The deal that has been in the works for a couple of days is now somewhat official, as free agent big man Byron Mullens has agreed to a two-year deal with the Clippers, according to multiple reports.
Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles has the details:
Those averages sound somewhat inspiring, until you dig into the details.
Mullens got plenty of opportunity playing for one of the league’s worst teams, but the great majority of his shots are either long or mid-range jumpers, which he’s historically shot at a very low percentage.
As we pointed out at the time of the initial report, Mullens shot 208 three-pointers last season, and connected on just 66 of them, good for a mark of 31.7 percent. He also shot 33.3 percent 10-15 feet from the basket, and 33 percent when he was 16-23 feet out. Most troubling given these numbers is the fact that 7.5 of his 10.6 field goal attempts per game came shooting jumpers from one of these spots on the floor.
The Clippers didn’t have many other options to add quality size to come off the bench, so Mullens will have to do. Just remember these shooting numbers when people are trying to sell you on Mullens being a stretch-four or stretch-five that will greatly improve the team in some way, because historically, that hasn’t been the case.
