September 2007 Archives

A tidbit of news came out of the Clippers today. Elton Brand had the cast removed from his left leg and was fitted for a removable walking boot at Christiana Care’s Wilmington Hospital in Wilmington, Del.

Brand has been ordered to wear the boot for six weeks, and during this time frame, he’ll be undergoing physical therapy.

What this all means is this: Brand is on the proper medical schedule to return from tearing his left Achilles on Aug. 3. There is no timetable for his return, but it is safe to say not in 2007.

Brand’s injury was a major blow to the Clippers, and they’ll have to enact some sort of smoke and mirrors interior offense and defense in his absence. He meant so much to them in terms of rebounding, scoring and shot blocking that, quite frankly, the Clippers cannot replace him.

The Clippers can hope that Chris Kaman becomes an All-Star this year and that Tim Thomas has the best season of his life and thrives playing more power forward, instead of small forward. And even if that happens with Kaman and Thomas, the Clippers still will have a huge hole without Brand.

How this team remains competitive without Brand appears to be some sort of glorious riddle. Hence, please see the previous blog featuring Dunleavy and his moneybags…

Elton Brand (Achilles) is expected to be out until at least 2008, and so will Shaun Livingston (horrific knee injury). Isn't there an adage that there is opportunity within disaster???

Well, if that's the case, maybe the upcoming Clippers' season, which looks like a disaster waiting to happen on paper, can be salvaged if coach Mike Dunleavy shows why the Clippers signed him to a five-year extension worth about $25 million.

Yes, that's $25 million!!! That's huge cash. Even by NBA coaching salaries, that's huge cash. One more time: $25 million!

Ka-ching:

Dunleavy has a chance to show he's worth that by somehow leading the Clippers to the playoffs. Heck, he'd probably show a lot if he simply got the team to be competitive, considering those injuries.

Let's see if "The Season of Injury" can become "The Season of Dunleavy."

It's probably the Clippers' only hope.

Amid all the pain of the Clippers' offseason, we forget about Brevin Knight. How much does he have left? How about Sam Cassell? What does he have left??

But amid the talk about all the veterans, assistant coach Rory White and the Clippers' coaching staff have been hard at work developing the team's young players, including draft pick Al Thornton and big man Chris Kaman...