Does anybody have a citizen's-eye-view report of the Clipper win over Utah?  Maybe not.  Monsieur Perrin is conserving his energies for the regular season and keeping the soccer squad tight.  DJ Foster has a few good thoughts up over at ClipperBlog.  I don't have time to break it down myself, but from a brief radio session and a look at the boxscore, it seems like another nice effort for Blake Griffin in particular and the Clippers at large.

DJF mentions the minutes, with Thornton only playing ten minutes.  One thing to note is that I think Gordon played some more backup PG in Telfair's absence, adding to his own minute total.  So without Camby and Telfair, similar to the preseason opener against GSW, the rotations get a bit tricky.

It's strange to be playing against the Lakers, with the opener (and their ring ceremony--aaargh!) coming up week after next.  It would probably be just as well to turn this into a matchup of second teamers, and not show anything.  The stirring preseason victory last year is a bad memory.  The priority now is to keep guys healthy--that's really all that's important, along with getting some run and rhythm, working on defense.  It would be great if Telfair comes back today and Baron sits this one out.

Another DJordan-Bynum matchup, with Blake Griffin as the featured performer, would be fine with me.  And it'll be fun to watch on TV.   

Just saw this elsewhere, Dunleavy from EPincus' Media Day coverage:

 "As far as I'm concerned, the indictment on me is that I may not be a very good coach when my players are injured.  Give me a healthy team and fundamentally our team is going to be very sound.  We'll play very good defense and we'll be very competitive."

Could not have said it any better myself. 

It's always refreshing to see clear self-awareness and self-analysis like this.  It does, however, raise some questions.  Once you arrive at the conclusion that you're struggling or failing at your job as an undermanned coach, once your team is broken, and thus your system is no longer viable, and it's going to be that way for an entire NBA season, don't you start looking at new options?

I happen to think that it's just a conservative mindset.  There's probably a fear of innovation and change in the mix too.

Reading this over, some Dunleavy haters might read a fair amount of hostility into this comment.  It's not exactly apologetic.  "Aren't you a bad coach?  Your teams haven't won very many games?"  "As far as I'm concerned, the indictment on me is that I may not be a very good coach when my players are injured."  My players were injured, and so we lost games, and if you want to say that I'm a bad coach with injured players, I suppose that's fair. 

But Club Optimism will take the lucky breaks like winning the lottery and will choose to read this as saying, "you know what, I'm really pretty lousy at flying by the seat of my pants and just throwing stuff out there to see if it works.  I wish I could be more innovative and even radical, especially when things are really bad and virtually hopeless.  I'd love to be able to entertain the fans.  But I'm not Nellie.  I'm not the crazy genius type.  I'm the General, I just prepare the troops to fight the best I can, nothing fancy.  If we don't work the system, even when we don't have the best troops, the system won't work.  Sometimes I wish I could change, but in the right circumstances, I'm the guy you want.  My team will be consistent, they will defend and compete, they will be prepared.  And as far as coaching the Clippers is concerned, we all know that this franchise was a joke before I got here.  We've had some great growth and some major setbacks, but we've had some successes too and we're on the right track.  We have a great group now, we've had some luck and have made some nice deals, and if we stay healthy we can compete.  It's a good mix.  It's exciting.  And this is what I do well, I can take a roster like this and win with it."

Beloved Clipper Chris Kaman is in an interesting position going into the season.  Let me say upfront that my hope is that Kaman 2.0 shows up, ready to play, and he leads the team to glory.  I love watching Kaman when he plays well--it's probably sweeter because he can play so poorly at times and be so frustrating.

But whether Kaman is good or bad, there are pressures on his situation.  His contract is such that it's a nice deal if he's a 15/12 player on a playoff team, and maybe it's even okay if he's a 12/10 player on same said playoff team, as long as he plays in 65+ games and does well in the playoffs.  But even so, DJordan presents a lower cost alternative, providing perhaps fewer points but probably the same rebounding, and maybe fewer turnovers, who knows.  And Camby is on the roster this year of course.  We know all this, and any way you slice it, as nice as it would be for Kaman to be a key cog in a playoff run, the other side of the coin is that he seems expendable, and if the Clips were able to move his contract they would have a big boost in their capspace and be positioned as a major player in next year's free agent market.  Again, we know all this.

