Afternoon Roundup: Eric Gordon Edition

• The estimable Steve Perrin at Clipsnation with a breakdown on Eric Gordon’s 18 point performance against Greece on Wednesday: “In the first game where he wasn’t worrying about his spot on the roster, Eric Gordon led Team USA with 18 points.  He also had two steals, and could have been credited with more than that by my reckoning.  He probably had eight deflections on defense.  EJ was feeling it from the moment in checked in, getting a steal and a tough finish on his first sequence”
• Eric Gordon has a long distance chat with Clippers.com, and again displays more verbal confidence than we’ve seen before. Here’s Gordon responding to a question about his role off the bench: ”(…)To make it happen on a nightly basis it can really help your confidence out. Whatever you need to do to help the team. What I have learned is that, even with the Clippers, I just know how to get things done in a short period of time.”
• A look at the upcoming schedule for Team USA.
• Jerry Colangelo on Eric Gordon, via John Schuhmana of NBA.com: “I’m not going to say he’s a surprise,” Colangelo said. “What I’m going to say is we’re really pleased with the way he’s playing. And he’s to a point now where he takes a shot, we expect it to go down. It’s not a question in our minds. There are very few players playing on any level where you feel if they’ve got the ball, they’re going to score. He’s one of them. “He’s a pure shooter, just needs a little bit of room. He’s quick. The other thing is his body type is perfect for international play. Big and strong.”
• There’s a common theme brewing in the praise of Eric Gordon. Yes, he’s a spectacular outside shooter, but smart basketball people have been raving about Gordon’s efforts on the defensive end. By teaming up the improved Gordon with Blake Griffin, who was regarded by Mike Dunleavy as the smartest defensive rookie he had ever coached, the Clippers should provide a little more resistance than they did last season.  

Eric Gordon Named to Team USA’s Final Roster

From USA Basketball’s press release:

ATHENS, Greece (August 24,  2010) – With one exhibition game remaining and just four days out from the tip of the FIBA World Championship for Men, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo today announced the 12 players who will represent the United States at the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

Named to the 12-man 2010 USA World Championship Team were: Chauncey Billups (Denver Nuggets); Tyson Chandler (Dallas Mavericks); Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors); Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder); Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies); Eric Gordon (Los Angeles Clippers); Danny Granger (Indiana Pacers); Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers); Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves); Lamar Odom(Los Angeles Lakers); Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls); and Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder).

The 2010-12 USA National Team coaching staff is led by Duke University’s Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, and features as USA assistant coaches Syracuse University’s Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Nate McMillan and Toronto Raptors head mentor Jay Triano.

“Rajon came to us and said he was going to withdraw from the team, that he had some family matters to attend to and some things to take care of before the NBA season.  He did an outstanding job during our training, we appreciate the effort and commitment he made to our program and he completely has our support,” said Colangelo.

The USA World Championship Team will complete their exhibition tour facing Greece in Athens on Wednesday (12 noon EDT).  The U.S. will then travel to Istanbul on Aug. 26 and train prior to starting the World Championship.

The 12 members of the USA World Championship Team, by the end of the FIBA World Championship (Sept. 12), average out to be 24.66 years old. The roster features six players 22 years old or younger – four players who are just 21 years old (Durant, Rose, Gordon, Westbrook) and two who are 22 years old (Curry, Love).  The oldest player on the USA roster is Chauncey Billups, who is 33 years old.

By comparison, the 2006 team averaged 24.58 years of age; 26.16 in 2002; 27.83 (NBA lockout year) in 1998; 26.33 in 1994 and in 1990, the last team consisting of collegians, was 20.08 years old.

The 2010 USA World Championship squad averages 5.0 seasons of NBA experience, with one player having one season (Curry), four players (Gordon, Love, Rose, Westbrook) possessing two seasons, one with three (Durant), one (Gay) with four, one with five (Granger), one with six (Iguodala),one with nine (Chandler), one with 11 (Odom) and one with 13 seasons (Billups).

Eric Gordon and Team USA

It’s yet to be seen whether Eric Gordon will survive the final roster trimming from 13 players down to 12 before the world championships begin on Aug. 28th in Turkey, but even if the experience were to end here, there’s a lot to take from Gordon’s play this Summer.

