Sunday Roundup

03 Jan 2010

Al Thornton, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Mike Dunleavy

by D.J. Foster

Tweet
Pin It

Mike Dunleavy returned to practice Saturday after going to the hospital Friday morning for treatment on a herniated disk in his back. “I feel OK,” Dunleavy said, “but I’m not going to be doing any dancing any time soon.”

Eric Pincus grades the first 30 games for the Clippers. Pincus points out the biggest change in the most improved Clipper so far this year, Chris Kaman: “The biggest difference in Kaman’s offensive attack this year is a smooth face up jumper. It’s a shot Dunleavy has encouraged Chris to take for years – but it’s only over this past summer that Kaman developed enough confidence.”

Al Thornton continues to statistically baffle. The good news is that among all small forwards who have logged over 25 minutes a game, Al Thornton ranks second in offensive rebounds per 40 minutes. The bad news? Thornton ranks dead last in defensive rebounding. Is this a cause for concern, or just a case of Marcus Camby gobbling up all the available boards?

Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times writes an interesting profile on Donald Sterling.

In his latest entry on Jordan’s Journal (login required) DeAndre updates us on what it’s like to guard Kevin Garnett, his New Years resolutions, and why Steve Novak is getting his bad Santa on. The question on my mind: How much longer do we have to wait before we can see Blake and DeAndre star in a cheesy buddy cop movie? Someone get a script to Baron Davis, pronto.

Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times checks in on Blake Griffin.

Via Lisa Dillman’s twitter account: “Clipper update: Al Thornton not practicing because of a stomach virus. Questionable for game tomorrow vs. Portland.”

All-decade lists dominated the internet the last few weeks, so I’ll spare you and pose just one question: Who was the Clipper of the decade? Was it Elton Brand? Chris Kaman? Sam Cassell, perhaps? Write-in votes will also be accepted. Let’s hear it.

Beard The Curse

Elton. easy. Playing on even a consistent .500 team he would have had at least 5 AS appearances. 7 straight years at 20 & 10, with 2 blocks a game shooting around 50% in that span. It’s not even a question. I hope and pray that Chris can be that good. Everyone is going ape sht over Kaman’s play this year, he’d have to do it another 5 or 6 years to get to Brand’s level.
- http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/60508/20090711/morey_rockets_will_probably_trade_for_center/ Chaderack
  
  Chal-les homie, has to be Sam Cassel. He brought Mad swagger to that 05,06 team! Shit!.. he took us to the playoffs!!
Q.d.

Sam I am
ghost_ride

Clipper of the decade: Sam Cassell

Brand brought stability and respect to the team, but it wasn’t until Cassell that were able to get to that next level. He seemed to relish the challenge of taking the underdog Clips into the playoffs, and it resulted in the best playoff showing in franchise history.
rmb

SAM CASSELL.

He came like a man. Played like a man. Left like a man.
- bongstradamus
  
  Not really. He asked for a buyout to go play for the Celtics. If ya wanna get into specifics at least. And we traded for him.
  - http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/60508/20090711/morey_rockets_will_probably_trade_for_center/ Chaderack
    
    rmb, love how you worded that shit. The guy takes you to the playoffs, thats the least you could do for the homie. We all new we where not going to the playoffs when Cassel asked for the buyout.
    - bongstradamus
      
      Just saying, he didnt sign with us, he was traded here. He did a great job leading the team, but then asked for a buyout.
      
      Everyone gets all hot and bothered about Elton, but he played through 2 contracts and left between deals, yet somehow a guy who plays for a year and half and then asks for a buyout because we sucked gets more respect.
Brad

Clipper of the decade…
Has to be #35 Chris Kaman. Minus last year when he was hurt, he has been very consistent. COnsistently putting up quality numbers..points, rebounds,blocks..and yes t.o….before you speak up..look at where he ranks vs western conference centers…..top 8 maybe top 5….even with elton and corey and sam needing the ball at all times..kaman put up solid numbers….and oh yea..he hasnt bailed on the team and left for the big dollar….
never is in trouble with the law or in the papers…yes he is goofy…but he still is our center.
- rmb
  
  He’s playing great right now(we’re not even .500 team)
  
  But Kaman doesn’t even come close for that title.
NRM

To me, hands down it was Elton Brand. Guy played hard for us consistantly, and we respected him for it (at the time). I think should he have retired a Clip (or left like a man, as somebody hinted at), number 42 wouldve been retired. I can see how some of you put Sam Cassell as the best. We needed the Dynamic Duo of SC and EB to take us to that other level.
- rmb
  
  It’s Sam Cassell because..
  
  He did something no one else could. Yes, Brand & Dunleavy worked hard at it. But it was Cassell’s undisputed leadership which put Clippers in the brightest spot.
bongstradamus

It’s gotta be Elton. Theres no other player that did more for this team for a longer period of time.

