It’s too early to discern whether Vinny Del Negro has the command, tactical strength and creativity to build the Clippers into a respectable entity in the Western Conference. My preferences for Dwane Casey aside, enough smart basketball people I’ve spoken to believe that, despite his early struggles in Chicago, Del Negro’s learning curve has been steep. They maintain that getting out from under a Chicago management team that undermined him at every turn — and let his best shooter walk in 2009, then dealt the other perimeter threat at last year’s deadline — will allow him to prosper. A good coach knows how to delegate and Del Negro’s preliminary short list of assistants is impressive. There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical, but the beauty of sports is that these questions reveal themselves in due time.

The organization’s choice of Del Negro reveals some important realities that have little to do with Del Negro himself:

• Owner Donald T. Sterling still makes the final call on many vital basketball decisions. It’s important to note that this isn’t unusual in the NBA and most pro sports for that matter. While Sterling might be uniquely ill-equipped to make many of these calls, he who signs the checks makes the rules. Still, it’s disconcerting that basketball people aren’t empowered to make the final basketball decisions. Tonight, LeBron James will likely announce that he’s chosen the Miami Heat as his destination. The allure of playing with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh can’t be understated, but it’s not incidental that if he lands in Miami, he’s chosen an owner in Micky Arison. Comparatively speaking, Arison is a hands-off owner who remains behind the scenes and delegates basketball operations to Pat Riley. Olshey, as a first-time general manager, hasn’t built up the equity and track record Riley has in his three decades as a championship head coach and executive. But Olshey has demonstrated early on that he’s aggressive, pragmatic and has good taste in talent. One source I spoke to about the Clippers power structure told me, “Neil has the potential to be very good at this job, but the question is, will ownership let him?”
• As disheartening as ownership’s claiming the right to make the final call on the coaching hire, Olshey got his second choice out of dozens of available candidates. Del Negro wouldn’t have been named a finalist if Olshey weren’t confident he could perform the task. Part of the job for any Clippers general manager is negotiating with Sterling — on hires, trades and signings. It took Mike Dunleavy weeks to cajole Sterling into dealing Zach Randolph last summer.  Whether Olshey is given the authority he should to assemble the roster the way he sees fit will become apparent in the coming weeks. He conveys a very strong power of persuasion, more so than Dunleavy. On the flip side, Sterling has been generous with the checkbook in recent years and hasn’t seen much return on his investment, a dynamic that could potentially make him more reluctant to spend.
• Presence and charisma trump whiteboard acumen, at least with many owners. The Del Negro hire also underscores the advantage former players still have when teams make choose coaches. Del Negro plugged his tenure as an NBA veteran in his press conference yesterday. For all of Casey’s attributes, Del Negro’s ability to regal someone like Sterling with stories of his playing days and to tout how that résumé item translates into respect in the locker room and on the practice court is powerful — probably a little bit too powerful.

As we head into Summer League, a few other realities are surfacing. The free agent market is insane. Mike Miller has a lot of appeal as a small forward, but he’s likely to command a five year deal in the $40 million dollar range, especially now that teams like New York have been left with enormous cap space and nobody to spend it on. The Clippers would be wise to resist the temptation to overspend and forfeit their flexibility, whether on Miller, Kyle Korver or anyone else.

A more likely scenario — and a smart one — would be to fill out the roster with decent value players. The list of available 3s won’t dazzle you, but the Clips could do a lot worse than a guy like Ryan Gomes, or even Dorell Wright, for a short-term contract while Al-Farouq Aminu finds his sea legs. Both Gomes and Wright are strong defenders on the wing and Gomes has developed a nice stroke from the outside (Wright has proficiency from mid-range).  Neither will vault the Clippers into playoff contention next season — and that might be frustrating to a hungry fan base — but both bring assets that would help the development process and not kill the Clippers’ cap flexibility.

Tayshaun Prince would be a plus at the small forward spot, but only if the Pistons are reasonable with their demands. Absorbing Prince’s $11.1 million salary would still leave the Clips with more than $7 million to fill out the roster with another combo guard (Randy Foye, Shannon Brown, Roger Mason). Again, these aren’t flashy names, but the primary goal remains developing the five young players. Baron Davis and Chris Kaman will claim a ton of possessions. The Clips need to allocate the remaining opportunities to Griffin, Gordon and, when they’re on the floor, Aminu and Bledsoe.

