Two days ago I wrote the following in a FanPost:

"The Hornets are currently owned by the league, the same group of individuals who so "vehemently" (emphasis on quotations) stick up for the small-market teams. With the rest of the NBA watching, it will be difficult for them to explain that while they have the best interests of the league in mind, they are a catalyst for forming a "Super Team" themselves if they send Chris Paul over to the Lakers. The Clippers best hope is that the league-owned Hornets mitigate this issue by trading CP3 to a pretty good team (that will rely on CP3's extension), but not a defined "Super Team" where they will unabashedly be criticized 'til kingdom come."

Well I was right. The owners got fussy and made some noise. Now that we are here, what does this mean for the Clippers? Can we get another shot at CP3? Are we ourselves considered a big market team that would get vetoed? Or is it just that the Lakers have a history of leveraging big time stars away from small market teams?

Discuss.

I'm just starting to wrap my head around the news this morning that the LAL are gunning hard for both CP3 and Dwight. Clipper Nation is also fully aware that the telephone lines in Playa Vista are working overtime for either of these game-changing talents. As far as CP3 is concerned, the NBA has kind of dug themselves into a tiny bit of a problem:

The Hornets are currently owned by the league, the same group of individuals who so "vehemently" (emphasis on quotations) stick up for the small-market teams. WIth the rest of the NBA watching, it will be difficult for them to explain that while they have the best interests of the league in mind, they are a catalyst for forming a "Super Team" themselves if they send Chris Paul over to the Lakers. At the same time though, Chris Paul won't sign an extension for just any team. What do you do if you're the league? Do you let Chris Paul walk for nothing? Or do you help aggravate the plague of the "Super Team"?

The Clippers best hope is that the league-owned Hornets mitigate this issue by trading CP3 to a pretty good team (that will rely on CP3's extension), but not a defined "Super Team" where they will unabashedly be criticized 'til kingdom come. The Clippers fit that category. Not to mention, we have same serious assets to help "rebuild" the Hornets through the draft. As far as public relations go, the Clippers might just be the best bet.

I've been watching TL's highlights and I continue to keep thinking how similar his game looks to Shannon Brown out of college. Here are the stat similarities below:

Shannon Brown: 6'3, 200 Pounds, Shooting Guard. Junior year at Michigan: 17.2 PPG, 4.4 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 2.7 assists with 2.5 TO's. 

Travis Leslie: 6'4, 205 Pounds, Shooting Guard. Junior year at Georgia: 14.4 PPG, 7.2 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 2.9 assists with 2.2 TO's

What reminds me of these two players are the explosiveness they both share, and their slightly suspect shooting for their respective positions. Both have serious athletic gifts, but they also both seem to share similar shortcomings. If this wasn't enough, a little more digging had me looking at draft express's old information on Shannon Brown. Coincidentally, Draft Express has them both likened to Tony Allen:

Shannon Brown Best Case: Tony Allen w/ Jumpshot

Travis Leslie Best Case: Tony Allen

Discuss.

This is absolutely premature, but when I saw that Harrison Barnes was coming back for another year, I realized how valuable Minnesota's 2012 draft pick is turning up to be. Three of the top 5 college prospects are coming back for another year, not to mention the influx of talent that are making the jump from high school to college, some of the notable players likely to be in the 2012 draft are as follows:

Jared Sullinger, Harrison Barnes, James McAdoo, Perry Jones, Austin Rivers (Doc's incredibly talented son), John Henson (NC's lanky project is a stud).

Now that we know what kind of pick we've got here, do you think the Clippers will try and move it to gather known commodities, or inject one more young piece to build around our already-young core?

I've seen hundreds of monikers and threads across the interwebs (and even this site alone) attempting to nick a name for BG (this is nothing new). I was reading my latest issue of SLAM last night (Rondo on the cover) and they have a contest for a gift from the SLAM vault for the person who can create the best name for Blake (the hottest man in America needs a name).

I remember when SP first penned "Blake Superior" last year and I think it's still my favorite. My only beef is that while probably the most apt (and catchy) name, it doesn't get the toughness I think a nickname for BG deserves

Half-asleep last night, I started trying to pen my own. I was trying to think of something that captured the toughness, and had some kind of alliteration going on.

Bigfoot is described in reports as a large hairy ape-like creature, ranging between 6–10 feet (2–3 m) tall, weighing in excess of 500 pounds (230 kg), and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair.

Plain-old Bigfoot Griffin: The "BG" in Big includes the letters of his name. Not to mention the fact that shoe companies would be ALL OVER a marketing campaign for basketball shoes involving the two words "BIG" and "FOOT"

Anyway, just throwing my nickname in the hat; feel free to dismiss another attempt at a nickname for our boy (I'm sure we're all tired of these threads).

Where exactly is this team? Evident from this past month's play, an argument can be made that we aren't just a meddling playoff team. Big wins over superstar squads combined with outstanding effort from our young and unpolished gunners prove the contrary. We knew EJ and BG would give us consistent production, but Del Negro seems to have won over our role players in a way that didn't look possible at the beginning of the season. With that being said, a dismal (and I mean straight TERRIBLE) road record combined with a .500 home record leaves us at the bottom of the standings.

We know the Clips came out of the gate 1-13... and playoff hopes became all but abolished. Arguments can be made that the record (and subsequent play) has been much more solid since. While true, the Clips have consistently taken on the baddest boys of the NBA (Spurs, Hornets, Heat, Lakers, etc) only to squander leads or fall apart against mediocre lottery squads or lower-ranked playoff teams. So where does this leave us? Are we bound for lottery balls and young additions to our already young arsenal? 

