in the next two or three games as Harden gets into a groove. No matter what happens, it should be expected that the new starting lineup will be an improvement over the old one.
