From NBA.com:
The Los Angeles Clippers today re-signed unrestricted free agent forward Brian Skinner. Per team policy terms of the contract were not released.
In 51 games played with the Clippers last season, Skinner averaged 4.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 16.5 minutes per game. Over his 11 year NBA career, Skinner has tallied 4.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 18.3 minutes per game.
On June 30th, the Clippers announced that Skinner had decided not to exercise his player contract option for the 2009-10 NBA season, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Skinner was originally drafted by the Clippers in the first round (22nd overall) of the 1998 NBA Draft.
Earlier this summer, Skinner declined his player option to become an unrestricted free agent in the open market, but likely found that his services weren’t in high demand.
The minimum salary for a veteran free agent with ten years of service or greater is $1,306,455, so it’s hard to imagine Skinner’s cap number being much more than that. Skinner originally declining his option was a bit of a calculated risk on his part- he was penned to make 1.3 million if he stayed with the Clippers in the first place, so testing the waters cost him no money as long as he could find a home back with Los Angeles. Skinner presumably sweated out the Ramon Sessions race with the rest of us, but once that was finalized and Novak was brought back, there was an open spot to welcome Skinner (yet again) back to the Clippers.
Skinner is a marginal role player, and barring injuries probably wont see the floor much for the Clippers. Last year, especially late in the season, Skinner played extensively over the raw yet extremely talented DeAndre Jordan, much to the frustration of fans and analysts alike. Jordan has now likely leapfrogged Skinner on the depth chart, but the 33 year old still adds some needed insurance to a Clippers front line that is either habitually injured or in foul trouble.
Using the 14th roster spot on another big opposed to a backup point guard is a bit of a surprise, but the move may signal the faith Dunleavy has in Sebastian Telfair, and to some extent Mardy Collins. It’s still possible that Dunleavy brings in another guard as a 15th man, but at this point that seems somewhat unlikely. The roster appears to be set at 14, and this should be the last noteworthy transaction until training camp starts in just a few short weeks.
38 Responses
Ericka?
Doesn’t Erick Dampier’s contract expire after this season? Dump K-Pax to DAL? They make about the same, Dirk knows Kaman, and Cuban wants a better 5. I could see this happening, plus not much of a drop off during this season.
JM Reply:
September 16th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Dampier’s contract expires after the *next* season in 2011.
Gordon for President Reply:
September 16th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I posted this on Clips Nation, I’m pretty sure there’s a clause in his contract that makes him one of those virtual expiring deals as the season moves on. It’s also incentive laden to the point he’ll never make them, like averaging over 25 minutes a game or something. There’s been rumors of him for Michael Redd for sometime now.
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
WTF is this. So we give up on mike fucking Taylor to carry a guy who doesn’t play and when he does can’t even make a wide open dunk ? Dumbleavy.
FIRE DUNLEAVY PLEASE!!! Reply:
September 20th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I’m with you on this one btc…makes no sense to bring on another big when we’re clearly very shallow at PG and on the wings. But of course, we all know how much Dumbo loves running 40 pick and rolls in a row so Im sure this will play into his “strategy.”
I doubt DTS reads this site, but if he does, please please please get rid of this moron.
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Btw. This new mobile version is spectacular.
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I believe the final year (10/11) of Dampier’s contract is not guaranteed. I think it becomes guaranteed if he plays a certain number of minutes this year and I’m pretty sure Dallas has no intention of approaching that number.
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
more specifics on the final year of Dampier’s contract:
Dampier’s 2010-2011 salary of $13,078,000 has no salary protection; which then increases to full if (1) player is selected to play in any three NBA All-Star Games out of the 2004-2005 through the 2009-2010 seasons or (2) player plays at least 2,100 minutes in the 70 regular season games in the 2009-2010 season in which player plays the most minutes (and if player plays in less than 70 regular season games in the 2009-2010 season, then player must play at least 2,100 minutes for the entire regular season).
** this means he has to average 30 minutes/game for 70 games this year. since he hasn’t averaged 30 minutes for at least the last 2 years, its extremely doubtful he’ll do so this year….and the Mavs will see to it that he does not.
Gordon for President Reply:
September 16th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Thanks Hunter11, this is exactly what I was thinking.
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
For anyone who didn’t catch this on TrueHoop, there is a statistical argument that Telfair is better than he gets credit for: http://waynewinston.com/wordpress/?p=108
Ian Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 12:58 am
Unfortunately the article fails to account for how *good* of an SG Randy Foye is and how bad of a PG he is. The conclusion lacks sufficient evidence…
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
why the hell did they re-sign useless skinner? clips already have kaman, camby, griffin, deandre and craig smith. all the while only carrying 2 pure PG’s and 1 real SG in EJ with mike taylor without a home and inconsistent bassy the only backup to injury prone baron. where’s the logic?
btc Reply:
September 16th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
MikeT signed with the grizz. I think.
D.J. Foster Reply:
September 16th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I’ll do some digging, but I’m fairly certain Mike Taylor is still on the open market. There was that report a few weeks back by realgm.com that Arroyo signed with the Clips and Taylor signed with the Grizzlies, but both turned out to be false.
andrew Reply:
September 16th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
yes realgm is extremely unreliable.
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
its always good to have a veteran bigman as insurance ….because cmon guys
have you seen the type of stupid fouls Kaman commits?
DeAndre is young and he also makes dumb mistakes so there will come a time when Brian Skinner will come in handy….hes horrible offensively but i like his defense…..
as far as Sebastian well the times i have seen him play he seems like a nice little point guard but I start to think why at times he has been labeled a bust….
i hope the bright lights in L.A can change him and help him get better…
CANT WAAAAIT FOR TRAINING CAAAAMP!
