When your two best players are two of the very best in the world, how good does your third guy have to be?
In the case of the Los Angeles Clippers, their third best player, more than likely, is Lou Williams. Perhaps reserve big man Montrezl Harrell makes more of an overall impact on the game, but on the offensive end - the pertinent one from the point of view of this discussion - it is clearly Williams.
A three-time winner of the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award, including both of the last two, Williams has long been a scoring sensation, the only three-time winner of the award other than the man he replaced in Los Angeles, Jamal Crawford, and a player who over the last 10 seasons has been an extremely productive microwave type off the bench. A game-changer, even.
There are, however, more seasons than that on the clock. Having joined the NBA straight out of high school in the final year that was allowed, Williams is now playing his 15th NBA season, and while his 19.4 points per game average on the season is still the third-highest output of his career (behind only his most recent two years) and the 6.3 assists per game that he is passing for per game is a career-high, longevity concerns and an exploration as to his potential fit alongside the superstar duo of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are both fair.
There are lots of players that do their own work in Williams' style. Jordan Clarkson, for example, a player who just got traded by the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Utah Jazz, who in turn are hoping he can plug the Mike Conley-sized gap as an offensive-minded guard and propel them back towards the competitive top half of the Western Conference.
But doing things in a style akin to Lou Will is not the same as doing it like he does; the competition can maybe do what he does every now and then but when it comes to the question of degree, Williams outstrips them. Therefore, when he slumps, as he has done for the last month, the Clippers feel that pain.
Notwithstanding some slight subjectivity, if we look at the third-leading scorers of all the recent NBA champions, we almost always see players of some quality. Pascal Siakam; Klay Thompson; Kevin Love; Kawhi Leonard, before he became what he is now; Chris Bosh. This is the three-star, 'superteam' era, and the path to title glory invariably seems to involve meeting that simple yet nigh-on-impossible barometer.
Is Williams as an individual that calibre of player? Yes, mostly, and in some cases, clearly better. But when an innate streakiness in his decision-making combines with his relatively advanced age, concerns about where he will be at come the all-important end of the season can be raised.
Even with the excellence of Leonard and George, Williams is the one who creates off the dribble from the guard spots. With his ability to isolate and score from the mid-range areas like Michael Jordan in his prime, Leonard has grown hugely as an offensive creator and finisher and was the go-to guy on a title-winning team last season. George meanwhile has become one of the world's best shooters and an excellent all-round shot maker.
Neither however is a natural passer off their own scoring threat, at least when not judged by the standards of potentially being a go-to offensive player on an NBA title contender. Given his tendency to throw overly ambitious passes, though, neither is Williams. As individuals, the trio are brilliant. As a sum of their parts, slightly less so.
What the Clippers have is a wonderful combination of ancillary parts around the Kawhi and PG duo, when things are going well. Harrell runs the court, dunks everything, scores better in and around the paint with each passing season and commits defensively. Ivica Zubac is a decent shot blocker, finisher and rebounder, the one true conventional five man on the team. Patrick Beverley plays defense like few others and scores a few himself. Landry Shamet has become one of the best shooters around. Et cetera, et cetera.
In very short order, the Clippers have been able not only to acquire the two superstar talents around which a title bid can be formed, but have also put together most of the pieces to work with that pair. Indeed, somehow, they assembled most of the role players before even having the stars.
When things are not humming along, though, Williams might not have the ability to paper over the cracks that he once did. Each of he, George and Leonard spend quite a lot of time in isolation, and when all three of them are doing it, then, despite their tremendous talents, offensive efficiency can fall by the wayside.
Per Synergy Sports, Williams operates as the pick-and-roll ball-handler for 51.3 per cent of his time on the court, alongside 6.7 per cent of the time operating in isolation. The differences between the two can often be subtle in a ball-handling guard and thus are slightly subjective, yet the two in tandem tell an accurate story of how Williams plays the game. He catches the ball outside the arc, calls for a screen and then tries to go to work, be it in going all the way to the basket or taking a favoured pull-up jumper.
Always aggressive, Williams can score from anywhere, and while he has never sought to become the high-volume, high-efficiency three-point shooter that many of his peers in the modern day are, his ability and endless desire to create and make his own shots means he has to be defended in always from all areas.
All of that, though, involves him having the ball in his hands. If he does, Leonard and George do not.
The same numbers from Synergy highlight that Leonard spends. 34.2 per cent of his time as the pick-and-roll ball-handler himself, alongside 14.3 per cent in isolation, his two most common play types.
Meanwhile, while shooting considerably more off screens (17.2 per cent) than the others, George is primarily wanting to be a pick-and-roll ball handler himself, spending 29.6 per cent of his time doing so. If all three are wanting to operate in much the same areas, then the sometimes problematic disruptions in the flow of a Clippers' offense that can already be prone to bogging down, becoming isolation-heavy and committing sloppy turnovers become exacerbated.
With 271.6 of them a game, the Clippers throw the fifth-fewest passes per night in the league, even with the quality of their offensive players. They play better when the ball moves more regularly, taking advantage of the rolling of Harrell, the spacing of Shamet and the depth at every position.
When it becomes too isolation-centric, however, they fail to achieve their elite potential. And as the committer of the most egregious of the turnovers (particularly the propensity for throwing passes to nobody) while also being a poor individual defender, Williams can look particularly out of place.
His shooting slump will end. The sub-40 per cent shooting and minus-10 net racing that Williams has posted in December, dropping from 22.1 points a game in November down to 14.5, is an anomaly and not the norm. The Clippers have also spent hardly any time together at full strength, due in part to Leonard's load management but mostly due to George's absence in the early part of the season as he recovered from double shoulder surgery.
The fact Williams' slump dovetails relatively closely with the timing of George's mid-November return, however, presents valid questions as to the compatibility of those two in particular.
The Clippers have blown many double-digit leads so far this season. They have three scoring hubs, but not a playmaking hub outside of having talented individual scorers. If at full health, fully committed on defense and with all the important players playing with in rhythm, this Clippers team is acutely well-constructed.
But without that, Williams can look exposed, as can the otherwise vaunted depth. Kawhi, for all his growth and ascension to true superstardom, needed Kyle Lowry last season. Williams, although he is the closest thing the team has to it, is not that type.
How good does your third player have to be? Very good, with some allowances made for flaws. Williams is very good, and he is flawed. He is a 33-year-old in his 15th NBA season, who has racked up even more miles than he has plaudits, and whose feast-or-famine style can lead to prolonged slumps. Exactly like it just did.
In a perfect speedbump-free journey to the title, that is not a problem. But since no such trouble-free paths exist, maybe one more rotation-calibre guard and secure ball-handler would not go amiss for the Clippers.