When the Clippers opened their season, Patrick Beverley grabbed all the headlines for his defense and intimidation of Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball. But the Clippers actually employ a two-tiered point guard with the departure of Chris Paul.

The more intriguing option is Milos Teodosic, a lifetime European player who’s a “rookie” at age 30 and already displaying some nifty passing to teammates he barely knows. Teodosic isn’t a solid outside shooter but he has as much if not more range than Beverley, so the platooning is working.

Michael Lee of Yahoo provides more on the CP3 replacement:

Milos Teodosic won’t engage in ranking his best works of art. Teodosic is a Serbian basketball legend who has made passing his canvas and wowed audiences from across the globe — in international competitions, in every country in Europe — with his creativity, flare and fearlessness. He’s been making zany, unconscionable passes “from my second day of playing basketball,” he said, and never sat down to chart every bounce pass between an opponent’s legs, sidearm curveball from halfcourt that caught someone in stride or no-look that made defenses spin in search of the ball while it’s being laid in the hoop.

Plus, he’d rather not look back when there are still so many new and exciting ways to deliver the ball that he’d rather explore what’s next than what’s already been done. Before a recent practice at the Los Angeles Clippers’ training facility, Teodosic asked an inquisitor to tell him, “Which pass do you like the most?” Teodosic’s response to the answer revealed another side of how he views his purpose with those passes: to get buckets for his teammates.

While playing the United States in the preliminary round of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Teodosic pulled off easily the most-discussed pass of the tournament, when he came around a screen from Nikola Jokic to split Paul George and Kevin Durant, dipped into the lane where he froze Carmelo Anthony, then left his feet and got Draymond Green to leave his feet to contest a layup. While everyone in the arena was staring at the rim, Teodosic had his eyes locked elsewhere and whipped an over-the-shoulder, behind-the-back pass to a wide-open Bogdan Bogdanovic at the 3-point line. Reminded of that delectable dish, Teodosic shook his head.

Clippers executive vice president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said the Clippers used footage of Teodosic’s passing during their free-agent meeting with Griffin. Amazed by what he saw, Frank said Griffin asked, “You think you can get him?” To which Frank replied, “We’re going to go all out to get him.”