July 2009 Archives

The Clippers announced today that they have waived point guard Mike Taylor.
Boy, did Taylor's performance in Las Vegas hurt him, as the 23-year-old was being looked at by the front office as a possible primary backup to Baron Davis, where he would've likely gotten major burn this season.
Then Taylor posted horrendous stats in five summer league games and the Clippers moved to get Sebastian Telfair from Minnesota, making Taylor the No. 3 point.
This move will probably lead to speculation that Ramon Sessions will receive an offer from the Clips, as has been rumored today, and it certainly could, but it's not a major indicator just yet.
Taylor was a high-risk, high-reward type of guy, and the Clippers decided the risk wasn't worth the reward anymore, and waived his non-guaranteed contract.

The Clippers roster as it stands today:

PG: Baron Davis/Sebastian Telfair
SG: Eric Gordon/Ricky Davis/Mardy Collins (could also play the 1 or 3)
SF: Al Thornton/Steve Novak (who has not signed his QO but can be expected to)
PF: Blake Griffin/Craig Smith/Mark Madsen
C: Chris Kaman/Marcus Camby/DeAndre Jordan

That's 13 guys, which, given Mike Dunleavy's penchant for carrying only 14, leaves one roster spot open. Of course, it's possible that both Novak and Madsen won't break camp with the team.
Where are the weak spots on that team? Well, it's certainly in need of a third-string point, but Collins can fill that position in a pinch. Other than that, with only Ricky Davis coming off the bench to fill the swingman 2/3 spot, I'd say that's a need as well.

The Clippers rumored interest in Milwaukee restricted free agent Ramon Sessions is real. The urgency of signing the former D-Leaguer has dimmed a bit after last weeks' trade for Sebastian Telfair.

The Clippers felt strongly they needed a veteran point guard to back up Baron Davis. Last year they hoped Jason Hart could play that role, but that clearly didn't work out. Hart ended the season on the Nuggets bench.

Second-year man Mike Taylor was pressed into early duty and was showing signs of improvement before a thumb injury cost him two months of the season. The Clippers are still high on him, but don't want to rush his development by forcing him into the primary back-up role.

The team still likes Sessions, but bought itself some serious leverage by acquiring Telfair.

Telfair is a proven commodity in the league and the Clippers feel fine with him as their No. 2 PG. His contract is also very tradeable. It doesn't hurt that he's young with room to grow.

So what would happen if Clippers signed Sessions? Would they carry four PGs? For now the team is taking a ``cross-those-bridges-when-they-come-to-them'' attitude.

I was also told not to go too far down line with these hypothetical questions as negotiations with Sessions aren't past ``50-yard-line'' yet.

Also: Sessions is hardly the only backcourt player Clippers have contacted this offseason. One source said the team has put feelers out to just about every combo-guard on the market.

One other housekeeping note: The Clippers still have a qualifying offer out to restricted free agent sharp-shooter Steve Novak.

It appears Rory White is out as an assistant with the Clips, as the NBDL's Dakota Wizards have hired him to be their head coach.
This creates an opening along the bench for Mike Dunleavy, who currently lists Kim Hughes, Tony Brown, and Fred Vinson as assistants. The Clippers have traditionally gone with at least four. Quite a turnaround from last year's staff, as only Hughes and Vinson will return and Jim Eyen (Sacramento), Neal Meyer (Cleveland), and White will depart. Meyer has not officially been added to the Cavs' bench, but he has been taken off the Clippers' assistant list.

Just got back from the presser/media availability held at the Clippers practice facility in Playa Vista. Here's a few notes:

-Craig Smith went first, dressed snazzily in a sweater-over-a-shirt, and certainly held his own in talking to the media. He seemed genuinely excited to be back home in LA and noted that he has had more than 150 calls and texts from family and friends since the trade.

-Sebastian Telfair was second to go in front of the camera, dressed in a red shirt, blue pants, and white undershirt. He definitely didn't pull a Blake Griffin, as a fellow reporter alluded to. Telfair said all the right things.

-Besides Mike Dunleavy mistakingly calling Craig Smith "Chris," he said something else interesting. Dunleavy said that he had reached out to the Wolves on draft night about Telfair after they took Rubio and Flynn, and had not thought about Smith at first.

-Mark Madsen showcased his hearty laugh often, showing exactly why he's managed to stick around in the league for 10 years, and seemed to be a very likable guy that knows his role.

-The players then dressed in their jerseys and took photos for NBA.com. Smith's jumper looked impressive while they waited.

