FULLY LOADED CLIPS

Once again the Clippers found themselves playing down to their opponents and nearly lost their opportunity for home court in the first round of the playoffs. The Clippers deserve a little slack after having their hearts’ broken earlier yesterday afternoon when Kobe and Co. came back from a 17 point deficit to lock up the 3 seed against OKC. With the Pacific Division championship and the 3 seed dream now over, the Clippers need to focus on one thing and one thing only: Winning 1 game. The Clippers head to Atlanta on Tuesday and if they can manage any sort of win, they can lock up home court in the 1st round. This is VERY important, because Memphis is continuing to win games and will most likely finish with an identical record as the Clippers. The Atlanta game becomes crucial because with only a 2 games left the Clippers have a few nagging injuries starting to creep up on them. Yesterday, Caron Butler aggravated his hip injury and Nick Young didn’t even play because of his ongoing gimpy-ness. Also, Blake Griffin picked up his 12th technical foul, meaning 1 more and he’s suspended for 1 game. Just imagine if he got a tech in the finale at Madison Square Garden. The Clippers would be without their electric big man for the first game of the playoffs. And forgive me for being so blunt, but this 1st round against Memphis is going 7 games whether they like it or not.

Self control is becoming as big a part of the end of this season as injuries have. With Ron…err…Metta World Peace elbowing OKC’s 6th man of the year, the Lakers look to be down a player for a few games if not the entire 1st round. Blake Griffin can’t afford a fate similar to this, and let’s be honest, it’s really not that difficult to not get technical fouls. 

Previewing the REAL BALLERS OF ATLANTA  on Bravo:

The Atlanta Hawks are an athletic team that can beat anyone if they get hot, but they are streaky and can go cold for long stretches. It remains to be seen if Atlanta really has anything to play for. Atlanta is going to be stuck playing the Celtics in the 1st round of the playoffs, but they look to have home court being that they beat the Celtics just last week. The Celtics do own the tiebreaker, so the Clippers are probably going to have to deal with a revved up Hawks team. The Celtics play the heat on Tuesday, so maybe the Hawks should just chill the fuck out. The Celtics haven’t even played Allen, KG, or Rondo in their last two games. 

The Clippers are going to have an awful time winning this game against the Hawks, but this really feels like Mo Williams will have his name all over it. CP3 is going to give it his all and Blake will provide good energy, but coach VDN knows he needs his role players to become scoring threats in the final two games. Look for Mo Williams to run the 2nd team while opening up a TON of 3 point attempts for Randy Foye, Bobby Simmons, and even maybe Bledsoe (god, I hope not). I don’t like the idea of a shorthanded Clippers team going into a must win game, but at least there’s a good chance the Knicks will be taking the day off on Thursday.

So here’s a quick recap of what the 3-5 seeds look like going into Monday night:

3. LAKERS (41-24)  Remaining: @ Sacramento; Predicted W-L (42-24)

4. CLIPPERS (40-24) Remaining: @ Atlanta, @ New York; Predicted W-L (41-25)

5. GRIZZLIES (39-25) Remaining:  vs Cleveland, vs Orlando; Predicted W-L (41-25)

The Clippers have quietly returned to the Western Conference Champion conversation. For a team that wins almost ALL of their games by a small margin in the final minutes of the final quarter, they have done an excellent job of staying under the radar. Only in a season this screwy could a team with an MVP candidate, the most electrifying player under the sun, and having a home court in the 2nd largest market in America go almost completely unrecognized. 

The headline hierarchy goes some thing like this:

1.CAN THE HEAT WIN IT ALL?

2.WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE ORLANDO MAGIC?

3.CAN KOBE AND DERRICK ROSE RETURN TO FULL STRENGTH FOR THE PLAYOFFS?

4.ARE THE SPURS TOO OLD?

5.IS THIS THE YEAR OF THE THUNDER?

