A few months ago while I sat in the San Jose airport, I read an article on clipsnation detailing all the excuses the Clippers had last year. If one had to sum that post up in three words, it could be narrowed down to injuries, conditioning and chemistry. (Ok, four words if you count the “and”, but who does that?). Assuming the players have a relatively injury free season and arrive at training camp in shape (a minor miracle by clipper standards) that still leaves one issue unresolved: chemistry.

There were 5 returning players (1/3 of the team) at the start of training camp a year ago Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas were both traded for Randolph and Collins shortly into the season after the clippers dug themselves a hole in the standings, while paul davis was cut mid-season and his roster spot used so the clippers could make money off luxury tax teams. I’m not all that interested in transactions that happened mid-season though; it’s more interesting that the Clippers added 10 new players before training camp. I’m still struck by the quote in the article linked above where GMMDsr said how the roster turnover became “insurmountable” for his team to overcome, even though he’s the one who assembled the team.

This year, the clippers have added 5 new players, with a possible 6th still up in the air. I’m not saying these are bad moves by GMMDsr, but I think that qualifies as another roster turnover when possibly over 1/3 of the team is new. Isn’t this the same sort of roster turnover we saw last year? Will chemistry be a problem again? Will the work ethic of the young guys continue once the season starts and they begin to play back to back games in different time zones? Thoughts?

So it seems david falk wrote a book titled, The Bald Truth: Secrets of Success from the Locker Room to the Boardroom about the business side of the nba. (the title is slightly ironic considering falk is bald on the cover). I was told the FElton saga is on page 269 and gives falks side of the story. This is old news now, but some of the clipsnation faithful might find it intersting. I say pick it up at the library because I probably wouldn't spend money to read it. lol I heard about it from reading the notoriously unreliable hoopsworld site and had a little conversation with the author of the piece on hoopsworld at the botttom. http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=11870

or we could be in draft order if we loose Wednesday. This made me think, is it too early to think about the 2009 NBA draft. The last time we had a #1 pick we chose some guy named Michael Olowokandi about 10 years ago. What team does he play for now? That's not a slap on the clippers because they aren't the only team to waste the first pick, K. brown, Darko etc, but still it would be nice to get one right for a change.

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=437041

Interesting trade. The warriors get a backup point guard and New Jersey gets a future lottery protected pick. I’m wondering how much space the warriors have left under the cap. I’ve heard 4 million?? I don’t know the exact details but I wonder if this trade still allows them to match Azubuike?

Note: This isn't our marcus williams. (There, I think that covers the 75 word limit)

I think we’re all a little saddened to see Elton go, and to loose out on maggette too after brand left makes things worse. The real question is what do we do now?

I’m personally not a fan of the whole 2010 strategy because I think that depends on a lot of projection that these players will even be available and won’t sign extensions with their current teams. And lets not forget the biggest assumption of all, that they’ll want to play for the clippers.

What do we have:

A top center in the league, 2 young pieces in Thornton and Gordon, a leader in Baron Davis and 2 “2010” contracts in Mobley and Thomas.

Davis/knight/(Livingston)

Mobley Gordon

Thornton/Williams

Thomas/Powell

Kaman/Fazekas

First things first: pick a player to go after, preferably Josh Smith or another power forward (Emeka Okafor) without overpaying. I tend to like josh smith more because I can see baron davis getting him a lot of easy baskets. I admittedly know almost nothing about Emeka Okafor.

Second: If we cant get Josh Smith or Okafor, FRONT LOAD Baron’s contract!!!! It’ll still give him the same amount but it gives the clippers more options in the future so we’re not paying him as much when he gets into the 4th and 5th years. (if we can do that with anyone else that we sign that would be good as well) We have more cap room now than we’ll probably have a few years from now.

Next try to work out a trade to get a power forward, only a 3 year contract at most. One player we could get on the cheap would be Randolph. I don’t know what the league rules are regarding trades under the salary cap but we might not have to give up that much. If we do have to match salaries it might not be worth it… (I’m hoping this wont happen since I despise his game)

Other possibilities include rasheed Wallace, or AK47. However to get either of these guys we might have to give up a pick and maybe Gordon on Thornton. I don’t think that would be worth it.

ideas or thoughts?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/03/SPV611JS76.DTL

Interesting article, Are the warriors possibly interested in a sign and trade with Maggette and Davis? Also, did anyone ever figure out if you can include other contracts in a sign and trade to make salaries work? Even without a sign and trade they can get maggette outright though because they have enough room under the cap. I guess if they are going to let baron go, they might as well get someone in return. At the very least if they don’t sign maggette to a bad contract, they have a piece they can trade away later if another point guard becomes available.

The article also goes on to state that the clippers can only offer Brand 5 years because they have to renounce Brands rights to make room for Davis. Maybe John R or CS can explain why that’s the case.I dont think we're too worried about the 76ers because they have less money to offer than the warriors and clippers right?

Apparently after the draft, the wolves and grizzlies agreed to a deal that would have the grizzlies send Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins to Minnesota and in return they would get O.J. Mayo, Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker and Greg Buckner. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but the grizzlies already have 3 young point guards in Mike Comely, Kyle Lowry and Javaris Crittenton. Now they’re adding OJ Mayo and Marko Jaric? That’s 5 freakin point guards! (I’m counting Buckner as a slightly undersized 2).

Unless the grizzlies are counting on making trades to teams without point guards like… ummm… I don’t know, the clippers Sacramento, Miami or something, how does this deal make sense for the grizzlies? At first I thought it could be to cut salaries, but I looked and the contracts Jaric and Walker have 4 years left, and they aren’t even all that inexpensive. Cardinal only had 3 years left on his so it cant be the money.

This deal does make sense for Minnesota however because we all knew they were heavily invested for foye. And they get a shooter in Mike Miller, and a guy they really like in Kevin Love. All they have to do is take on one the bad contract of Brian Cardinal.  

Now I’m curious, since the grizzlies appear so inept, what do we have that we could give up in exchange? They love their point guards so maybe they might like brevin knight for one of their young point guards. HAHAHAHA! Even that deal makes me laugh.