The Clippers traded Quentin Richardson to the Timberwolves today for Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, and Mark Madsen.
Richardson had just been acquired in a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies last week for Zach Randolph, but he will now take his expiring contract to Minnesota.
In exchange, the Clips get two solid reserves and that archetypal "glue guy."
"We felt like Q helped us at 1 spot," assistant general manager Neil Olshey said. "But we added multiple reserves for him. What this trade does is solidify the backup spots."
Smith, a power forward entering his fourth season, has been an efficient player in the NBA. He averaged 10.1 points in fewer than 20 minutes per game for the Wolves last season. His PER (Player Efficiency Rating) was an exceedingly high 17.01 for a backup. By comparison, Zach Randolph's was 19.72 and Richardson's was 11.62. Smith also lit up the Clippers for 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting in a January contest.
"He's the type of guy guys like playing with because he knows who he is as an offensive player and he flourishes in that role," Olshey said.
Telfair, a highly-touted point guard out of Brooklyn, New York, never lived up his phenom expectations but has turned into a viable backup at the 1. Still only 24 years old, he averaged 9.8 points and 4.6 assists per game last season while starting 43 of 75 games. With the Wolves selecting both Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn in the first round of the June draft and Flynn lighting it up, Telfair became expendable.
Olshey: "With Sebastian, we get a solid backup point guard who is a great penetrator and very quick."
Madsen will hardly play with the Clippers but was a necessary piece to make the money work from end to end. He just scored just six points for the Wolves last season in 19 games, but has always been ultra-popular to fans and teammates alike.
"Mark is a great person, and character-wise, he'll be great in the locker room," Olshey said.
Both Smith and Madsen have expiring contracts, while Telfair has a $2.7 million player option for 2010-11.

The final score was 85-68, and it wasn't pretty. With Eric Gordon out with a sore right now, the Clips didn't have much offense, as only Blake Griffin (18 points on 8-of-20 shooting) and Nik Caner-Medley (who scored 15 and seven of the game's first eight) reached double-figures. Full recap and boxscore here.

Where was DeAndre Jordan?

No, really. 28 minutes, but only six rebounds and two points? The second-year man definitely suffered through some growing pains against young Memphis center Hasheem Thabeet, the No. 2 pick in this year's draft. Jordan, who turns 21 on Tuesday, also fouled out and committed five turnovers.

In other news, it looks like Marcellus Kemp has been dropped from the roster and replaced by former University of San Diego forward Corey Belser, who was at the mini-camp.

Against the Hasheem Thabeet-led Grizzlies. The Clips have won their first two summer league games, 93-82 over the Lakers and 88-86 over the Hornets. After taking yesterday off, Blake Griffin and co. will play the Grizz, who won their first game by 29 points.

Here's what Memphis SL head coach David Joerger had to say about the Blake Griffin vs. Darrell Arthur matchup. Arthur averaged 19 minutes a game for Memphis last season.

"They are very similar. They are both active, both athletic. They both have high motors. Darrell played pretty well against him when they were in college. Darrell is our go to guy with this group, so we are going to need to go at Griffin not just defensively, but also offensively because he is our go to guy on offense for this team."

Arthur will be the best big Griffin has faced in Vegas. Other players of note on the Memphis roster: Sam Young, DeMarre Carroll, and former Clipper Daniel Ewing.

Updates to come.

I've confirmed the Clippers interest in Allen Iverson is mutual, but it's hard to say who is more into who. lverson clearly needs a job and isn't hurt at all by his name being linked to several franchises: Miami, Memphis and now the Clippers.

The Clippers are intrigued by the idea, but I'm told by a team source they are intrigued by several players right now. On the wish list before next season is adding another big (to replace Brian Skinner) and another perimeter player. The team still has it's MLE, it's bi-annual exception, veteran minimums and a $7.3 million trade exception once the Zach Randolph trade is finalized.

Which of these options it uses to sign those two players is still to be determined. Iverson fits the ``perimeter player'' job description, but the team is still formulating its plans.

Of particular concern is how adding an Iverson to the mix affects the development of shooting guard Eric Gordon, who blossomed in the second half of last season.

Just talked to a source close to the team who stressed that the team is no more in on AI than they are on many of the other available swingmen. The Clippers have not ruled it out, but the source said the negotiations were not serious at this point in time.

In 29 minutes, Blake Griffin had 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting and 12 rebounds. He also committed five turnovers and four fouls, but a solid debut nonetheless. Interestingly, he was listed as the center to start the game, although he moved back to the 4 when DeAndre Jordan came in.