6.HOLY SHIT, THE CLIPPERS ARE GOOD?

By my unscientific count, the Clippers are at best the 6th most compelling playoff story  as far as the major media outlets are concerned. To be honest, that’s just fine by me. I really don’t think coach VDN needs any more pressure on him than he already has. Many of the guys on the team don’t have any playoff experience and for that reason they’re inclined to press during the playoffs. It would actually be a great relief if the Lakers could dominate Los Angeles’ sports page at least through the 1st round. 

My earlier post about the finishing schedules of the Lakers, Clippers, and Grizzlies is beginning to come into shape. The Grizzlies did drop their first game, destroying my undefeated pick, but they’re still on pace to finish 7-1 in their final 8. It is imperative that the Clippers keep winning. The Clippers really showed something by defeating the Thunder at home a few night’s back but the more important win was probably in Denver. Road games against playoff hungry teams are going to be slugfests that truthfully, I’d rather the Clips didn’t have to be playing this time of year. The Lakers seems to be in similar trouble as the Clips because the Grizzlies are going to keep coming given their cupcake schedule. The Lakers have a MAJOR advantage over the Clippers with the tiebreaker. As it sits right now the Clips and Lakers are on a collision course to finish with identical records. Strangely enough, one more loss by the Grizz and the playoff standings would basically be set. The Lakers and the Clippers, both, own tiebreakers over Memphis, so with the help of a Grizz loss and some fancy math the Clips could lock in to the 4 seed. 

I guess the scariest part of the final 4 games of the season is trying to find the balance between health and victory. On paper the Clippers really need to run the table in these games, but should the Grizzlies lose and the Lakers take down the Thunder and the Spurs, I would seriously consider resting everyone for the away games @Atlanta, and @New York. A season this grueling puts coaches in a very precarious position and one’s record really doesn’t mean much once the playoffs begin. The Spurs are especially dangerous because their coach has been resting the starters off an on for ENTIRE games and still could win the top seed in the Western Conference.

The Clippers have 3 of their final 4 on the road. Shockingly, tonight’s game in Phoenix might be the most difficult game left on the schedule. The Suns are only a half game out of the playoff picture, and their Clippers haven’t won in Phoenix since before the housing crisis. After tonight’s bloodbath, the Clips will finish their home schedule with the Hornets. That’s a cupcake and the Clips should have that game over with by halftime. Then comes the interesting games. Back to back games against the Hawks and the Knicks. Both teams could be locked into their playoff positions by then. Even more interesting the Clippers could be locked into their playoff seed. So these road games could be do or die must win games or a couple of snoozefest games between teams that don’t care. 

In sports, people always talk about teams having “control of their own destiny”. This year it seems the Clippers have very little control over their destiny. The Lakers really control the destiny of the Clippers, Grizzlies, AND themselves. The good news here is, no matter what happens that destiny is a playoff destiny. So yes, watch the Clippers tonight and cheer them on against the Hornets in their home finale, but I’d keep one eye on the Lakers come Friday and Sunday. Your destiny depends on it.

It’s not going to be pretty from here on out. The Clippers just have to keep on winning. The playoff race is going to be played on the razor’s edge for the rest of the way and CP3 realizes the Lakers, Grizzlies, and even Vinny Del Negro need not stand in his way. The Clippers are luckily flying under the radar and could be a very sneaky team in the 1st round of the playoffs. Unfortunately however, the Lakers and Grizzlies (their likely opponents) don’t show signs of letting up either. The hottest teams in the Western conference may be the Lakeshow, Memphis, and our very own Clippers.

Next up the Clips face off against the 1st place Thunder on Monday night. It’s a real shame the Clippers have to have a game that tough when they’re pushing for the 3 seed, but as we’ve seen before the Clippers tend to play up or down to their opponents. So perhaps the Clippers will be hardened into playoff steel by the time the season comes to a close. The Clippers certainly have to feel good about being one win from clinching a playoff spot. Playoff tickets are incredibly rare in these parts, so convincing me that we’re actually in the playoffs is going to be a difficult enough task. 