What I don't know are the best or likely or even possible destinations for Kaman and his deal.  Are there any?  This is in response, in part, to the Zbo discussion, and the memory of how Zbo was untradeable--until he wasn't.  With a little research, it really looked like Zbo would be a good fit in Memphis, and then--bless the day--it happened.  Good for Memphis, great for the Clippers.

I haven't looked around for potential teams for Kaman yet, so I'm curious to see if anybody has ideas. 

And again, I'm hoping that this is reverse mojo, and any effort to figure out how to move Kaman will make him stronger and better and obviously a critical element of Clipper greatness.

The Clippers have figured prominently in three out of four predictions in ESPN's Summer Forecast thus far, after today's 3rd place finish in the "team turnaround" category, finishing behind the Wizards and OKC.  Clipper turmoil is described as "injury woes, underachieving roster, front office drama":  fair enough.  Finishes with a nice twist of the knife, coming out and calling the team "the league's laughingstock," though that isn't apparently a separate category for the distinguished panel.  That one's a freebie.

Blake Griffin got 43 out of 54 votes for Rookie of the Year, in the opening poll.  The shot in this case was a link to the Laughingstocks--can the Clips just change their name?  Can't they be the LA Laughingstocks?--"well-catalogued legacy of disaster," the June 24 "Run Now Blake Griffin!" piece by Bill Simmons, written back when ZBo was still untradeable.  Thabeet got a vote for RoY, whatever that means.

Worst Newcomer and Best Newcomer are worthy of Laughingstock Nation analysis, after the jump. 

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A little mid-August breaking news. 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4394050

Need to study this myself, but I thought I would get it up on the board here for thoughts and comments.  Not something anybody has ever mentioned, as far as I know.

Linkifying Zhiv - An excellent post from Citizen Zhiv below, who really needs to get over his fear of linking.  You're a bright guy - you can do it.  At any rate, I'm promoting it to the front page, and adding the links that he zhived (is that one 'v' or two?) on his own.

Do I have this right?  I "prolly" (a word getting some usage here these days, so why not say hey) should be checking before posting, but I've been pretty deep into the Summer League experience thus far and I'm pretty sure that was the set-up.

SP's analysis and discussion of Hasheem Thabeet leading up to the draft I believe (not sure where the link might be, and I zhiv linking pretty intensely), put DeAndre Jordan into a whole new light, and his stock was on a slow steady rise though the season anyway.  DJ has been great in summer league, a big part of the good news.  Have to say that Griffin is helping and making him look good, but KA had a nice, quick analysis of DJ's effort as a top summer performer, and no less than David Thorpe, who is probably the Clips newest, bestest buddy for a number of reasons, starting with KA's yeoman work in getting him to notice Eric Gordon last year, but primarily because he's going to spend a lot of time analyzing Blake Griffin this year, tweeted the other day that DJ seems to be easily the most improved player, freshman to sophomore, that he has seen in the summer leagues.

DJ was completely ignored during the draft and trade discussions.  It was making me a little nuts.  We citizens, of course, remember that there was a lot of "it's the Clippers" nonsense, "how will they screw this one up," after they got the number one pick, along with a fair amount of discussion about the absolutely untradeable Zach Randolph and the crowded Clipper frontcourt, including some ridiculous speculation that the Clips didn't even need to draft Blake Griffin--why?  because it's the Clippers!  And even in the reasonable and supposed expert analysis at the time, the "crowded Clipper frontcourt" consisted of Zbo, Kaman, and Camby.  After SP drew the comparisons between DJ and Thabeet, my antennae were searching everywhere for any sort of mention of DJordan, as he's potentially a critical part of the future of the Clips, as can be plainly seen when he plays alongside BG.  I held out hopes, being the optimistical Zhiv, that some one might actually say that the Clips already had their own version of Thabeet, who had plummeted down to them in the draft the year before, but it was pretty clear that was never going to happen.  And his name was never mentioned more than twice through the entire process, and it didn't even come up again, I don't think, after the "miracle" of the relatively predictable Zbo trade--it was uniformly Griffin-Kaman-Camby, with no DJ notes. 