Watching Gordon develop as a player up to the this point has been an interesting exercise. While some of his fellow draft classmates, like Russell Westbrook, have made leaps and bounds since they entered the league, Gordon has improved gradually, not looking terribly different from the guy the Clippers drafted two years ago. Part of the appeal behind selecting Gordon was how NBA-ready he was, and throughout his short career in Los Angeles he’s proven to be one of the steadiest choices the draft had to offer.

I’m hesitant to proclaim Gordon hit a plateau last season, but the numbers do show that Gordon’s shooting percentages declined while everything else was identical to his rookie campaign. It’s definitely difficult to judge Gordon’s development when you consider the context – about 75 percent of the games he’s played in his career have been meaningless with the season already in the tubes. How can you judge a player defensively when some of the other players that share the court with him have already packed it in for the year? Can you really fault Gordon for not being more aggressive when just about everyone was gunning for a new contract late last year by taking whatever shots came their way? While the environment has been tough for Gordon to grow in, it’s been equally hard to get an accurate read on just how good Gordon really is, and just how good he may become.

In a lot of ways this is where Team USA steps in. We all know what Gordon can bring to the national team – accurate outside shooting and physical on-ball defense being the primary attributes – but what can Team USA do for him?

The most important thing about Gordon’s time playing for Team USA this Summer is the confidence he can gain from the experience. Gordon has largely been a hidden commodity in his first two seasons, but regardless of that he’s been tabbed by some of the best coaches and basketball minds in the world as one of the finest players the entire league had to offer. Take a look at what Coach K had to say to ESPN’s Chris Sheridan about him:

The coaches have been raving lately about Eric Gordon, who was on the cut bubble when the team held a minicamp in Las Vegas last month, “because we didn’t know him as well,” Krzyzewski said.

“He’s really had a terrific practice every single day, and every day he’s produced, he’s just been steady. And he’s a guy that doesn’t need the ball long. On our Olympic team, Carmelo Anthony didn’t need the ball long, and that helps. He’s been very good. Very good. I won’t say anybody’s made the team until we’re down to 12, but he’s been very good. I’ll leave it at that.”

It’s important for Gordon to hear new and prominent voices praising him, just as it’s important for him to share the court with superstars like Kevin Durant and savvy veterans like Chauncey Billups. Gordon has some deficiencies on the court, mainly his rebounding and ball-handling abilities, but a lot of what’s holding him back is being waged in Gordon’s own head. Often times he struggles with asserting himself into the offense, lacking an aggressive nature despite almost always being the best offensive option on the floor. It appears this Summer is helping Gordon realize that his play is reflective of his mental state, especially when you look at what he told ProjectSpurs.com:

“It’s definitely a great experience and I’m learning a lot about myself. I’m learning that I’m competitive and that I am one of the better ones out there. This is a good experience and it’s great to be a part of,” said Gordon to Project Spurs.

So what happens when Gordon eventually makes his way back to the Clippers? If you can step up and take shots when you’re playing with some of the best the NBA and the world has to offer, you can surely do it when you’re back with your own team. No offense to Ryan Gomes, who has certainly taken enough of a beating lately, but he’s not exactly Kevin Durant, know what I mean? If you can hang with the best, you should dominate the rest.

It’s going to take a lot of confidence for Gordon to evolve into a more aggressive scorer, but this Summer is helping in that regard even if Gordon is playing a complimentary role. While Gordon is about as stoic as it gets and is not a verbal leader by any means, his words do carry a little more weight because he speaks so infrequesntly. With that said, ask yourself this: Does Eric Gordon have the confidence to say this as a rookie?

…though Gordon’s tone changed a bit when I (ProjectSpurs.com) asked him about playing with Baron Davis, “It’s good. We just need to get him motivated to really play. We all know he can play. As long as he stays motivated we know what he can do to help us.”

Gordon may never blossom into a big time playmaker or an unstoppable scoring machine, but it’s important to remember that he is still developing. It may not be tangible quite yet, but this experience and the confidence gained from it should translate into something you’ll see on the court in the near future.

Watch Eric Gordon Live

Watch Eric Gordon and the United States take on Spain today at 12p PT in international play. We’ll have much more on Gordon and his performances up to this point, but if you’d like to see how he does for yourself, go here to follow along live.

Is Ryan Gomes The Solution?

