SBNation.com User Blog: Vobre

Mike Dunleavy was the only other Lakers' coaching candidate. Oh sweet FSM, why couldn't that have happened!?

Vobre — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:29:53 -0000

Mike Dunleavy was the only other Lakers' coaching candidate. Oh sweet FSM, why couldn't that have happened!?

How wonderful would our schadenfreude be if the Lakers had hired Dunleavy?

JR Smith: Wonder what I would look like wit a clips jersey on? Someone twit pic it on 2k11

Vobre — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:46:27 -0000

JR Smith: Wonder what I would look like wit a clips jersey on? Someone twit pic it on 2k11

The Tweet
The Pic

How about Kaman to the Warriors?

Vobre — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:05:39 -0000

The Warriors need a center, right? It looks like they're not quite dumb enough to overpay DJ so much that he signs with them instead of the Clippers. (I mean, are they really ready to pay a guy who averaged 7/7 with a 14.8 PER $11-12M/yr? Wouldn't they rather pay someone else that kind of money?) But their options at center are running thin: Tyson Chandler has signed with the Knicks, Marc Gasol looks like he'll be going to Houston for a near max deal (and never seemed to be on their radar). Nene's going to be ridiculously overpaid wherever he goes, which is probably Denver (or NJ). Dwight Howard's not coming either.

So after those big guys land somewhere outside of the Bay Area, the Warriors are not going to have a lot of options to fill the hole at center. Hey! If the Clippers keep DJ, won't they be looking to trade Kaman? Would the Warriors want him? Does Golden State have anything of similar value that the Clippers would want? Maybe! It's a match made in...desperation!

So Golden State can rule out D Howard, M Gasol, T Chandler, Nene, and D Jordan, leaving them to contemplate the following options at center:

AVAILABLE FREE AGENT CENTERS

Samuel Dalembert: Probably going to Houston or Dallas, but should the Dubs throw $11M/yr at him? Yikes.

Spencer Hawes: A front line of David Lee and Spencer Hawes? Good luck with all that defense, Mark Mackson's been talking about

~~Kurt Thomas~~: [Signed with Portland today] I thought that made sense for about 2 seconds until I realized we're talking about 57-year old Kurt Thomas on a running team that's struggling to make the playoffs.

Joel Przybilla: I don't think the Vanilla Gorilla is going to excite anyone in Oakland

Aaron Gray: Included for sake of completeness, not basketball skills

Jarron Collins: Might as well start Biedrins.

OK, so given the other options, Kaman might sound pretty good to the Warriors. Most people would say that Kaman's not really suited for a running team like the Warriors, but he's actually very quick up and down the court. His interior defense would be an upgrade that might fit with their new emphasis on defense. He's a two-way player, a legit 7-footer, a true center, a former All Star, not insanely overpaid, and an expiring contract. Hopefully they don't know that, in the words of Kim Hughes, "he's totally retarded."

But who would the Clippers ask for in return? Scanning their roster and payroll does not produce any immediately obvious choices. Most of their players are either too good (Curry, Ellis) or too terrible (Biedrins) for the Clippers to have interest.

TOO GOOD

Monta Ellis: Warriors front office laughs and slam the phone down.

Stephen Curry: Warriors laugh and change their number.

David Lee: Better than Kaman. But mostly, the Dubs aren't ready to admit they overpaid for him.

TOO TERRIBLE

Charlie Bell: Showed up drunk to his recent DUI hearing. Was amnestied while I was typing this. Seriously.

Andris Biedrins: When asked if Biedrins was going to be the starter on the team, Mark Jackson answered, "He is definitely a center on this basketball team." This is why we're talking about a trade.

Acie Law: Career 9.9 PER and one of the few veteran NBA players I know nothing about. But apparently, even ESPN has no idea who he is either! When I tried to look him up on #NBArank, he appears to have not made it into the top 500 players. So there are at least 50 guys who won't even be on a roster who are better than him. No thanks.

Al Thornton: Pass! Seriously. Pass the ball. Oh, I see. Al, a "pass" is something you can do with the basketball other than jab step and shoot contested long 2-pointers.

ROOKIES
I doubt Golden State would want to give up any rookies for Kaman, and they'd have to include some more salary as well - probably at least $5M/yr. So I'm counting these guys as non-starters in a Kaman trade.

Klay Thompson: I think the Warriors are pretty high on him, and he might actually be a good fit with Clippers since he's a shooter with decent length at 6'7". Draftexpress gives him a best case comparison of Mike Miller in prime, which is pretty great, but it sounds like he might be more of a Marco Belinelli.

Jeremy Tyler: 39th pick, purchased from Charlotte. Tyler is a 6'10" 260 PF/C and I don't think the Dubs want to give up any young bigs.

Charles Jenkins: The Warriors' 2011 2nd round pick. Kaman for a 2nd rounder? Meh. Why bother?