My surmise was that DJ would finally start to show up on the radar in summer league, and that has been true, to a point beyond even the zhiviest expectations.  The first game was all about the debut of Blake Griffin, and rightly so, and that part was deeply satisfying, and DJ didn't exactly get off to a great start by missing the bus, but by the middle of the second quarter the announcers (talking to David Stern), including David Aldridge, along with others no doubt, were in the middle of remembering who DJordan was and that he might play a role on the Clippers.  It could be argued that the second game, against NOH, belonged to DJ more than BG, as DJ's productivity was a bit gaudier, but it needs to be mentioned again that BG's game is so potent and well-rounded that he's a significant factor in helping DJ's cause, and it helps having Eric Gordon out there too.

SP pointed out, going into the NOH game, that there was no big man test for DJ, and that helped quite a bit as well.  He's playing with great confidence now, but it should be added that hitting his free throws, including two important ones down the stretch, was a big step forward for DJ from game one.   And that brings us to tonight.

Should be fun.

Just wondering if it's worth asking the question of whether the Clippers, with their MLE and trade exception, should be mentioning our old friend LO, still dangling out there, especially amidst all of the Iverson talk. 

KA--who just put up a nice two-games-in Summer League update--talked about the Clips basic needs in his "Answer Me Not" post yesterday.  There's the backup PG, 3rd guard issue, but the second need is the defense/rebounder wing player, the glue guy.  A big part of the intent in this desire is to find someone who is a solid enough starter at SF, allowing Al Thornton to perhaps come off the bench, making him more of a pure scorer and compensating for his passing, handling, rebounding and defensive deficiencies.

The prototypes, as discussed, are Shane Battier, Tayshaun Prince, and newbie flavor-of-the-offseason Trevor Ariza. They're defense-oriented versatile SFs who you could make a good case for as starters ahead of AT.  The longer list is out there somewhere.  At first glance Odom doesn't seem to be one of these guys, because he was coming off the bench himself last year, and he has been playing PF almost exclusively for a number of years now.  But that's a bit deceptive, based on the Lakers particular situation. 

The fact is that LO is a remarkably versatile player.  He was able to adapt to the Lakers' needs, rather than the other way around.

And I'll cut into my comments to mention that in my view the Lakers are low-balling LO in a certain, only because of their tax status and the Bynum deal and others that they have to live with, but the part that's unseemly is the way that they're using their media-darling status to continue to force the issue and make it seem like LO isn't responding to a generous deal.  It's virtually impossible for the Lakers to pay LO what he's worth.  It's his bad luck that he's a UFA, with a shiny new ring no less, in a year when no one has money and the economic outlook for the league is very poor.  But Turkoglu and Ben Gordon got big deals, and LO's agent knows that he's going to be leaving 10-20 million--a whole lot of money, with 1 or 2 million of it going to the agent--on the table if he signs a 3-year deal now, and has to go back to try to get his next deal when he's past his prime.  The timing is worse when you look at last year's deals (Maggette, Baron Davis, just to name two close to home) and next year's deals, where a guy like Boozer doesn't opt out, to get paid now to join the much more high stakes 2010 musical chairs.

But back to LO and how he might fit on the Clippers.  There's a question of whether Blake Griffin can play the 3, but there was never any question of whether LO could--the question was whether he could play the 4.  It was Miami's needs and then the Lakers lack of a PF that has made him seem so clearly a PF.  With the Clippers abundance of bigs (Kaman-Camby-Jordan) and the arrival of BGriffin, LO's potential role on the Clips would be what it used to be back in the day, when they had FElton locked in at SF and Olowocancer at the 5.  He would be the starting SF.  He would get some minutes at PF when Griffin goes to the bench, and he might take away some PF minutes of Camby.

LO's rebounding is outstanding for a player in this role, as is his ability to distribute.  His defense would seem to be solid enough.  Perhaps he's not a lockdown, perimeter wing defender, not a Battier or a Prince, but he can definitely get the job done.