As for today’s game I was impressed in the starters’ resilience, but the bench really left a lot to be desired. Nick Young needs to raise his game now that Mo Williams is back from being injured. Nick Young doesn’t have the pressure to score that he was saddled with while Mo was on the shelf. I really hope he learns to relax and just let the game come to him. The giant red flag in this game was the 12th technical foul Blake “earned” by shooting his mouth off. Blake is a truly great player, but he continues to hurt himself by insisting on berating the refs after nearly every possession. With Blake’s next tech he will be force into a mandatory one game suspension. The Clippers have ABSOLUTELY no room for error, and Blake’s screwing around with the refs. Hopefully CP3 and even the injured Chauncey Billups will sit Blake down and explain to him that he’s hurting the team. Maturity is not this team’s greatest quality, but if they plan on making noise in the playoffs they have to learn to play smart. Right now the smartest thing they can do is keep Blake’s mouth shut.

Next up:

Lakers play Dallas tomorrow

Memphis has Utah tonight

Clippers face Thunder on Monday

Let the chaos ensue, go Clippers!

2 wins in two days. The Clips cut down OKC on the road and then turned around and planted the T-Wolves. Obviously the win over the Thunder looks far more impressive than the victory over a Rubio/Love-less Wolves squad. However, the win tonight was just as, if not more, important than the OKC game. The Lakers, Clippers, and Grizzlies are in a dead heat that will easily go down to the final games of the season. Each win counts as one W and each loss counts the same in the L column. Games against the Thunder are going to count the same as games against the Bobcats, so every team knows they can’t have off nights or fall victim to trap games. The Lakers hold an advantage over the Clippers because of the tiebreaker, but the Lakers still have San Antonio two more times on their schedule. The two road wins this week will be huge if the Clippers have any hopes of snagging that 3 seed and the Pacific title. 

Now I’ll break down the schedules of these 3 playoff teams:

Memphis Grizzlies:

vs Utah Jazz- Must win for the Jazz but they’re fading. Memphis will defend their home court fiercely.

@ New Orleans Hornets- I doubt the Hornets will win anymore games this year. They want that #1 pick.

@ Minnesota Timberwolves- Kevin Love and Rubio are out. That means the Wolves are out.

vs New Orleans Hornets- Must be nice to play these cupcakes twice.

@ Charlotte Bobcats- This is the best college basketball team in the country. Unfortunately, they play in the NBA.

vs Portland Trailblazers- The Blazers are calling it quits now that Aldridge is out for the season.

vs Cleveland Cavs- A very respectable season for a rebuilding squad but with the Grizz playing for their lives, I anticipate another W for Memphis.

vs Orlando Magic- Which Magic team will show up? If the Magic has anything to play for they could win this game, but if not they’ll lay down like dogs.

Grizzlies finish (8-0)

Los Angeles Lakers:

vs Denver Nuggets- If Kobe’s still out, this one’s a coin flip. Denver can’t afford to lose.

vs Dallas Mavs- Same story with Dallas. They’re fighting just to make the playoffs. Nobody wants to start the playoffs in OKC or San Antonio.

vs. San Antonio Spurs- With the Thunder skidding the Spurs look to take the 1 seed and home court throughout the playoffs.

@ Golden State Warriors- Strangely this road game might be a welcome relief for the Lakers. No way G State wins this game.

@ San Antonio Spurs- Party’s over. The Spurs don’t lose at home…much.

vs Oklahoma City Thunder- From the frying pan into the fire. This game will be a barn burner. Also, the Thunder is a terrible match up for the Lakers.

@ Sacramento Kings- A blowout to end the year will help Laker fans from jumping off a bridge.