POSSIBILITIES

Lou Amundson: Veteran role player PF/C. I loved his energy and the way he played in Phoenix 2 years ago. His $2.4M, 1yr deal means another player would have to be included. Also, he replicates a lot of what DJ does: no offense, great leaping ability, horrific free throw shooter.

Ekpe Udoh: Second year PF/C and the #6 overall pick in 2010. $3.3M/yr salary means the Dubs would need to include another couple million in salary. But I have the sense the Warriors would like to keep him to try to develop him - after all, he was a pretty high pick. He's also the Warriors' other young big man, along with rookie Klay Thompson, which also makes them likely to want to keep him if possible. Mark Jackson seems optimistic about his potential. But I think the Clippers would be interested, even if only as a trade asset.

~~Reggie Williams:~~ [UPDATE: Citizen Thretch pointed out that RWilliams has been waived by GSW, presumably to create cpa space for DJ's offer] 4th-year SG/SF and #283 in ESPN's #NBArank. Career PER of 15.3 is above average, as his is 40.5 3P%. His miniscule (for the NBA!) salary of $762,195 means the Dubs need to throw in a lot more salary. He's got nice length at 6'6". Sign and trade?

Dorell Wright: 6'9" SF who finished 3rd for Most Improved Player last year. He's not a great player, but he can completely fill it up from deep. He led the league with 194 3-pointers last year on 37.6% 3P shooting. I'm not sure if the Warriors would move him for Kaman, but I think it would be intriguing. Having a serious outside threat at SF (something Caron Butler is NOT) is something that probably everyone Clipsnation would like to have. ESPN had him at 152 for #NBArank, while Kaman was at 88, so on paper, the Warriors would be getting the bigger player, as well as trading a small for a big.

Wright is a decent rebounder, with career 6.0 boards per 36 minutes. Morevoer, you'd think he's only a gunner who never passes, but his Assist Ratio for last year isn't terrible at 14.9. That ranks 21st among small forwards, ahead of Trevor Ariza, Mike Dunleavy, and Luol Deng, and just 3 spots behind Grant Hill, Tashaun Prince, and Carlos Delfino, all of whom are tied wih a 15.7 Assist Ratio. Last year, Wright ranked 15th in PER amongst SFs, with a 15.07.

CHRIS KAMAN FOR DORELL WRIGHT?

Wright's $3.8M/yr salary is not quite enough to match straight up, but if the Warriors aren't feeling Lou Amundson, they could include him to make the salaries match. They might want the Clippers to take back Biedrins' contract (3yrs @ $9M/yr), which would be tough to swallow.So it can't be a straight up trade; the salaries don't match. What are the options?

Wright + Amundson might be asking for too much and I don't think the Clippers have a minor asset that would be worth parting with. Perhaps one of the Clipper rookies, like Trey Thompson?

Wright + Biedrins wouldn't work from the Clippers' perspective, but what could the Warriors do to sweeten the deal? Could the Clippers find a taker for Biedrins' albatross of a contract? If they can't, the Clippers are going to have a problem retaining all of their rookies, and Dorell Wright - league 3PM leader or not - isn't worth that. The Warriors would need to include a first round pick or someone like Klay Thompson or Udoh. Not sure either side likes this deal.

~~Wright + Williams would mean the Clippers would get back 2 great shooters for Kaman. The Warriors are going to want more than Kaman, and I don't think the Clips pay the price for both of these guys.~~ [Williams has been waived. Could be a nice shooter behind EJ/Butler to pick up in free agency for cheap?]

OPINION OF WRIGHT?

I'd love to hear my fellow citizens' thoughts on how the Warriors value Wright and their other players. Of course, much depends on Golden State's level of desperation to fill the hole in the paint, and we know the options are slim. But would they be willing to give up a guy that led the league in 3-pointers and finished third in MIP last year? With Curry, Ellis, David Lee, Reggie Williams, and their rookies, the Warriors have a lot of offensive options on the perimeter, even without Wright. Maybe they'd consider parting with him for a legit center?

Report from Drew Gooden's Charity Game with EJ

Vobre — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:23:52 -0000

the ClipsNation envoy to the City by the Bay, I checked out former Clipper Drew Gooden's charity game at the Cow Palace last night. Unfortunately, I only had my cell phone camera with me, but I thought I'd post a few pics along with my impression of the game. If you're like me, you're hungry for some morsel of NBA basketball goodness, so I was excited to see something that was, well not quite NB, but basketball....sort of....involving NBA players. Oh yeah, and it was technically Ricky Rubio's first game in the US, so I was more than a little curious to see how he'd perform.

