Knowing how long I have suffered throughout the years cheering for this club, most of my friends been really excited to gain more insight on our beloved Clippers from me. One of these conversations led me to this post. A good friend asked me, "Who do you think your team MVP is going to be by seasons end?" My answer is below with a couple of other not so obvious team award predictions that I was curious to hear my fellow citizen's feedback on...

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I know this topic have been brought up on numerous occasions, but with a lack of court action and the surprising (to me at least) news of the Kings remaining in Sacramento, I thought what the hell.

Now my perspective (perspective not opinion) is going to be certainly different than about 90% of the citizens here, being that I'm a non-California fan. Meaning I don't and never did live in LA, therefore resulting in me cheering for the franchise with little to no concern of team location. But, with all that said, I strongly feel that the Clippers NEED to make this move.

I know it sounds hypocritical to have previously state that I started cheering for the team with no concern for location and now boldly state that the team should move, but it's all for good reason from my perspective. To some this is a dead topic, but with the Anaheim area salivating for a basketball team, the timing couldn't be anymore perfect. As revealed with the Kings, the city is prepared to dish out tons of money in support of any team prepared to make a move. Now what do you think they would do for a team with Blake Griffin? Especially after the disappointment of missing out on the Kings. As far as the asshole of a owner we currently have, he would be more than satisfied with the financial backing he would certainly receive from such a move. Further, i dare to say that his bottom line may even increase with a definite increase of fan base. The variable in question, would be how many loyal LA based fans would continue to support the franchise (see poll).

The biggest reason why I'm in so much of support for the move, is what it would do for the team itself. Some may feel that playing in the Lakers shadow has no correlation with the team's success. I totally disagree. I feel that as grown man and paid professionals something like that should not affect your performance, but in reality it does. Maybe the Blakes in the world are not psychologically affected, but just months ago we heard Eric state with no hesitation his preference and benefits of playing in another area. Revealing that, yes, the players constantly feel and are affected by the negative bias too. I feel that 100% of the players on the team feels this way. It's just that some can play through it and still perform at a peak level, where some could use a boost, like not feeling like a step-child, to consistently play at their highest level. Considering all this, there is no doubt that a move like this would be the ultimate domino in changing the culture of this franchise.

Lastly, considering all other parties evolved for a moment, this move would satisfy everyone's need. LA fans (of the Lakers) would be happy, as they would feel like the move would give them more space while also eliminating the possibility of a third LA team. Sacramento fans will be happy because the threat of Anaheim would be permanently lifted. And finally Anaheim is happy, because they finally have a team. So what say you nation?

Long story short I'm riding the Club Optimism cloud, feeling like our club is finally going to shut a lot of people up. Forget rookie game, Blake's gonna be an All-Star, Baron is going to get some most improved nods, and dare I say Kaman will continue his solid play. But none of that's here nor there.

Because of my excitement I been plotting on an authentic home Blake jersey for sometime now, scoping the NBA store frequently for any updates. Finally I call and they tell me that according to the computer they still don't have any in stock, but should expect it soon, as many other teams home jersey are all ready available. So fine, I know how that story goes business is business and lets face it people across the country aren't lining up to drop $280.00 on a Clipper jersey. But what happened this morning was what got me. So I do my routine check as I always do and still no home jersey. So then I say, let me google it just to see if an independent distributor got his hands on it first. And low and behold there it was, a listing for "Adidas Los Angeles Clippers Revolution 30 Custom Authentic Home jersey". So now I'm ecstatic. I can finally order my Blake white authentic. But wait a minute..the link leads to the NBA store. The same site I just checked. The same site that said their computer didn't show any home jerseys. So I click it and boom there it is our newly design white jersey. So at this point I'm like f it, I don't know why it didn't pop up a minute a go but I'm copping my new Blake jersey. And thats when it hit me. Scrolling through the players, there was no Griffin, no Gordon, no Kaman. But there was an Odom. And a F'in Bryant. Here these morons at the NBA store of all places put OUR home jersey under the Lakers!......(click here for your #24 Bryant Clipper jersey). 

So no big deal, I'm getting ready to call those pricks up and have them fix their mistake (And finally order my Blake authentic). But just wanted to share with the nation the typical nonsense that you have to go through being a Clipper fan

When both the home and away jerseys are formally introduced on Monday, will they be immediately available for purchase online at NBA.com?

If not, how long does it usually take for the NBA store to update their jersey inventory? I'm assuming they should already have them in stock, as I saw earlier this week how a fan received an updated replica jersey when attempting to purchase last seasons version. Four more words, Yes!

