Summer Reading: Chauncey Billups

Via the OC Register: http://clippers.ocregister.com/2012/06/07/should-lamar-odom-reunite-with-the-clippers/

This article sparks up a debate on whether Lamar Odom should come back to the Clippers. Odom is a UFA and his option definitely won’t be picked up by the Mavs.

I would say as far as bigs go, I would rather have KG if he is willing to take a paycut and accept the mid-level exception for a two year contract because his defensive intensity is what the Clippers need. KG will bark at Blake Griffin and DJ to get to their spots and use his championship experience to teach them how to play good defense. If he comes, hopefully he would bring the defensive schemes he learned from Doc Rivers and get VDN to implement them because the Clippers anemic defense definitely needs help. KG can also yell at VDN and school him to be a better coach than he is. KG also has a great mid-range jump shot and can spread floor and teach Blake how to work on his jumper. I see similarities in the intensity that Blake plays with the same way KG plays with minus the snarling face. The con of getting KG though is his age and questions of how much does KG have left in the tank. If Chauncey comes back, a KG/Chauncey reunion would be great!

The case for Odom is that he can teach Trey Thompkins to be the future stretch 4 that we want him to become and develop him. Odom would give the Clippers an above-average defender in the post and he is a good rebounder. Odom is also another ball handler who can bring up the ball and get into the lane. He also has 3-point range and has a good mid-range game. Odom would take pressure off of Blake and CP3 on offense but defensively, not much will improve for this team. He would also relish the opportunity to come back to LA as would Khloe. The con is nobody on want the limelight distraction that comes with being associated with a Kardashian even moreso than the scrutiny they received this year from being relevant again. The limelight may be beneficial though on DTS and might get him to recognize that being associated with a Kardashian now would mean he’s in the public eyes and he may care enough about his image to put more money into the team and not be cheap.

With KG, we’d be able to contend for a championship as long as we get a 2-guard with size that can play the 3 also.

True, the main thing in determining what teams could bid on amnestied players was cap space not record.

For some reason, I was thinking the NBA amnesty waiver worked like the MLB waiver, where teams get first shot at waived players based on worst record (no cap space consideration there). Record does have a little to do with the amnesty waiver but not much. There was a lot of confusion about how the amnesty thing was going to work when it was first announced and I obviously was confused on it too.

I get confused easily. I was confused about DeAndre Jordan too. I thought he was only bad. Turns out he’s even worse than I feared. I was confused on Olshey at first and thought he was OK, but he turns out to have been a calamity.

Well, regardless, the number of teams who had cap space were few. I remember reading that three of those teams with cap space bid on Billups, but the Clippers had the high bid of about $2.5 million where as the other two bid around $1 million or less. Then I later read the Clippers bid was lower than first reported and was around $1.5 million. Something like that. The whole thing with amnesty was confusing. I’m still confused.