Couldn't help but notice our starting lineup against the Hornets is back to the very stoppable Under 23 squad we love to see so much. For the numbers guys out there, how much of our team's salary (total % the clippers are paying the players) is actually starting our games for us? I'd like to see how much money the Clippers are spending to start 3 rookies, and two dudes that (might..not sure) still be on their rookie contracts?

Gratzi

Hey Clips Nation: Since last summer I moved from Santa Monica to Oregon for the next few years to study at law school. Rich Cho (Kevin Pritchard's successor) GM of the Portland Trailblazers came to my law school today (University of Oregon) to talk about what it takes for us future attorneys to break into the sports business. Fascinating talk, here were some of the highlights:

-Rich Cho LOVES statistics. He has statistics, advanced statistics, injury statistics, trends, charts, EVERYTHING you can imagine on EVERY (and I mean every...including FA's and waived) player in the National Basketball Association. And then even more statistics on them. He uses them for everything for salary comparisons for contracts and extensions, to predictive stats (e.g where a player's going, how will they play after an injury based on compilations of previous injuries of similar positions, left or right handed, weight, height, etc. etc. etc. It was insane seeing his spreadsheets).

-Rich Cho uses a PC (not a mac)

-He is very analytical to his approach to being a GM, as opposed to ex-players and GM's with basketball backgrounds (he has no sports background...except for playing Tennis in college).

-Rich was working for the Seattle Sonics when they picked Kevin Durant after Oden. A bold person in the class asked if they would have picked Kevin if he was working with the Trailblazers instead of the Sonics. His answer? There were two number one picks in that draft, and both teams were winners. After listening to him talk, I actually am starting to believe that Greg can have a great future in the NBA.

It was a really great talk and everyone was intrigued. After it was over, I waited to talk to him. Of course I asked what he thought about the Clippers, about where we were going, and what kind of success he could envision for us.

The players he mentioned by name that he liked:

-Baron Davis

-Chris Kaman

-Eric Gordon

-Eric Bledsoe (he said he 'liked this pick')

Finally, he said the future of this team is really on Blake Griffin. He is the x-factor.

He also said he could see us sneaking into the playoffs this year, for what it was worth. I told him he made my day and he laughed.

Thought I'd share, enjoy your days till the season starts folks! I think we're all ready!

Anyone else think that we can snag one of Minny's two picks now that they have two in the lottery? In any other draft picks 5 and 6 could get you some lockdown talent, but I have a feeling that with 4 in the first round of a weak draft, one of those top two picks can be had. Dunleavy and co. have said that they were interested in grabbing another pick. Now that Foye's gone they are going to use one of their picks on a PG, but what do we have of most value to the Wolves as a bargaining chip to get another lottery choice (without losing our #1)

Does anyone else get the vibe that the person who will benefit the most with Griff coming to LA (maybe besides Kaman) is Mike Taylor? I have this gut feeling that with all the talent surrounded by him (and with the focus being on all the weapons on the floor) he'll be able to come into his own and begin showing cap potential on the incredible athleticism that he has, a la Rajon Rondo 2007-2008 when he became surrounded by the Big 3. 

Although the reigns are clearly still Baron's, it's possible with the minutes he's given we might see our young gun break out, especially with the time he spends with Eric and Blake in the summer league.

When I walked out of my leased college house this morning in sunny Tucson, I decided it was time for my car to get its semi-annual wash; the paint looked dull and dirty, the windshield was grimy, and the wheels looked like I had been taking my Accord out for off roading sessions in between my drives to work. I headed to my local car wash about five minutes from the University of Arizona.

Anyway, as my car's getting washed I look to the right of me and there stands Arizona basketball legend (and ex-LA Clipper) Hassan Adams in all his glory. I'm wearing a 2001 Final Four Arizona basketball shirt (a couple years before Hassan's AZ days) and when I go over to the guys drying off my car one of them says to me, "Hey did you see Sauce over there?" to which I replied, "Yeah does he come here often?" The dude smiled and said that he did. He then asked if I wanted to meet him, to which I replied, "Uh, hell yeah?"

Two minutes later Hassan comes over to me smiling and I give him the, "Whattup dawg?" We start chit chatting about his career, and he told me he was in town working out with some of the new Sean Miller recruits and hooking up with old friends and family. I asked him if he was gonna make a play for the league again, and he said he was. I told him I was a clipper fan from LA and hoped when he joined that he would have stuck around, but alas he said, it wasn't meant to be. One of the car wash dudes pulled out a magic marker and asked Hassan to sign my shirt, to which I gladly did not object.

He was an overall good guy who looked like he's packed on some muscle since his days in Arizona. Hope he gets another shot somewhere, the man could play some serious hoops back in the day, though his jumper was always a little suspect for a SG. Great intensity player though, he was beloved in AZ.

Anyway I thought this was a neat little story to share with the nation since the last team he played for was us before he got waived. Hope everyone's well. Four days 'till lottery!

I've been reading Clips Nation for a few months now, and just made my account this afternoon. I'm graduating the University of Arizona in two weeks so I figured I might as well make an account and start chatting with ya'll because I'll have more free time. 

I was just curious if anyone went to the clipper game during the team's first season at staples (1999-2000) where a ballboy tripped Del Curry of the Toronto Raptors. I was one of the ball boys that season, and he stepped on my broom after tiny Bogues stole the ball from Derek Anderson and Curry trailed him after the layup. I've never seen a basketball player so mad at a little kid. He cussed me out for about ten seconds before he went back down the court. Anyways, I got fired after that season.

Keep up the good work CN