So yesterday during the draft, our slightly tweaked logo was finally confirmed. FYI, during the last few weeks of processing the decision and final results of the "logo change", I'm very happy with it. Always liked the effortless simplistic class of our logo and jerseys and the tweak was just enough to "freshen" things up without altering the image completely. 

While watching the draft, I also notice another slight tweak. (Again this is only for those that care, because change is slight.) The Clipper draft hat displayed our typical scripted lettering, but with blue being the dominate color rather than red. So to search for more concrete evidence of such a change, I visited the clipper webste only to discover the change there as well.

So what does this mean? Who knows. Maybe the slight jersey change will be blue lettering rather than red. Maybe with blue being our new prominent team color, our away jerseys will now be blue and the alternates red. Not anything ground breaking, but wanted to share this with anyone that cared.

By the way......I'm ecstatic how the draft played out. Even though George was my man, I couldn't ask for a better result. Aminu, Bledsoe, and Warren!...That's what I'm talking about Neil!

Credit to Citizens Lawler 4ever and Takebb909 for the discoveries. 

Logo looks like official change, but definitely a minor tweak. If your all for preserving the Clipper brand that we all are use to, your happy with the change. It looks cleaner and more modern, but it still maintains its timelessness. If you were expecting a logo that looks different on immediate sight you will surely be disappointed.

The website change, in my opinion, is a complete success. It was long overdue, and they did a great job. It finally looks like an official NBA website, without getting too cluttered and busy with meaningless flash. Score one for the front office on that one. Good job fellas. 

LINKS:  

new logo (yes, it is different) credit to Lawler 4ever

website credit to Takebb909

via www.woodenaward.com

So I asked this same question in a comments section and realized it might be a little more appropriate here. I know, I know, there is little to no chance we will have to make this decision anyway. But at this time of year with not much to discuss, it's worth entertaining the thought.

As I previously stated in the aforementioned comment section, I for one would take Evan over Wall. I'm all for best available over need, when your team is desperate for improvement, but when you have two players so close in talent, you then have to acknowledge the better fit for the team.

I'm feeling to lazy to fully go deep into an explanation of why I would go in this direction so I lifted the following break-down of Turner from our good friends over at ClipperBlog

Evan Turner – Ohio State: He’s gaining some momentum to possibly take the number one spot on draft boards from Wall, and for good reason. Turner reminds me a lot of Brandon Roy — not an overwhelming athlete, but ridiculously skilled and shockingly versatile. Sometimes, you can just tell when you’re watching a star. When Kevin Durant was in college, you knew. Turner is a lot like that – he’s just so much smoother than everyone else out there. Offensively, everything looks like a cakewalk for him. Can he play small forward in the NBA? I think so. He may only be 6-foot 7, but Turner is an incredible rebounder (9.4 a game) and an amazing distributor (22.0 assist rate). You could get away with Turner at the 1 even, in sort of a point-forward role. If you’re looking for one player who fits the Clippers perfectly, it’s Turner.

I don't know if my frustration is blinding me from reality, but I feel strongly that we can make history by getting rid of our owner. How do we do this? Boycott.  I heard people suggest this before, but this really needs to be taking seriously. I won't waste everyone's time in explaining why it needs to happen (google Donald Sterling if your really that uninformed), but this is a perfect time to do it.  Just imagine the hit if at least 60 to 70% of Clipper fans refuse to buy tickets, refuse to renew season tickets, refuse to buy jerseys and other memorabilia. Now imagine it catching on and eventually becoming 90 to 100% of Clipper fans. The players will be fine. Actually they would love it. They would not only continue to get paid, but also be delighted at any possibility of Sterling stepping down. The media would jump all over it, digging up all of Sterling failures and dirt over the years, and doing it on a daily bases.  We would not only have the attention of the whole sports world, but more importantly the support of the sports world, as they would realized the historic potential of our boycott. The financial hit and the constant public humiliation would force Sterling to sell while the team still has value. Imagine every Clipper game with a !0% attendance rate, at that point I feel that even Stern would be forced to step in. Lastly we  could still be true fans by following the team on TV, as not watching would not hurt Sterling at all. Because he just recently made an agreement with Fox through 2016, he will get paid annually regardless if we watch or not. The key would be tickets and merchandise.  What say you Nation? I'm I crazy or on to something?

With so much attention on free agency and talk of potential restructuring of the NBA business structure, i was wondering under current league rules, as an attempt of luring a prospect player can a team offer the incentive of minority ownership?  For example, would Stern allow Sterling to offer Lebron a max offer, and in addition give him a small stake in the Clipper franchise? This would in turn allow Lebron, not only the insight, but also some limited control on the team's business dealings and operation. Not saying I'm for or against it, was just curious. I see all the time teams giving players contracts with all types of incentives based on performance and what have you; and these offers provide a non-guarantee to additional earnings. So I can't see why an incentive such as ownership be denied by the NBA. Because like these previous mention incentives, having team ownership will not guarantee revenue to a player. Therefore, it should not conflict with the salary max allowed.  Just my thinking, hope you guys can help me out.