I look at something related to basketball on the Internet just about every day, usually multiple times a day. So I'm pretty much a hoops junkie. And yet, I had absolutely no idea that during this drought of NBA action, a game composed entirely of NBA players was to be played 15 minutes from my house in San Francisco. Only when I skimmed an entry for Ricky Rubio on the Hoops Hype rumors page that mentioned San Francisco did I find out that there were going to be NBA ballers getting their hoop on in my backyard, so to speak.

Apparently, most of the players found out about the game only a few days in advance as well. Even Drew Gooden had to play chauffeur to pick up Harden and Powe at the airport:

From @drewgooden1 via lockerz.com

In addition to the expected lack of any sort of defense, hustle, or organization, there was also the questionably high ticket cost - $120 for courtside, $65 for the next closest section, $25 for nosebleed seats. But there was no way I could pass up the chance to see some basketball. After all, who knows when these guys will play on TV again?

So the girlfriend and I drove down to the Cow Palace, wondering how many people would be at the game. One report today said there were something under 2,000 in attendance. Here's a shot a few minutes before tip off:

And another during warm ups with Jason Kapono, Joakim Noah talking to fans, and Gooden with his customary headband:

To the best of my memory, the line ups were (to the extent there were actual positions being played):

WHITE TEAM

PG: Eric Gordon
SG: James Harden
SF: Leon Powe
PF: Al Harrington
C: Anderson Varejao

Reserves: Dorell Wright, Jeremy Tyler, "Richie Rich" (non-NBA?)

Coach: a disturbingly paunchy DeShawn Stevenson

RED TEAM

PG: Ricky Rubio
SG: DeMar DeRozan
SF: Shawn Marion
PF: Drew Gooden
C: Joakim Noah

Reserves: Jason Kapono, Keith Bogans, Nick Collison, Amir Johnson

Coach: Jason Terry and Mistah Fab, rapper & noted Ghostrider

Amar'e Stoudemire was a last minute scratch, but there still plenty of dunks to go around. In fact, like most games of this sort, nearly every possession resulted in a dunk or an ill-advised 3-pointer. I was excited to see EJ get some burn at the lead guard spot. I was ready to scrutinize his handle to see if he'd managed to improve it in the off-season. But in this game, point guard was more of a "shortest guy on the court" designation than anything else. You know there are no coaches and the game is unstructured when Andy Varejao starts bringing the ball up the court. The lady sitting next to me, who at a lanky 6'4", had clearly spent some time on the court herself, couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh my LORD, what is he THINKING!?" every time someone started playing point-center. She said it a lot.

My apologies for the low quality of the shots. Cell phone camera + low light + action = horrible results. More people showed up by tip-off time, but my very un-scientific guess is that the crowd maxed out at about 300 fans in attendance.

There was at least one foul called last night, although it was the organizer himself who drew it, so the call was a little suspect...

Varejao watching Gordon pretend to play defense.

Collison and Harden banging hard for low block position, while Rubio sets up to drive on opposing PG Gordon.

Gooden signals for the alley-oop. Rubio thinks to himself, I've been playing in the states for 5 minutes and I already know that's the play we're running for everyone, every time down.

Rubio waits to inbound. Is that a Magic Johnson reference with his jersey number?

Fighting for every rebound. I think one of them even got some air under their feet!

I was having trouble capturing the action, with all the moving around, so the players started to accommodate me in the second half.

The one guy taking up a low defensive stance is an unknown (and non-NBA) player nicknamed "Richie Rich."

Rubio watching his 3-pointer hit the bottom of the net. Shockingly, his shot was falling more than EJ's was.

Jason Terry and DeShawn Stevenson were in street clothes. JET seemed to spend time "coaching" both teams. I couldn't tell what was going on with Stevenson: his trapezius muscles (upper back area) were huge, but so was his gut. I guess he's in a "bulking" phase.

He looked like he was getting ready to make a switch to the NFL.

After the game, EJ was nice enough to take a pic with me, with trademark snarl-smile and all.

EJ, along with DeShawn and Harden, were really the only guys that stuck around for photos and autographs for the 30 or 40 fans waiting near the locker tunnel after the game. As you might expect, EJ actually seemed like the most down to earth player at the event.

How was the game? You'll notice I haven't said much about it. Think NBA All-Star game, without coaches. Or TV cameras. Or All-Stars. Rubio had some really nice behind the back passes - he threw them frequently during the game, but he executed them so fast, I don't think I even noticed half of them. His full-court fast break behind the back outlet pass to DeRozan (check the vid) was clearly the play of the night, but watching it live, I didn't even realize what he'd done, nor did most of the fans. It just happened so fast and was so natural, that only when you see it on video later, do you realize how amazing it was.