Lakers finish (4-3)

Los Angeles Clippers:

vs Golden State Warriors- This game will be closer than it needs to be, but the Clips take care of business.

vs Oklahoma City Thunder- A payback game. The Thunder don’t let the Clips get away with another one.

@ Denver Nuggets- The Nuggets and Clippers will kill each other in this game. Don’t be surprised to see a fight or a few ejections. Good things don’t happen in Colorado…just ask Kobe.

@ Phoenix Suns- No one can explain why the Suns won’t go away. No one can explain to Steve Nash that he should go play for a better team. Hopefully I won’t have to explain why the Clips let this one get away.

vs New Orleans Hornets- This one will feel particularly good with the tension that will be built up by this point.

@ Atlanta Hawks- Which Hawks team shows up and will they have anything to play for? I hope they won’t. The Hawks are young, athletic, and fighting for their playoff lives.

@ New York Knicks- This one will make for good TV but I can’t see CP3 letting his team close the season with a loss at MSG. Sorry Melo.

Clippers finish (5-2)

So here’s my playoff prediction for the 3-5 seeds:

3. Memphis Grizzlies

4. Los Angeles Lakers (by virtue of tie breaker)

5. Los Angeles Clippers

This doesn’t make me happy, but it’ll be a hell of a first round match up if the Grizz run the table.

Go Clippers!

The Clips did exactly what they needed to do.

Vinny managed to save his job.

But the Clippers are still in the 4 seed and still struggling to keep pace with the Spurs and Thunder (they never lose you see). 

Tonight is a gigantic game against Dallas and it really begins the make or break home stretch for the Clips and will decide their fate in the playoffs (hopefully).

Breaking Down the Schedule:

Apr. 2 @ Dallas -Winning in Dallas unlikely. Would be a huge plus. 0-1

Apr. 4 vs. Lakers -Any hopes of winning the Division make this a must win. 1-1

Apr. 5 @ Sacto -TRAP GAME. You gotta beat the bad teams. 3-1

Apr. 7 vs. Sacto -TRAP GAME PT. 2. Its always hard to beat a team twice in a row. 3-1

Apr. 9 @ Memphis - The Griz are playing for their lives. Tough game. 3-2

Apr. 11 @ OKC -Sigh, 3-3

Apr.12 @ T-Wolves -Possibly the toughest game yet. Clips off a loss, Wolves have killed the Clips all year. I look for the Clips to step up. 4-3

Apr. 14 vs. Golden State -TRAP GAME PT.3 The Clips LOVE to lose these games. This is the year to change that. 5-3

Apr. 16 vs OKC -Who pissed off the schedule maker? Hopefully OKC won’t have anything to play for, but I’m not betting on it. 5-4

Apr.18 @ Denver  -This will be a bloodbath. I think Denver has too much to play for and the Clips may be stuck in the 4 to 5 seed range by this date. 5-5

Apr. 19 @ PHX -The Clippers get right with the Sun gods and improve to 6-5.

Apr. 22 vs. New Orleans -Clips roll the Hornets by 20. 7-5

Apr. 24 @ ATL -Ugly game, neither team plays well. Home team prevails. 7-6.

Apr. 25 @ Knicks - CP3, at MSG on ESPN? Clips make a statement in the final game of the regular season. 8-6

So there you have it. I think we’re looking at an 8-6 finish to the season and realistically, that’ll probably be good enough for a 4 or 5 seed. I could be right, I could be wrong, but I’m finally starting to believe that the playoffs are in sight. 

Nothing cures a bad losing streak like playing shitty teams at home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy. Winning is always better than losing, but as the Wolf said, “let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks quite yet.” The Clippers have two more huge home games before heading back out on the road to visit Dallas. The Clips play a short handed Portland squad and a suddenly potent Utah team. The Blazers always play hard and the Clips know protecting their home court won’t be easy, but if coach VDN thinks he’s truly figured this coaching thing out the Clippers should win that game. The toughie should be the Utah game. Since I was a small boy the Jazz have been slow, white, and irritatingly good. This year is no different, and with the Western Conference playoff picture becoming more and more of a clusterfuck by the day, I anticipate a dog fight in this one. 