I'm one of those quiet citizens that reads numerous articles and post, with my constant responses only being heard by my Apple imac.  But, I have to get something off my chest.  It's a tragedy how underappreciated Marcus Camby truly is, and how obsess this franchise is with Chris Kaman.  Now this isn't one of those illogical "unsavvy" fan rants about how I just hate Kaman because of his goofy demeanor and ridiculous hairstyle. No, although that adds to the equation, I feel that he is one of the better centers of this league, but just not the right center for this team.  I'm not gonna get as statistical as Steve or Kevin would, but i will use common observations to support why we need to begin forgetting Christopher Zane Kaman.

Lets start by asking the question, "As a center, what is Chris Kaman's greatest strength?"  I think we can all agree that it's his ability to score.  Now mind you, I'm not saying he's great at this, I'm simply stating that it is HIS greatest asset as a NBA center, but more of that later.  He is not a great defending center, he's not a playmaking center with good court vision, awareness, control, and high basketball IQ, and he's not a rebounding center.  He is a scorer. Now I ask you this, "Do we need a "scoring center?"  I agree that players that can score should always be welcomed on any team, but when that is all a player has to offer, particularly at such a vital position, it becomes a different matter.  Moreover, examining this club, you will realize we're stacked with scorers in our lineup.  Good scores. Hell great scorers, maybe not as late, but great scorers.  Eric, the new and improved Al, a healthy Blake, and we all know what Baron is capable of.  Thats four fully cable scoring options, why the hell would we want to tie up valuable offensive possession time with the ball in the clumsy hands of Chris Kaman.  Now one could make a point that during a time like this with Eric back and forth with injuries and Blake out, that having a scorer like Chris is good to have around. Exactly, and this was his opportunity to show the Nation why Dunleavy been stuffing him down our throats for so long.  And don't get me wrong he had some great games, but to be a "scoring center" you better be able to not only score, but score on a consistent basis. You're not defending so great, your not making "savvy"(I'm not letting that go Dunleavy) court decesions, and your not rebounding...so yes you better be able to score at a high consistent basis. Is he? Is he clutch?  Would you give Chris Kaman the ball in the 4th quarter with 15 secs left down by one? A fair simple "No" is my answer. Actually it's common knowledge that Chris' performance decreases in clutch situations...and is that a great trait for a "scorer"? Fellow citizens, this was Chris' last opportunity and he showed us his  scoring potential, but it's just not a good fit with this team.

Which brings me to my final point. Marcus Camby.  Prior to the beginning of last season I was not considered a Camby fan.  I didn't dislike him, but was rather indifferent about him. But after witnessing two seasons with him on our team, I dare to say that Marcus Camby is undoubtently this teams MVP. Aside from Eric's flashes of greatness last season, Camby's consistent performances was the only thing worth cheering last year. And his solid play only continued into this season.  The tragedy is he does not get the recognition he deserves because he does it quietly.  He's not pouring in a string of games of 20 plus performances, he's to busy consistently (no string) grabbing a zillion rebounds and swatting just as many shots.  Lets look at question #1, but now pose it to Camby.  What is his strength? Some will say defender. Does this team need that...ah hell yeah. Does he do it consistently....ah hell yeah.  Some might answer rebounder...Does this team need that....ah hell yeah. Does he do it consistently....ah hell yeah. I agree with both, but would also answer, great playmaker. I could ramble off points to support this, but look no further than the Legendary Greatest Fourth Quarter of Clipper History. Who can forget "the pass"? Funny thing is, it didn't surprise me. News Flash, Camby is one of the best passing centers in the league. Also, which Kevin pointed out so well, Cambys ability to use his head and instruct Kaman on a vital defensive stop during live action is just the kind of leadership this team needs. Can we ever expect any of this from Kaman? Some Kaman fans may argue the age difference and state that Camby's years are numbered.  True, which makes him perfect for this team.  Camby still has a few more good years left in him, during that time he can continue to mentor our future center, D. Jordan.  Do we want Christopher Zane Kaman mentoring our future center?  Lets not make the same mistake that Toronto, New York, and especially Dever made.  Good centers are hard to come by. Lets tie this guy up for the rest of his career. He is exactly what we need with Blake, Gordon, Baron, and Al...that lineup just makes me gringe with excitement.  Kaman will only slow us down, by fumbling a past, or holding the ball too long, or by missing a defensive assignment. Keep Camby...and Forget Christopher Zane Kaman.