Should the Clippers Pursue Jeff Adrien?

As we've covered here many a time, the 2014-15 iteration of the L.A. Clippers is suboptimal when it comes to rebounding. While they've gotten better as the year has gone on (they now rank 24th in team rebounds per game after spending the first month or so as one of the two worst teams), it's still an area they need to improve if they have realistic hopes of winning anything meaningful.

That said, the correlation between team rebounding and winning isn't very strong. Four of the current top-10 in rebounding are Denver, Detroit, Indiana and Sacramento. Those teams aren't going anywhere this season. The Grizzlies, a team we often associate with toughness and grit, is barely ahead of the Clippers as of today, ranking 21st. The Hawks, who have been hotter than the sun for the last month, are just 27th in grabbing boards.

But this Clippers team is a flawed bunch, and there's little doubt the roster is in need of tweaking. Doc Rivers freed up a roster spot on Wednesday by shipping little-used guard Jared Cunningham to the 76ers in exchange for the draft rights to Serhiy Lishchuk, who may or may not be an actual person. Considering Lishchuk (who is, indeed a real human) is a 32-year-old currently playing in the Spanish league, it's safe to say he's not in the Clippers' future or current plans.

Jeff Adrien
Photo Credit - B. Wendell Jones/Flickr

A few other teams waived players in order to free up roster spots before those players' contracts became guaranteed. The most interesting (in one writer's opinion) was Minnesota deciding to part ways with forward Jeff Adrien. Adrien has kicked around quite a bit since coming out of UConn back in 2009. He's made numerous stops overseas and throughout the D-League, and has appeared in the NBA with Golden State, Houston, Charlotte, Milwaukee and Minnesota.

On the surface, Adrien looks like little more than a fringe NBA player. Given his lengthy travel history, that's exactly what he's been. But he's actually a very useful player, and the Clippers should absolutely have interest. He's undersized for a power forward (just 6'7"), but he's got some bulk at nearly 250 pounds and is surprisingly athletic.

While Adrien isn't a complete stiff offensively, the reason they'd bring him in would be for his defensive intensity and, yes, rebounding. In 17 games with the Timberwolves this season, Adrien has a rebound rate of 20.4%, which would rank second on the Clippers behind only DeAndre Jordan. If he had played in enough games to technically qualify, his rebound rate would rank 7th in the entire NBA, ahead of Dwight Howard. His defensive rebound rate is a whopping 30.8%, which would tie him with Andre Drummond and DeMarcus Cousins for No. 3 in the league. Just for good measure, his offensive rebound rate of 11.4% would tie him for 19th with Phoenix's Alex Len. Adrien is an elite rebounder.

If LAC were to pick him up, one would hope he'd replace Glen Davis in the rotation. To compare, in 30 games this season, Big Baby's grabbing just 10.5% of available rebounds. Yuck. His net rating (offensive rating minus defensive rating) is a -6.6, meaning L.A. is nearly seven points worse (per 100 possessions) than their opponents whenever he's on the floor. Adrien's net rating is exactly even, probably due in large part to Minnesota being an abysmal all-around team. Davis provides no defensive resistance whatsoever, and his offensive game has fallen off a cliff, too.

The Clippers are stuck with Davis and his contract (barring an unlikely trade) for the rest of the season, but the best use of their currently vacant roster spot may be Jeff Adrien, who seems to be the best difference-maker set to be available.