The Lakers are a boring team. The Lakers don’t even look like a particularly good team, yet there they sit in the 3rd seed for the West. The Lakers lull the NBA to sleep by beating all the bad teams and stealing a few wins against the good teams. The Lakers protect their home court and beat lower teams on the road. Everyone wouldn’t be terribly impressed with their resume, but you look up and “bam” there they are in 1st place. The Spurs have been doing this in the West for the last decade. Personally I’d rather watch the Bobcats self destruct in Charlotte than go to a Spurs game. Paint watches Tim Duncan dry. Yet, the Spurs are once again in the running to have the best record in the NBA!

Winning is new to the Clippers, but to be a great team they need to figure out how to be “boring good”. Blake needs to learn how to give 100% effort the correct way, so he isn’t burnt out down the stretch or loafing on defense. Coach VDN needs to prepare his team to blow out teams like the Kings, so he can rest his starters in the 2nd half. CP3 needs to teach the team how to run the pick and roll to get easy buckets, so they don’t have to rely on clutch jump shooting all the time. Andrew Bynum is starting to put up Blake-like numbers, and that’s not because he’s the 2nd coming of Kareem. Bynum gets 20 points every night from shots inside 1ft. Basketball is about match ups and advantages. Good players and good coaches exploit the match ups that favor themselves and hide the bad match ups if possible. 

The Clippers are better than the Trailblazers and the Jazz, but now they have to go out and prove it. There is only one month left in the season and the Clippers are going to be under pressure to squeeze out every possible win. The West is a complete nightmare, and playoff seeding is becoming less and less important, but the adage that experienced teams win in the NBA seems to be holding up. The Lakers and the Spurs look prepared for the run. The Thunder are the most talented team out there, but they’re still untested for the deep run. The rest of the West is a mess of anyone’s game. As long as the Clips have a healthy CP3, anything’s possible, but they’d be wise to win all they can from now through April.

All you need to know is that Dick Cheney thinks this guy is a fucking asshole.

Today he crawled out of his lair to announce his “faith” in coach Del Negro. Why you ask? Because he’s cheap. He is a miserly cheap bastard that has done to the NBA what he’s done to countless tenants of his real estate empire. He continues to make money or save money without putting a quality product on the market. This year was supposed to be his great olive branch. This was the year he pries open his pocketbook and after letting the moths out and brushing the cobwebs away he’d spend some damn money on some damn talent. It appeared like this was happening. He stole CP3 from the Lakers. He upgraded at the 3 by signing Caron Butler. He picked up Chauncey Billups from and amnesty deal. Things started to feel like they were coming together. But he just sat there staring at Vinny Del Negro. Sure, he knows Vinny sucks, but the buyout cost of his contract, PLUS paying another coach a million+ dollar salary was just over the top. 

So now the team is falling apart (don’t get me started on the last two wins), he crawls out of the slime to publicly announce Vinny’s his guy. Vinny’s own mother doesn’t think Vinny’s the guy. Time and time again analysts have discussed that in this shortened season the entire NBA title is WIDE OPEN. Particularly in the Western Conference where the difference between finishing 4th or 10th is 3 games. 

A lot of guys look back on their lives and remember a time in high school, college, their 20s, whatever, when the girl of their dreams hinted at them that she may have a connection with her admirer. It kills each one of us because we never took that chance to ask the girl out. We were chickenshit. We thought there would be more time. There would be a better time, place, environment, etc. We blew it. We didn’t lose the girl, because that would imply that we had her at one time, we never even found out if we had a chance. It still haunts us all.