Of course, you get into some major "it's the Clippers" issues, that might reach new heights in this case.  How could LO leave the championship Lakers to go to the dysfunctional Clips?  That's just how crazy he is!  Who needs him--we've got Kobe!  And Ron Artest!  Etc. etc.  Odom's reasons would be economic.  It seems crazy for him to accept a 5 year deal at the MLE--the Ariza deal--rather than the Lakers seemingly generous, tax-burdened 3/27-30 deal, but the 5 or 7 million dollars is... a guaranteed 5-7 million dollars.  And LO hasn't taken that deal yet.  Does a 1-year MLE deal, playing for next year when there's more money out there?  Why not try, then, to make a 1 yr/10 million deal with the Lakers?  Would the Lakers do a sign-and-trade?  Would they do one with the Clippers?  Would LO take the deal that we discussed for Shawn Marion, using the trade exception?  Was that better than the deal he could make with the teams he's talking to now?  Do the Clippers want to use up future capspace on Odom?  Would Griffin/Odom/Gordon fit in the way I'm imagining?  Lots and lots of questions.

As far as the insane, improbable return, It's worth remembering that MDSr was not the coach when LO left the Clips.  Miami made a last second, very pricey offer to LO, and the Clips chose not to match what seemed to be an inflated deal.  Matching FElton came first, and matching on the Maggs deal was much easier.  And the Clips were just taking their first baby steps towards financial respectability at that stage.  The Clips have changed, and they're on the rise, with Griffin.  It's really unfortunate that BDavis was so horrible last year, negating his ability to get involved in attracting talented players to the team.

Believe me, I know that these are even more extreme zhivings than the norm, and the argument leaks from dozens of holes.  But a simple version of it is this:  who would you rather have the Clips sign:  Lamar Odom or Allen Iverson.  The obvious, easy answer is neither, of course.

And then there's the idea of making a healthy offer to Odom just to mess with the Lakers.  At least an amusing thought.  

SP is up and running so I'll hang out over here in the fanposts for now.  Everybody (KA and me, at least) stated that they would have more to say after the awesome debut of Blake Griffin last evening, and the Clips' most inspiring run in many moons, but it has been quiet--not used to being geeked up like that, I guess, plus there's the minor/major Iverson distraction of course.

So there's just one thing that stands out for me, the next day and getting ready for the next game, worthy of commentary.  Not about Blake Griffin, who was simply awesome and everything we could hope for, and just fun to watch.  Not about Eric Gordon, who we know well enough, although we shouldn't take him for granted.  If pushed, I suppose I could mention that the Gordon-Morrison matchup was very interesting, Gordon giving Morrison a lot of trouble, as we might have expected, and a mite of disappointment that we didn't get to see Gordon play any PG, but nothing even worth noting.  Not about Mike Taylor, who should be the Clips 3rd string PG and a sparkplug/change of pace off the bench, who needs exactly this experience and frustration in a place like summer league to get better.

But then there's DeAndre Jordan.  DJ, I think, is worth discussing.  Most citizens know I'm a fan, and routinely get perhaps too geeked up about under the radar big men with potential.  SP didn't help douse the fires when he expertly compared DJ's measurements to #2 pick Thabeet.  And after the season it seemed obvious that, if you're only going to win 19 games, maybe a project like DJ could have played a little bit more.

Gotta go and don't have time to give this topic the full zhiv, but I thought DJ was a mixed bag in yesterday's game.  The post moves were great to see.  I was surprised at him going to his right hand, and would like to see what he does going to the middle with his left, off that right block.  He obviously gets his dunks and he's a strong finisher, which we can appreciate after watching Mr. Flippy.  You could put DJ and Blake Griffin out there as starters for the entire season and my guess is that they would do a good job on the defensive boards together, and get better and better year by year.

The thing I was dissapointed by was DJ's lack of a defensive presence.  There's more to be said on this, but he doesn't seem to be hanging back as a shot blocker.  There's also the free throws, where it would have been nice for him to show some progress.

Gotta go!

Monsieur Perrin is probably poolside preparing a post on this, although he might have gotten hung up at the breakfast buffet, and who knows what he might have been up to last night, with his new access to NBA players, coaches, writers etc. and all.  We have nothing but good news from yesterday, and Club Optimism is riding high.  In the morning desert sun the amazing debut of Blake Griffin is being overshadowed by the confirmations of Clipper talks with Allen Iverson.  There's an existing fanpost thread that has some good comments, but I thought I'd put my own observations on the main page to spur further discussion, as we have a lot of time, still buoyed by yesterday's enthusiasm, before the Super Summer Experience Game #2 tonight.

After the jump. 

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