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.