The Clippers are staring the girl of their dreams right in the face. Of course, it’s likely that she turns us down and we go home broken hearted, but is it really worth not taking that shot? Our only move at the trade deadline was for Nick Young. Not as bad as doing nothing, but still not earth shattering either. Now we desperately need a leader to coach these young men through the playoffs and the Sith Lord, er I mean owner, is too chickenshit to pay his fucking severance and hire someone with talent. 

Far too often in life men pussy out because of the thought of being rejected only to spend years and years of their life alone with a bottle of Jergens and a box of Kleenex. Judging by the way Mr. Sterling is handling this year, my wrist is already starting to cramp.

Next up: Phoenix. 

The Clippers embarrassed themselves on the road trip and the whispers and rumors now became loud screams; it was time for Vinny togo. Famous writer and blowhard Stephen A. Smith came out and said that Vinny would be kept on the team until the end of the year because of Donald Sterling’s “thriftiness”. This almost didn’t seems possible, being that the team had a day off and then 5 easy home games, but in a blinding act of stupidity, the Clips retained VDN. Then Saturday happened. The Clippers came out and played GREAT. They rebounded, they defended, they passed the ball on offense and hustled down the court in transition. This was the one thing the Clippers didn’t need. Don’t get me wrong, the Clips need every win they can get, but they can’t afford to win anymore that will delay the departure of Vinny.

I was watching this documentary on HBO a few weeks ago about this retarded girl. The retarded girl was in her 30s, but all she could basically do was sit around and make pot holders all day. When the retard’s mother died, she was sent to live with her sister, a famous artist in New York. Well, the sister was very talented and had her own life to deal with but having to constantly care for a retarded person began to destroy her career and relationships. Neither person was evil for their situation, but together it just wouldn’t work. So when the sister prepares to ship her sister to a living facility, the retard gets it together. Fixing dinner, folding her clothes, taking care of the cat…it looks like the retard can actually hack it in the modern world. So everyone has reservations about sending her away, and saying that she’s really improved and that she really IS capable of taking care of herself.  VINNY DEL NEGRO IS THE RETARD! Blowing out the Grizzle on Saturday afternoon was his own personal “taking care of the cat and folding his clothes.”

Clipper fans, analysts, and hell even Clipper players are now questioning their feelings on coach VDN. Were we too emotional? Were we making knee jerk judgments because of our new success? Is it actually the players fault? NO. It is very likely that coaching isn’t the only problem with this team, but I assure you Vinny is a terrible coach. This team is on the eve of its first real playoff run in team history. Vinny is not a coach that can handle the playoffs. In playoff basketball, the game slows down and becomes a half court style of basketball. Vinny’s stagnant offense with too many isolations and lack of passing and movement will spell doom for the Clippers in the first round. Every single possession is magnified in the playoffs and the Clippers have enough flaws to begin with (Free throw shooting anyone?) to deal with a coach that can’t be creative enough to make in-game adjustments. 

For the last few days people have been throwing out names of who they want the next Clippers coach to be: Larry Brown? Phil Jackson? Nate McMillan? Mike D’Antoni? Those are all big names and I don’t know what the right answer to that question is, but I do know the Clippers don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of putting anything together with VDN in charge. And don’t look now, they’re 2 losses from being out of the playoff picture altogether.

New Orleans tonight…better not lose this one Vinny. Your job DOES depend on it.

I’m confused. I know the Clippers must be more confused. The Clippers played an almost great game last night. They defended, the transitioned the ball, the rebounded the ball, and they didn’t play down to the depleted Suns’ level…until the 2nd half. Neil Olshey was on the foxsports tv broadcast talking about the addition of Nick Young, and he added that the Clippers should be up 15 or so going into the half so they can take the fight out of the Steve Nash-less Suns. No sooner did the words come out of Mr. Olshey’s mouth than the Suns went on a run that cut the Clips’ lead to 8 going into the half. No one was worried or should have been, with a neutered Suns team that was virtually manhandled by the Clippers in the first half.