Oh, and the Clippers won, 93-82. Full boxscore here.

Lisa Dillman of the L.A. Times is reporting that the Clippers are in very serious talks with Allen Iverson. What does that mean for the future? Who knows.

Meanwhile, the Clippers and Lakers will tip in roughly 50 minutes in Las Vegas at the Thomas and Mack Center. Find out how to watch here.

In other news, here's a solid feature on Blake Griffin from Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Former Celtics and Bucks assistant Tony Brown has been named an assistant on head coach Mike Dunleavy's staff.
Brown is now one of three assistants certain to be on the bench next season, along with head assistant Kim Hughes and new assistant Fred Vinson (who has been with the team in previous years in a different capacity).
As to assistants from last year: Jim Eyen's gone to Sacramento, Neal Meyer is a Cleveland summer league coach and a likely assistant on their staff next season, and Rory White is...well we don't know what's up with Rory White. We'll see. But either White will come back or Dunleavy will find another assistant, you can be sure.

An interesting internet nugget on Brown: a Bucks blog reports him as saying, "I'm just totally embarrassed to be a Bucks coach right now," at halftime of a December 2007 game.

We'll have more later, but in the meantime, here's a few notes:

- Blake Griffin has adjusted his shooting form. Instead of shooting on the way down from his vertical jump as he did in his predraft workout with the Clippers in June, he's now shooting at the top of his (albeit shorter) jump. It's a more streamlined jumper, for sure. Griffin: "That's something we've really been working on, shooting on the way up for my jumper, and extending every time and finishing as I'm going up. I feel like I'm shooting a lot better than I did in the workout. It feels really good."

- Mike Taylor was still a bit out of control at times, but he had a couple of nice alley-oop passes and certainly showed his quickness against former Notre Dame and Ohio State guards Kyle McAlarney and Jamar Butler. Both Griffin and DeAndre Jordan said after the workout that Taylor has pulled them aside and readied them for in-air action by the hoop.

- Jordan has been working on his offensive game. A couple times in the post he pulled nice moves against former Nevada center Kevinn Pinkney, but everything is still in its beginning stages. Jordan: "I've been working on my offense, trying to get it right. Even its some small moves, paint shots, I've been trying to work on anything besides dunking every time."

-Eric Gordon didn't make himself as much a part of the game as you would expect with the other players being of a lower caliber than he's used to. Still, he didn't disappoint.

- There were quite a few participants in the mini-camp of sorts who won't be on the summer league roster: guard Jamar Butler (Ohio State), forwards Korvotney Barber (Auburn), Corey Belser (San Diego), and Travon Bryant (Missouri), and forward/center Kibwe Trim (Sacred Heart).

- Sean Banks was probably the most impressive non-Clipper at today's workout. He showed his athleticism numerous times in the scrimmage. After leaving Memphis after his sophomore season in 2005, Banks has floated around the basketball scene, including appearances in the summer league, NBDL, and in Puerto Rico and Turkey. He averaged nearly 22 points a game in the 2007-08 season with the L.A. D-Fenders of the NBDL.

- Mike Dunleavy: "We threw a lot of stuff at them in the first practice, but overall picture, as we go through the next couple days we'll smooth it out. We'll come back tonight and see what did they grasp, what do they come back with, what do they have the second time, and start doing repetitions to find the places where they were lacking tonight."

Eric Pincus of Hoopsworld reports that the Zach Randolph-Quentin Richardson trade agreed to by the Clippers and Grizzlies will be delayed about a week due to the four-team trade the Grizzlies are involved in that was finalized today.
Pincus stresses that the deal is still on, however.

It's been a foregone conclusion for a while now that Blake Griffin would join the Clippers.

Since May 19, to be exact, when the Clippers jumped two teams and won the first overall pick in the NBA's draft lottery.

On June 25, the team took a big step to that end, selecting the 6-foot-10 forward in the draft.

Thursday, the Clippers finally made it official, announcing the signing of the 20-year-old Griffin.

Although terms of the deal were not announced, the league's collective bargaining agreement stipulates that Griffin will get a three-year contract with a team option for the fourth year.

Under the agreement, Griffin will make between four and five million this season. The Clippers will also have the opportunity to make a qualifying offer after four seasons of the deal.

Griffin averaged 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds for Oklahoma in his sophomore season as he garnered AP Player of the Year honors. He now joins a Clippers team that was 19-63 last season and has won one playoff series in its history in Los Angeles.

"I'm not worried about it," Griffin said on draft day. "I feel like we have a great group of guys on the Clippers and I'm looking forward to helping them win games."