From Kevin Arnovitz’s piece over at ESPNLosAngeles.com:

Knowing one’s limitations as a player might be one of the least heralded attributes in basketball. It’s a quality that’s been absent on recent Clipper rosters, a primary reason the team has struggled to put up points despite plenty of competent scorers. But that acute awareness of his strengths and weakness is one of one Gomes’ defining traits as a player.”[The Clippers] aren’t looking for someone dominant at this position,” Gomes said. “Sure, if I average 18 points, seven rebounds, five assists, that’ll be wonderful. But I feel like my best quality is my knowledge of the game. I don’t think I’m going to wow you athletically, but I can dabble in a little bit of everything.”Gomes’ humility isn’t an aw-shucks brand of athlete-speak and isn’t born out of a lack of confidence. He’s just far too versed in basketball to peddle anything other than devout truths, and he loves talking about the game. Gomes is happy to discuss his move to Los Angeles, the apartment he’s rented for himself, his wife, young daughter and mother-in-law. But what gets Gomes going, what he really loves to schmooze about is chalk-talk. 

Ask him why the Timberwolves struggled in the triangle, and he’ll tell you the specific point in the sequence when defenses anticipated the action and clamped down on the offense. Ask him how his good friend Al Jefferson will fare in Utah’s flex offense, and he’ll speak in detail about how Jefferson will flourish and which reads will prove most difficult for the big man. Ask him about the particulars of his game as an NBA small forward, and Gomes is an open book. 

“I’m not going to back guys down,” Gomes said. “But I’m going to turn, face up and use my quickness — get fouled, get to the rim, shoot my jumper.” 

Since he came into the league from Providence College, Gomes has been tagged as the dreaded “tweener” — a player who straddles the small and power forward positions. The Clippers plan to use Gomes as a small forward, which he’s played the past two seasons in Minnesota. Gomes readily acknowledges that he’s not a prototypical 3. He’s confident in his ability to play strong, straight-up, one-on-one defense, but that certain assignments give him problems. 

“At the 3, there are some nights where it might not work in my favor,” Gomes said. “But Carmelo [Anthony], I think I can guard him. I can guard guys like [Al] Thornton. I think I can do a solid job on [Paul] Pierce. I can guard guys who face up and attack you one-on-one. [Ron] Artest is a perfect matchup for me. 

“Where I have limitations is with guys who get their shots by running off screens. [Kevin] Durant. A guy like Jason Richardson is tough for me.” 

Gomes conveys a refreshing self-awareness that could be mistaken for self-deprecation. Coaches and general managers often characterize a player as a “glue guy,” but few NBA veterans are comfortable enough in their own skin to tout their intangible qualities as their strongest assets. 

“You have to find a niche,” Gomes said. “Find something you do well to stick around in this league. That’s the case for all of us except for those 30 who can do everything. For the rest of us it’s about finding a way — knowledge of the game, smarts, those little things.”

To read more on Gomes and his approach to the game, go here.

The Silver Lining

What was the worst part of Donald Sterling’s comments yesterday?

It’s the offseason. This is the one time of year Clippers’ fans can be overly optimistic without those pesky losses clubbing them over the head again and again, crushing their spirits. Fresh uniforms, fresh faces, and a fresh start. That should have been the feeling derived from yesterday, but it wasn’t. Fans know the dark cloud that hovers over the franchise hasn’t gone anywhere, but in the offseason they’re not typically forced to look up at it.

Sorry Randy Foye, but your owner doesn’t know your name and probably couldn’t pick you out of a lineup. Apologies to you as well, Ryan Gomes. If it were up to him, you wouldn’t be a Clipper. The same goes for you, DeAndre Jordan. You’ve been here a month Vinny Del Negro, and the owner is already questioning your taste in personnel.

So what do you do with that blatant display of disrespect, Vinny Del Negro?

Pick up a marker and put everything Sterling said on the whiteboard in the locker room. Underline it and leave it there for the whole team to see, all year long.

You’ve been praised by many for your ability to motivate, and while you probably don’t need a whole lot of material to fire up the troops, you’ve got plenty of ammunition now.

No one believes in you. Your owner doesn’t believe in you. He doesn’t even want you to be here.

Strange as it sounds, this media disaster can be used as a rallying point, the words that band the team together. After all, nothing unites a group like a common enemy. It’s a little unorthodox to have that enemy be your owner, but it isn’t unprecedented.

Major League's Lou Brown: A Master Motivator

The owner doesn’t want you, doesn’t like you, and doesn’t think you’re a good basketball player.

You’ve got 82 games to prove him wrong. Make them count.