But ultimately, I was wishing that someone would play just a little defense, and that the players would play like it MATTERED. The knock on the NBA - from college hoops fans - is that NBA players don't care and don't play hard. I've never bought that for a second. This is what basketball played by guys who are talented but not really trying looks like. It's ugly, and it's not interesting to watch. As much as I've been on the side of the players in the lockout, and as much as I despise the league and the owners for trying to squeeze out every dime they can from the players for their NBA vanity projects, I couldn't help but wish that the league was there to bring some structure, some meaning, and some discipline into the game. Without that, all you've got are some tall guys dunking while some others tall guys watch.

Griffin's New Move: The Head Throw Back

Vobre — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:01:38 -0000

So at ClipsNation night at Staples Center this year, Steve made sure to insist that Citizen Quilty and I post a little more and lurk a little less. I’ve got a few random and probably not so novel thoughts bouncing around, so here’s my effort to contribute with some thoughts on a new trick Blake’s picked up to get some foul calls.

In preseason, the Nation knew that Blake Griffin was going to be a beast in this league. It wasn't long before the rest of the league knew that his strength and shocking athleticism were going to present a challenge to defend. He may not have exactly surprised other teams early in the season, but Clippers opponents seemed unsure of how best to defend Griffin. Although I rarely miss watching a game, I missed a series of games in early to mid November while traveling in Mexico, but when I came back, it was pretty clear that Griffin had stepped up his game and had just become dominant: he was off the charts in number of dunks, Sports Center highlights, YouTube views, and had become the “horse” in the Clippers’ offense. But you know this, I know this, Timofey Mozgov knows this.

The other thing I noticed was that other teams were matching his physical play with their own physical play…by putting hard fouls on him. Sure, I remember McDyess virtually punching Griffin in a face-up situation in the fourth game of the season, but that’s just the Spurs. I’m not sure you play for Pop if you don’t punch the other team in the face, figuratively and sometimes literally.

But the Portland game became…ridiculous. Everyone within the Nation gained another reason to hate Andre Miller and maybe picked up a new enemy in Pryzbilla as well. Hell, even “old friend” Marcus Camby took a shot at Blake’s head (“Thanks buddy!”). But Blake seemed to be in a sort of no-man’s-land of being a focus of fouls by virtue of his star play but not getting all the calls by virtue of being a rookie. Sure he got calls when hit in the head, but he wasn’t getting whistles on the less blatant fouls.

But about five games ago when the Clips were hosting the ClipperTimberwolves, I was watching the game with Citizen Quilty and we noticed that Blake was starting to get more calls, in particular lesser fouls that he just wasn’t getting before. And pretty quickly, we figured out what had changed: Blake would throw his head back as if he’d just been punched in the face in order to get a call. It was pretty funny, really. Using the magic of the DVR, we kept looking at calls and no matter where the contact was—chest, arm, head, shoulder—Blake would use his new Head Throw Back move (HTB). And it worked; he got a whistle even if his HTB came after the contact and it looked like he was acting in a bad action movie. Griffin’s continued to use it in every game since and in fact I don’t think I’ve seen him deploy an HTB without getting a whistle. I’m sure some other citizens have noticed the HTB move, and maybe they’ve even commented on it in the game threads. In fact, I think Blake may have developed the HTB in the 12/18 @CHI game.

By the way I’ve got to add that it’s not his fault that the refs have decided to work this way, after all the fouls were still fouls. I don’t think a lot of people even outside the Nation are going to argue that teams aren’t taking it to Griffin physically or aren’t fouling him often. It’s the case of his extreme athleticism making refs hesitant to call lesser fouls committed against him. But for whatever reason, the refs (or the league, depending on your view of how much the influence what gets called) have decided that they need to protect Blake’s face. I guess they have some more NBA Cares or Giant Bobble Head ads in mind. But the Head Throw Back (HTB) has continued to work.

Looking at the stats (using FTAs/game as a proxy, unless someone has a site with data on fouls drawn, or better yet, fouls drawn rate), Griffin has averaged 8.2 FTAs this season, and 7.7 before the 12/18 @CHI game. Since that game, he’s averaged 10.2 FTAs, for an increase of 2.4 FTAs. Is the increase due to the HTB move? Or maybe he’s just getting some respect? I’m not sure, so I’m taking it to the Nation. Thoughts?

Meet your City of Industry ClipperWolves, a minor league basketball team with real live former NBA players!

Vobre — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:58:13 -0000

I know Brian Cook is not a former TWolf, but his signing does not bode well for the direction the Clippers are headed. The guy couldn't get off the bench, well, anywhere he's played. With the addition of Ryan Gomes and Randy Foye, that's two consecutive off-seasons now that the Clippers have filled their roster with Timberwolves cast offs. Should we call it a day in the NBA and become the Timberwolves' D-League affiliate? Have we become their farm team already? I'm sure ESPN would agree that we have, and making it official is probably the only way for them to mention us. With apologies to those of you who live in the City of Industry, but a move to an location utterly devoid of glamour and evocative of...industry...would complete the makeover nicely.