The Clippers have had a fairly active offseason thus far, selecting Griffin and extending a qualifying offer to forward Steve Novak. They also agreed to a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies that would net former Clipper Quentin Richardson in return for Zach Randolph. Although the deal has not been finalized, it should create an opportunity for the 20-year-old Griffin to develop on the job. While he won't have to be the team's No. 1 option -- Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, and Al Thornton are all expected to be back healthy -- Griffin should be the starter at power forward.

"The good thing for Blake is he's walking into a team where the roster composition is playoff caliber," assistant general manager Neil Olshey said after the lottery. "I don't think anybody's expecting him to have to play forty minutes a night and take twenty shots. He can kind of find his way and find ways to contribute."

The Clippers will hold their first of three summer league practices today at their training center in Playa Vista.

The summer league team -- with a roster featuring Griffin, Gordon, and DeAndre Jordan -- will play a slate of five games in Las Vegas, beginning with a Monday match-up with the Lakers.

The Zach Randolph-Quentin Richardson trade hasn't been completed just yet, due to ``timing,'' according to a source. This has a lot to do with the reported trade involving Shawn Marion between Dallas-Toronto-Memphis. Basically, Memphis has cap space to help facilitate the deal, but will lose that space when Randolph goes onto their books. Hence the ``timing.''

My source indicated the deal should go through by tomorrow at the latest however.

Evidently, 77% of you think the Zach Randolph trade was good for the Clips, and local and national media outlets largely share the same opinion.

Kevin Arnovitz at Clipperblog, also at ESPN: "For the Clippers, moving Randolph isn't just about clearing minutes -- it allows the franchise to press rewind on what was a diastrous cultural acquisition in Randolph."

BIll Simmons: Dunleavy turns Z-Bo into Q's expiring deal for 8 mill less + copious 2010 cap space? All is forgiven! Red Auerbach lives!"

Steve Perrin at Clips Nation: "Frankly it's about as good as the Clippers could have hoped for...they'll clear cap space for the 2010 off season when some huge names are going to become free agents."

Interestingly, though, only 38% of national fans think the Clippers got the better of the trade, according to a poll by Foxsports.

You saw Ramona's post about the Zach Randolph trade. Now let us know what you think of it:

Make room for Blake Griffin.

On Wednesday the Clippers agreed to a deal that would send starting power forward Zach Randolph to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for guard Quentin Richardson, according to an NBA source with knowledge of the deal, thus clearing the way for Griffin, the No. 1 overall pick in last week's draft.

Due to league rules, the deal can not be completed until next week.

Randolph was the team's leading scorer and second-leading rebounder last season. He averaged 20.9 points and 9.4 rebounds in 39 games after coming over in a midseason trade with the New York Knicks.

When the Clippers won the lottery however, there was no longer room in the frontcourt for Randolph, Chris Kaman, Marcus Camby and now Griffin, a 6-foot-10 power forward.

The deal also creates an interesting homecoming with Richardson, who played four seasons with the Clippers from 2000-04, before signing a rich free agent contract with the Phoenix Suns.

Richardson averaged 10.2 points for the New York Knicks last season, but was shipped to Memphis in a draft-day trade for Darko Milicic.

The Clippers also benefit financially from the deal, getting out from under the $33 million owed to Randolph over the next two seasons, while taking back only Richardson's $9 million salary next season.

Because of the difference in Randolph and Richardson's salaries, the Clippers also receive an $8 million trade exception, which they can use later.

Randolph's agent Raymond Brothers said that his client was disappointed to learn of the deal, because he felt he had found an NBA home with the Clippers.

``It's tough getting traded but that's part of this business,'' Brothers said. ``It's just unfortunate because Zach really felt comfortable in L.A. and felt like he'd found a home. He wanted me to thank the Clippers and (owner) Donald Sterling for the opportunity to play with them for a year.''

The two teams had discussed a deal involving Randolph on draft day,
but it fizzled, a league source said, because the Grizzlies insisted
on the Clippers taking either Marko Jaric or Greg Buckner along with
Milicic.

The Clippers insisted on taking back a player with an expiring
contract, in order to justify parting ways with a proven frontcourt
player like Randolph.

The Clippers also weren't completely sold on adding Milicic, the
former No. 2 overall pick who has had an underwhelming NBA career,
because it would've added another player to an already-crowded
frontcourt.

When the Grizzlies dealt Milicic for Richardson, it reignited trade
talks.

Richardson had the best season of his career playing for the Clippers
in 2003-04, when he averaged 17.2 points and 6.4 rebounds.