Sam Cassell wouldnt have gotten us to the playoffs without Elton. He was our bread and butter down low, many games were won by his work ethic on both ends of the court.
- http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/60508/20090711/morey_rockets_will_probably_trade_for_center/ Chaderack
  
  But, he needed Cassel to get the team to the next level. No Cassel no playoff, no Brand no playoff.
  - bongstradamus
    
    Cassell was the first real point guard we had. Remember? We were trolling the D-League for the Troy Hudsons, Jeff McInnis’s and Earl Boykins of the world.
MannyA

I’m gonna go with Elton Brand. He was the face of The Clippers for a large part of the decade.
rmb

No doubt ELTON was solid for us through out. And he prevented us from begging for lottery picks every season(and lost opportunities to draft great batch of players after OLOWAKANDI.

For Sam Cassell, it was matter of pride. For Brand it was contract situation.
For Cassell winning was ultimate goal. For Brand it was just another season with his movie production and Olympic dreams.

I still like Brand. I wish we could trade Camby, Ricky and Telfair to Philly for him.
- http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/60508/20090711/morey_rockets_will_probably_trade_for_center/ Chaderack
  
  Thats taking it to far…
hans

rmb, i[‘m pretty sure that philly would take that trade in a heartbeat and probably throw in a couple first round picks. and i still wouldnt want to do it.
rmb

IMO we should do it. I don’t want to tell you the rationale behind such a move. Because it’s sensitive in nature.

Let’s see, what if Blake Griffin needs few more seasons to be that type of player? What happened to Greg Oden can happen to Griffin. That means we are going to dig open a huge hole at PF position. I like the idea of Brand-Kaman-Baron-Gordon-Griffin line-up.
It looks rock solid to me.

In reality, there’s no one like BRAND. Unite him with Baron, Fans & the rest.
neil

no one…..a team that has been so bad for so long should not have a list.
http://HitFix.com Jgroove

Sam I Am, hands down.
Slax

I like the LA Times piece on Donald S and I always thought much of his maligned reputation as a racist was mostly jealousy. My Clipper of the decade has to be Elton Brand for sure. Sure Sammy brought the swagger, Cuttino was a big free agent, Maggette an amicable trooper, and Odom a freak in his first year, but it was Elton who embodied the working class hero. Elton brought respectability to the franchise and was the cornerstone that gave fans the security and idea that with a few key pieces the Clippers would field a contender.
http://www.twitter.com/HitFixGregory jgroove

Geez, Jonathan, thanks so much for the love. Really, another story about a cursed franchise? Really? How original for the paper of record.
http://www.hh4law.com Deez Nutz

Shaun Livingston is the Clipper of the last decade. He was going to change the face of the franchise and the face of the game. He had a once-in-a-generation vision of the court, a 6’11″ wingspan, and an off-the-charts hoops IQ. And he mutilated his knee in one of the all-time horrific on-court injuries. Which sums up the Clippers’ decade nicely.
- http://www.clipperblog.com D.J. Foster
  
  Ah, I was waiting for his name to pop up in all this. Sadly, he entered my mind too when I thought about the question.
  - http://www.hh4law.com Deez Nutz
    
    I still love the guy. I was following the Thunder only to keep tabs on SL14. It killed me that they were giving Kevin Ollie minutes over Livingston. I still believe that he’ll have a productive NBA career. Why won’t D’Antoni take a flyer on him in New York? They need a true PG to run, run, run that system, don’t they? Can you imagine? I can.
    - http://www.clipperblog.com D.J. Foster
      
      I think someone will take a chance on him soon – I believe 10 day contracts come in play very shortly, and he’ll likely head the list for teams that need some guard help.
      
      Don’t give up your New York dream – maybe they’ll trade Robinson and give Livingston a shot. He still can’t shoot worth a damn, but if the Knicks took a flier on Jonathon freaking Bender than anything is possible.
http://www.clipperblog.com D.J. Foster

Looks like Elton wins it, but Sam was a very, very close second.
Brad

I know this is a player vote but, My most valuable clipper is Ralph Lawler. Try listening to some of the other non-national broadcasters, they are bush league. The funny thing is I dont listen to ralph for his basketball insight, I listen to him because of his humor and his passion. I like mike smith but I still remeber the glory days of clipper broadcasting with ralph and Bill walton the reason why I started watching the clips

Co-Founder & Publisher:	Kevin Arnovitz
Co-Founder & CTO:	Michael Fiske
Executive Editor:	D.J. Foster
Managing Editor:	Andrew Han
Senior Contributors:	Jordan Heimer
	Fred Katz
	Breene Murphy
Staff Writers:	Jovan Buha
	Patrick James

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Dec				Feb »
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Sunday Roundup

ClipperBlog Contributors:

Live Twitter Feeds:

Your ClipperBlog Contributors:

Clippers Twitters:

Clipperblog Feed

A Los Angeles Clippers Fan Blog...

Calendar

Recent Posts

Archives

Old Archives

External Links

Pages

The Tag Cloud

Recent Comments