Clipper Derrick Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I agree. Skinner may not have an offensive game, but his boards and blocks will come in handy if the players ahead of him are injured or have foul trouble.
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Could this mean they’re thinking of trading a big before the tradeline?
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
ugh. 6 bigs, 2 pg (one of whom has gotten hurt every year of his career but two)…
*Sigh* Go Clips!
Posted on September 17th, 2009 at 12:54 am
I’m a K-Pax (Kaman) fan however – now is the time to trade him to the Pistons for Tayshaun Prince. Give DeAndre some burn – let Al Thornton come off the bench be the offensive focus of the 2nd unit. The Clipper defense would improve greatly.
Posted on September 17th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Clippers set to hire an assistant coach today
Posted on September 17th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
John Lucas joining Clippers? Or maybe not
September 16, 2009 | 7:19 pm
Here is real evidence that nothing truly vanishes on Twitter. It appeared as though hoop coach Al Brooks (Coach_Al_Brooks) on Tuesday was apparently channeling his inner Kevin Love and breaking this bit of news on Twitter: “John Lucas has a tough decision to make soon. LA Clippers job offer as top asst. Amazing when you’ve had it all u realize money is secondary.” Tonight, gone. A fleeting tweet. (Did find out, via Brooks, that the much-traveled Othella Harrington had a good practice session this morning.)
As for Lucas? The Clippers have talked to him but it sounds as though discussions may not be quite as advanced as it appeared on Twitter.
– Lisa Dillman
Posted on September 17th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
realgm is posting that Lucas is about to sign the asst coaching job with the clippers, according to LA Times.
poor Kim
Posted on September 17th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Hopefully with the signing of John Lucas, Dunleavy does the right thing and moves to Full-Time General Manager for the Clippers. Make John Lucas our new head coach Dun!!!!!
Posted on September 17th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Lucas just signed on. Don’t know much about him other than his losses are greater than his wins…
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-clippers18-2009sep18,0,6055694.story
Looking forward to kevin’s analysis
Posted on September 18th, 2009 at 12:08 am
More on Lucas
http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Lucas_is_teaching_life_and_bas-187584-822.html
Strong article…
craig Reply:
September 18th, 2009 at 10:48 am
He a great influence, especially on the young players.
Posted on September 18th, 2009 at 12:11 am
wtf? on Mike Taylor?….they sign that lame again and not give Mark Madsen a chance…
Posted on September 18th, 2009 at 10:29 am
skinner is garbage
bring Taylor or Madsen back
Posted on September 18th, 2009 at 10:29 am
STFU!!!!!! John Lucas as the new assistant coach?!?!?! KA …. DJ … ANYONE … PLEASE CONFIRM OR DENY THIS!
D.J. Foster Reply:
September 18th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I can confirm this- Lucas has joined the staff. I’ll be getting a post up soon.
Posted on September 18th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Lucas is a HUGE coaching hire.
Way to go Clips!
Posted on September 18th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Yeah great!! Hire someone who as 8-34 with the worst record in the league during his last job. In his last 2 full sessons he had 29 and 18 wins.
What was Dunleavy thinking? “I need to hire someone so desperate for an assistant coaching job, he’ll do anything I say”
But really, who cares. He won’t be coaching the team and he’s not going to make that much of a difference anyway.
Posted on September 18th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Firedunleavy, to be fair, Lucas wasn’t actually in great situations with the teams he has coached. Let’s just say that the teams he’s coached had little to no talent at all. Signing Lucas is a big deal. He is well respected around the league and supposedly has a relationship with LeBron. Maybe Dunleavy is starting to make his pitch for LeBron next summer? At least that’s what i think.
Posted on September 18th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Gordon For President, you’ve got to be joking……trade Kaman for Dampier? Dampier’s had one good year as a pro. And he parlayed that into a huge, overvalued contract.
Kaman has his issues, but he’s a far more effective player than Dampier. Also, I think that Dampier’s at least 8 years older than Kaman, isn’t he?
Somebody else suggested trading Kaman for Tayshaun Prince. Even though Prince is at least several years older than Chris, I’d do that in a heartbeat. Prince would really tighten up the Clips’ defense. But I can’t imagine Joe Dumars making that trade.
Mungo Reply:
September 20th, 2009 at 1:22 am
A couple of years ago Dumars wouldn’t have, but who knows what he’s up to these days? The guy has been making bizarre moves for the last year. He’s left himself with his shiny new FA signing and Rip Hamilton fighting over the #2 spot, and Kwame freaking Brown as his starting C. Shifting Prince for Kaman would possibly help him clear up some of his mess.
From our point, now that the Bobcats have sorted themselves out with a center and taken the Kaman-for-Wallace trade off the cards, we’d be doing very well to get Tayshaun Prince for that big lump.
pezz Reply:
September 20th, 2009 at 10:43 am
The Dampier trade made sense to me until i saw that his contract runs through 2011. If we trade Kaman for an expiring contract, we would vault ourselves from the 12-14mil we’ll have in 2010 (if my memory serves me correctly) to 20+mil, Lebron range. As Damps is getting paid 13mil in 2010/11, the trade doesn’t make sense.
Posted on September 19th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Brian Skinner gives this team some balls, who else on this team is gonna take the thugs of this league down a peg. I know this isn’t a stat people consider most times but you need a guy like this to keep people in check. I personally wanna see an artest skinner fight till the death. With all the dirty fouls the top tier teams get away with this is our equalizer, Skinner will pop someone with an elbow if need be. I like mike taylor but it didn’t shake out for him I guess. As far as I can see we have 2 PFs (Griffin, Smith) and 4 guys who can play point (DAVIS, TELFAIR, COLLINS, GORDON) we need more toughness than ball handling.
Posted on September 24th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Trackbacks