2010-2011 L.A. Clippers

It seems like "this year" has been the year for the Clips every single year for the last 15 years. Years years years, in case I didn't have that word enough in the last sentence. With only one playoff appearance to show for it in the Elton Brand era, Blake Griffin is looking to define the franchise in a completely different fashion. It sucks that he lost an entire year of professional experience because of a fluke (cursed) injury, but he can still go a long way towards making this year the year for the Non-Lake Show.

2010-2011 Los Angeles Clippers

Point Guard: Baron Davis/Eric Bledsoe
Shooting Guard: Eric Gordon/Randy Foye
Small Forward: Rasual Butler/Ryan Gomes/Al Farouq-Aminu
Power Forward: Blake Griffin/Craig Smith/Brian Cook
Center: Chris Kaman/DeAndre Jordan/Jarron Collins

Let's start with the fundamentals for this money-pit franchise. Shooting: Davis, Gordon, Butler, Gomes can all extend to the 3-line. Rebounding: Kaman, Griffin, Smith, and Jordan are all workhorses on the glass no matter how many minutes they get. Ball-handling: Davis, Bledsoe, Gordon, and Foye can all get the ball up and down the court whenever needed. Now let's turn towards the potential (and probable) issues. Turnovers: all of those ball-handlers I just mentioned are all majorly TO-prone. Iso-Scorers: all the proven scorers on the squad (Davis, Gordon, and Kaman) are known for over-pounding the ball. Defense: nobody on the team plays any. This team can't be an selfish, isolation squad who turns the ball over every third possession and doesn't ever dig in for a stop. We already tried that with Team USA for about a decade a little while back. The Clippers definitely have all the talent you could want from top to bottom, but it's all on Vinny Del Negro to get them to actually work together. Hopefully Baron Davis understands this and pretends he's got Stephen Jackson and Jason Richardson flanking him. That way he might actually try to ... you know ... win a game or something.

Even though it's only his re-try at a rookie season, the success of the team really does hinge on Blake Griffin. He has All-NBA potential a few years into his career if he stays healthy and can build on the insane amount of game he showed at Oklahoma State. What's an even better sign for him is how meteorically he rose the level of his game from high school to his freshman season and then again for his sophomore year. The guy puts in the gym time, understands the game, and wants to improve. He probably would have been the runaway Rookie of the Year over Tyreke, but now he has to vouch for that title over the two UK guys. A little stiffer competition. But anyways, Griffin should seamlessly fit in with anybody on the floor. You don't come across many big men with his agility and speed who also know how to go through people to the basket. He should be able to be everything that Elton Brand was and significantly more for this franchise if he sticks around for awhile.

The guy who absolutely refused to wait on Blake Griffin was Eric Gordon. Gordon was a breakout star on the Olympic squad, with Russell Westbrook, of guys that the public had been highly underestimating. Yeah, he's undersized, but there's pretty much nothing else in Gordon's game that you can knock him for. He's got a sweet jumper improved to the point that he can shoot it from anywhere and he's a fearless attacker of the rim. He's got a strong frame at the two-guard, especially for his age, yet still has quickness to use in tandem with it. Gordon's been ranked as an elite wing man since high school, but it was never guaranteed that he would translate as well as he has to the pros. All you gotta know is that he can hoop. If him and Blake are still teammates four years from now, the Clippers will be a serious threat.

Why shouldn't the Clippers be able to sneak into the playoffs out West (besides the fact that they're the frickin' Clippers)? They're main obstacle to overcome is balancing their youth with their veterans. Eric Bledsoe and Al Farouq-Aminu can't come in thinking that they're the number 1 or number 2 (or number 3, 4, or 5) option. And along the same lines, Baron Davis and Chris Kaman need to know that they can't hold the ball for 19 of the 24 seconds and create everything on their own. If this team gels, they're insanely dangerous. I'm talking take-the-Lakers-to-seven-games-if-they-happen-to-meet-up-in-a-backyard-series dangerous. But if they don't gel ... then they're the Clippers. What did you expect? I personally think they make the playoffs and get bounced in the first round, but they're definitely on their way to assembling a power house. Mark it down.

Prediction
Regular Season: 44-38
Playoffs: Eliminated in first round

... and do the John Wall.

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Part Seven: Another Series of Unfortunate Events

All we had left to do was either win a game on their court or win a game on our court or win a Game 7 on their court. We simply had to avoid a three game losing streak and we would join in one of the most highly anticipated second round series of all time: the Across-the-Hall matchup with the already advanced Clippers! It would be absolutely insane. Quite literally, there never had been a Clip Show team that had shown fight like this one-time assembly of a collectively healthy and randomly thrown together group of Brand-Maggette-Cassell-Kaman-Mobley. We just needed one game!

But we didn’t get it. We got brushed aside pretty nonchalantly that first closeout attempt in the infamous game where Raja Bell eluded an attempted manslaughter conviction on national television when he intentionally clotheslined and forcibly threw down Kobe during a drive to the paint. Even though we lost that one, hope was high due to Bell’s obviously implemented suspension for the next game at Staples. But we decided that a golden opportunity like that should instead lead to blowing the simplest opportunity you’re ever going to get in the playoffs at home to advance to the next round. A desperation three-pointer was chucked with the Suns down three in the closing seconds of the game. If every Laker on the court had simply implemented the loudest cry of any amateur basketball coach in America, it would have been over. As the ball clanged off the rim and backboard, hovering in the air just waiting to be defensively gobbled up by someone in yellow, someone didn’t put their butt on a body. Shawn Marion weaseled his way into the lane to snatch the ball and kick it out to the perennially unreliable Tim Thomas for a retry three which, as they usually do in unfortunate situations, singed the net. Overtime occurred. And with it, a butt whooping. All of this achieved by the Suns in direct retaliation to Kobe’s 50 points he would score on the night as he so badly tried to will the Lake Show to a closeout victory. Fatefully, it was a butt whooping that lasted for all of the five minutes of overtime as well as the next four quarters of Game 7. That was it. The countless T-shirts and memorabilia for the all-L.A. matchup had to be scrapped. We somehow manage the near impossible, becoming one of those teams that’s listed on the wrong side of the record book. Darn near every team closes out the series when up 3-1 … except us. That sucks.

But it seemed like a good foundation, right? I know we historically blew an opportunity to get to the Western Conference Finals against all odds, but this team seemed like it had a core under the tutelage of Phil Jackson that could put up a serious fight in the coming years with just a few tweaks. So what did we do? We started tweaking.

[to be continued]

... but do take my word for it.

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