"Clippergeddon is about to hit and the team appears to have regressed from where it was before Kahn made it to town. I’m not sure how that alone isn’t a fireable offense. It was his job to soften the blow of Clippergeddon and he failed, in miserable and mind-blowing fashion."

Clips give up Kaman, Aminu, and Minny pick, get Danny Granger and Jrue Holiday.

I figured someone else would have posted this by now, but I guess not.

"The lesson: Players are going to leave if they want to, and often there isn't a ton that management can do about it...And besides, I suspect the prime competitor for Williams' services has assets the Jazz simply can't match. That team, from my viewpoint, is the Clippers. LA will have cap room and Baron Davis will have only one year left on his deal by then. It's a bad organization, sure, but it won't be a bad team if Williams and Blake Griffin are on it. It's also close to his offseason home in San Diego and can allow him to indulge in his primary off-court hobby, the golf course."

A well-written and sensible article (in my opinion) is torn apart in the comments by fans clearly drunk on Tyreke Evans kool-aid.

They had to because they had 16 players. Clips should pick Weaver up, he's better than EJ in per-36 rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and TOs, shoots a decent 35% from 3, and shouldn't cost more than the minimum. At the very least, he's a lot better than Blakely.

Via Chad Ford's Twitter:

"Xavier Henry not playing in Summer League b/c of contract dispute. How, given rookie salary scale?"

"Team customarily give player 120% of salary scale. Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley offered less. Thus ... no Henry in summer league"

"Note on Grizzlies: Teams can pay anything from 80% to 120% of rookie scale amount. In 95% of cases, teams pay the 120% amount"

Canis Hoopus laments a miserable draft night for the T'Wolves (kind of reminds me of the Clippers taking Chris Wilcox and Melvin Ely when they had FElton). Remember, the Clips own the Wolves' 2011 draft pick (top-10 protected, unprotected in 2012). Best case scenario: Wolves are terrible for 2 more years, top 2011 prospects sit out the draft for a year in fear of a potential lockout, the lockout never happens (because that would be horrible for all involved), and the Clips get a great pick in a loaded 2012 class. Unlikely? Sure. But certainly possible, and probably more likely than landing Lebron I'd say (though I'm not giving up hope on that one either).

Clips and Kings get As, Celtics/Pistons/Hornets/Sixers/Wizards all get A-minuses. Lowest grades: Warriors D+, Knicks D, Bobcats F. Bulls got an incomplete, but if they get Lebron and Bosh they apparently get an A+++++.

Dean Oliver: "the more or less [teams] had [stat guys] integrated into their decision making, the more or less they were at the extremes of winning and losing."

Does anyone know if there are any stat people in the Clips' front office?

[Comment From Roman]
Which West Conference teams do the rockets have to overcome to reach the playoffs?

Anup Shah (Rockets Buzz): Roman: All of them except the Clippers, Minnesota, and Sacramento

I was wondering why no one had posted this yet, then realized that not a lot of people have insider. So I guess I'll give a summary of what he wrote (btw I'm pretty sure these are very human-based, as opposed to the weird wins-produced predictions from the basketball-reference blog)

2008-09 recap:
He says the perimeter players (outside of Gordon) were crap and although the frontcourt was devastated by injuries, Jordan had a "solid rookie season" and Novak "established himself as a rotation player". Clips were only team in NBA in the top ten in TO rate and bottom ten in FT rate. Clips had worst FG% and worst TS %, leading to the worst offensive efficiency in the NBA. Defensively, they were 26th.

Offseason moves:
Griffin "should give them an All-Star-caliber performer at the power forward spot for the next decade or so." Randolph for Richardson "was the best trade of the offseason."

Biggest Strength: Frontcourt Depth
"The possibilities are endless for mixing and matching..."

Biggest Weakness: Small Forward
"With Baron Davis, Gordon, Griffin and Camby, the Clippers have four-fifths of a superb starting lineup, but it remains to be seen what they'll get from the 3 spot this season. Last year's starter, Thornton, was second on the team in scoring at 16.8 points per game, but it was an empty 16.8 -- his PER of 12.7 was basically identical to his rookie mark, and he made the same frustrating mistakes in his defense and shot selection...The next alternative, Butler, is a fine role player but not somebody you'd be excited to have playing 40 minutes a night...they'll ride it out with Thornton this year and cross their fingers that it works out."

Outlook:
"As a result, the Clippers may find themselves back in familiar territory -- albeit one year later than they expected -- as one of several contenders in the West for the conference's final playoff spot...Ultimately, however, too many question marks remain to comfortably place the Clippers in the conference's top eight...The Clips may not be a playoff team yet, but with a rising star in the frontcourt and a wad of cap space to build around him, they're finally headed in the right direction."

"34-48, 4th place in Pacific Division, 12th in Western Conference" (note: Warriors 35-47, Suns 40-42, Thunder 36-46, Rockets 37-45.)

No one voted "Clippers" for Lebron (some idiot picked Boston), though Webb mentions them as a wild-card option. Clips got 1 vote for Bosh and 3 votes for Amare.

Too funny