SB Nation User Blog: WestsideBrandon

Take that, Warrior fans!

WestsideBrandon — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:02:32 -0000

No bad blood, here. Just a little morale boost for us Clipper fans. Found this gem of a clip on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VVUv6K-hDA&feature=related

Al Thornton going to work on Andris Biedrins. Like I said, though, no bad blood. We got Baron, they keep Bookie. It's all good from Los Angeles, which just so happens to be a better city than San Fran. Not that I'm mad or anything.

Will the real Andruw Jones please show up?

WestsideBrandon — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:23:30 -0000

So, I just got back from the Dodgers 5-3 loss to the Marlins. I'm not too bothered about the loss or what exactly the Dodgers are doing wrong in terms of player personnel. However, while I was enjoying the game, Andruw Jones came to the plate around strikeouts 3 and 4 (I can't remember, they all looked exactly the same) and a fan yelled, "Hey, can you untie the real Andruw Jones and let him out of your basement!" Everyone laughed, but then I got to thinking. That's quite a plausible explanation. There is no way that this guy is the same Andruw Jones as the one who hit 41 homers two years ago and 51 the year before.

Look, we all know that he had a down year last year. But was that any indication of this? .222 with 26 homers and 96 RBIs (his 07 stats) would have made him easily the best power hitter on the '07 Dodgers. Plus, the average that everyone looked at was not as big of a dip as many fans might've thought. His average during his 40-50 homer seasons hovered around .265 and he's never been much of an average guy. Anyone could've just called last year a bad year, but a prelude to this debacle? I don't think so.

This is not the same Andruw Jones. I don't know what it is, Joe Torre doesn't know what it is, only the imitation guy wearing number 25 for the Dodgers knows. This guy still fields like Andruw and throws like Andruw, but was has happened to that bat? All he gets is outside breaking balls because he can't hit them. When he finally gets a fastball, he gets so excitied that he swings no matter how far away from the strike zone it is.

It's a complete mystery and its nobody's fault. Though he obviously wasn't worth the 18 mil we're paying him (even at the time of signing), Ned Colletti had to look at last season for Andruw as a low water mark. As I already mentioned, his statistics for last year would've had him earning that 4 or 5 spot in the order. This guy looks totally hopeless up there. The boobirds are awake whenever he's at the plate, but even after months he is still powerless to shut them up. I don't know if he has to do some soul searching or if he just needs some advice from Don Mattingly (I sure as hell hope its the latter, otherwise we're stuck with him for another year and a half).

One thing I do know: I want the real Andruw Jones to put on the Dodger blue soon.

It's everybody's fault, but we'll call it a "Falk Up"

WestsideBrandon — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:18:22 -0000

Well, after doing a little venting last night, I think I'm starting to get over the loss of FElton Brand. The jersey burning I have planned might finally put it behind me. Anyways, I just need to comment about how confusing this whole situation is. Everyone is blaming somebody different for why FElton won't be wearing Clipper red, white and blue next year. The bottom line is: it's probably a bit of everybody's fault.

Yeah, the Clippers probably should've done a bit more to try to sway FElton to come back. They shouldn't have waited so long between their first and second offers. After all, he was an unrestricted free agent and that gave him and David Falk a chance to explore other offers. I mean, c'mon. Did the Clips really not think that a 20/10 guy would garner a couple top tier offers? I know most of the fan base is oblivious to what this guy has done, but not the rest of the GMs who actually concentrate on what the Clippers are doing from time to time. Regardless of all this however, if it was truly FElton's intention to stay with the Clippers he would have heard them out and taken the 81 mil.

To start shifting the blame elsewhere, I just read Adrian Wojnarowski's latest column and Yahoo! and it had some interesting things to say about Falk's role in all of this:

Negotiations had stalled, management had grown uneasy, fearful of Falk’s influence and the Clips coach brought the franchise’s case directly to Brand. After all these years, the most famous agent of all was back in the game, back on the big stage, back with basketball waiting on his next move.

“From that point on,” one NBA GM said, “Falk was going to do everything he could to screw the Clippers.”

Along the way, too, everyone else could see what was happening here: The Bald Eagle was emboldened again. Falk was empowered. He was alive again, and the Clippers were done. As it turned out, he didn’t just screw the Clippers. Falk drilled them.

I realize that he used to be (and now is again) a big time NBA agent, but did he have to take it this far just because Dunleavy tried to talk straight to Brand. Dunleavy was trying to talk some sense back into Elton, but Falk took some serious offense to that and made it a point to make sure that Elton got and accepted a better offer from any other team.

Incidentally this was the time when the Clippers woke up and smelled the coffee and realized that FElton didn't want that big of a pay cut (Though I don't know what he expected with 65 mil going to B. Diddy), but it was too late. By the time they matched the 76ers offer, FElton's big traitor John Hancock was already on Philly's paperwork.

Whether or not they had a deal (which Dunleavy claims that they did), the Clippers should've known not to let this run for too long. That puts the ball back in Falk's court and we all know what happens there:

“Once they let Brand opt out, they had to know that Falk would come back and bite them in the ass,” one GM said. “Did they think he wasn’t going to turn this into some kind of a drama? He was dying to get back into the spotlight here, to get himself a lot of attention again.”

FElton, shame on you for not resigning as you said you would, but an even bigger shame on you for calling David Falk the "best agent...ever!" like a giddy teenage girl on the WWL. If he is the best agent ever for talking you out of resigning with the team that stuck by you all of these years, then every cunning and cunniving criminal is fit to be an NBA agent.

Well, I'm having a hard time finishing this one up, so I'll let Wojnarowski do it for me:

Pity those poor Clippers on Elton Brand’s way out the door, on crossing the most ruthless agent of all. Falked again.

Feels like crap, don't it?

WestsideBrandon — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:05:14 -0000

Wow, I really don't know what to say. Elton Brand, the charasmatic figure who always made us laugh when he put Clippers and winning in the same sentence, is no longer a Clipper. Usually when a player of Brand's character leaves there is not so much animosity, but the way in which he just broke my heart is unexcuseable. Which leaves me with one question for you Elton: Do you have a phobia of winning?

Given probably the best point guard in the game Elton had the chance to back up all the talk of turning the Clippers into a good team. Instead, he bolts back east leaving us Clipper fans with neither him nor Baron Davis. In most cases, I have come to not understand, but accept the business of professional (and sometimes college, but I won't get into that now) sports. This, Elton, was not business. This was you slapping every Clipper fan across the face a thousand times over. Do you have any idea what we have put up with, Elton? Do you have any idea how excited we all were when we thought we had you and Baron Davis for next year, Elton? Apparently not. Because in the end you are not just your average professional athlete who leaves a team for more money. You said so much, made us who loved you truly believe that you were a classy athlete in a dirty culture. Instead, you turn out to be much worse than a liar.