The 2nd half was a nightmare. The Clippers had a temporary flashback to being the Clippers of old. The 2nd half Clippers were not a playoff team, the 2nd half Clippers were a lottery team tanking at home in the hopes of securing the number one pick. Chris Paul was in the game at the wrong times and resting at the wrong times. The 2nd  unit, usually known for its energy, was a disaster and was turnover prone. It’s a shame in professional sports that fans of struggling teams attack the coaches first. Last night Nate McMillan got the ax in Portland. A few days ago, Mike D’Antoni was forced to leave the Knicks. But life is life and facts are facts, coach Del Negro is now sitting on a very hot seat. The Clippers have TWO players that started in the All-star game. They have THREE former All-stars in Caron Butler, Mo Williams, and Kenyon Martin. They have the best (maybe) point guard in the game, and the most explosive power forward in the league. They have a first class shot blocker in DeAndre Jordan. They have a great  energy guy in Reggie Evans. The team has good chemistry and is unselfish. What they don’t have is a coach with a clue. It’s time for VDN to go.

The Clippers have one day off and with the current schedule, now is going to be no time for practice. Coach Del Negro is going to have to put his big boy pants on and learn to make “in game” adjustments, because the schedule is not going to provide time for coaches to be technicians. Nick Young will provide a change of pace and hopefully a boost for this team but they’ll have to weather the storm without him until Tuesday. The Clippers play Houston on Saturday and Detroit on Sunday, these games SHOULD be wins. Houston is a playoff team from the Western Conference, but in this league you need to protect your home court otherwise you stand no chance in the playoffs. Detroit is a cupcake. The Clippers have already lost several cupcake games this year, so I’m not taking it for granted. But when you have a game, say, the Suns without Grant Hill or Steve Nash, you go out get up by 25, rest your starters in the 4th, and move one to the next game. What you don’t do, is pussy-foot around and end up losing a heartbreaker while burning out all your starters. Come Sunday night, I want to be writing about how the Clippers closed the homestand with a huge blowout against Detroit while welcoming Nick Young on Tuesday at the Pacers.

Go Clippers, don’t fuck this up!

Clips beat Hawks 96-82, hooray, yada yada yada.

The Clippers got rid of Brian Cook!

This is Nick Young. He is a jackass. He wildly shoots the ball from anywhere on the court. He has no idea what shot efficiency is. He’ll fit right in! I love this trade. The Clippers didn’t give up anything that could jeopardize the future (Bledsoe or a 1st rounder) and they got rid of one of the two guys rotting on the bench. Cook has given the Clippers the same amount of quality minutes this month that I have (zero). So if the Clippers can get ANYTHING out of Young they will win this trade. The Clips can also have a little more line up flexibility with Young’s 6’7 frame. He can play a big two or spell Caron at the three if necessary. The Clippers needed depth desperately, and I believe this is something. Nick Young is not going to help the glaring problem of perimeter defense, but hey, at least he’s 6’7. 

The Clippers play the Suns tonight, and you might as well get out your magic 8 ball to find out what’s going to happen. Are the Clippers energized from the win against the Hawks? Are they excited about the trade and the organization’s commitment to building a winner? Your guess is as good as mine. What I’ll find most interesting actually, is what this does to Ryan Gomes. He has been the biggest zero on the Clippers team (this side of Brian Cook) and with the trade for Nick Young (who plays the exact same position as Gomes), Ryan could be compelled to fight for his job or quit and wait for the offseason. If he quits, he could get cut, and if he works his ass off, the Clippers will have another quick minute option off the bench. My guess is he shrinks in the face of adversity, but I’ll be rooting for him to rally.

This final message is to Chris Paul. Spread the floor. Get perimeter spacing. Get the ball to the shooters. And yell at those bastards to get back on defense. If they can start hitting 3s, playing SOME defense and running the break, the Clippers can turn this old ship around.

Let’s go Clips.