As disheartening as the summer might be, don’t undervalue the importance of the long view. Griffin could be a star. He and Gordon have enormous potential as an inside-out threat. Be patient, allow success to materialize in due course. Winning now isn’t realistic, so plan for 2011 and beyond.

At ESPN Los Angeles, I file a brief on behalf of the Clippers for LeBron James’ services. Some excerpts:

James shares some culpability for Cleveland’s embarrassing Eastern Conference semifinals loss to Boston, but James didn’t fail a test of character nor did he fall victim to a civic curse. The loss to Boston was a basketball failure. If James wants to remedy that, he’ll look at the candidates for his services and make a quantitative basketball decision based with a single question in mind: Which team has the best supporting cast to maximize his talents?

…For reasons that range from the historical to the theoretical, the Los Angeles Clippers have been removed from the list by most observers. Yet, the Clippers’ primary assets — a strong foundation at four positions and the financial flexibility — have never been more relevant to the discussion of James’ future. We’ve learned that James is human, that if surrounded by mediocre talent, his team will produce less-than-desired results. For James to win a championship, a few essential ingredients on the floor are required. From a basketball standpoint, the Clippers can give James what he needs.

No other team in pursuit of James has a better 2-through-5 set at the four other spots on the floor.

James’ four teammates would include two guys younger than him in Griffin and Gordon, and two older veterans in Davis and Kaman. James would be the true fulcrum of a complete starting unit that can dominate on the glass, guard the perimeter (and excel defensively overall under the right coach), run in transition and pick defenses apart in the half court both inside and out.

Behind that starting five, the Clippers will have another top-10 draft pick and curio DeAndre Jordan in development, along with a few vets who will happily accept the minimum to play in Los Angeles behind James.

The most important question a Clippers team composed of James, Davis, Gordon, Griffin and Kaman will pose to opposing coaches is this: Who are you going to leave to help on LeBron?

James’ addition would allow Kaman to return to the low block, where he’s most efficient. Opponents have to guard James so tightly on the perimeter that Kaman will pick up a couple of opportunities per game just by being under the glass or along the baseline inside of 15 feet.

Gordon won’t have to force the issue, as he started doing when the Clips desperately needed a bucket last season, which was often. Instead, the third-year guard can settle into being a lethal weak side threat alongside two phenomenal passers who know where to find him.

Griffin is a natural force and a much better option for James than a stretch-4 who can’t stretch or guard. Stoudemire was the right fit for the Cavs at the deadline. James would get many of Stoudemire’s assets with Griffin, a dedicated kid who will be eager and willing to sculpt his game around James and defend as if his life depends on it.

Skeptics might ask what about Davis? Is he willing to sublimate his ego to become the second (or even third) banana? Davis has already tacitly recognized that, on the other side of 30, he’s no longer a No. 1 option for a successful NBA team. He moderated his shot selection somewhat in 2009-10, an adjustment that lifted his efficiency numbers even as his usage rate dropped to its lowest level since 2002-03. He’d love nothing more than to graduate into a Jason Kidd-like role provided he has a closer he can pass to.

The loss to Boston taught James and the rest of us that breadth and depth of talent are far more important to a team’s success than anything else. That doesn’t mean James and his advisors are wrong to consider things like endorsement potential, livability, the voraciousness of the local press corps, proximity to Akron, ownership or a franchise’s historical legacy in the decision-making process.

But if James is truly interested in surrounding himself with four teammates who have a full range of talents to complement his game and embody a smart mix of youth and experience, he’d be short-sighted not to give the Clippers a very, very close look.

The story includes some more specific basketball arguments. You can read it in its entirety here.

If tonight’s game felt familiar to you, there’s a reason for that. You’ve played in this game before.

Let me explain. From the arc of the game right down to some of the characters in it, tonight’s matchup felt a lot like a glorified pickup game.

Take Corey Maggette for example. Ever play with someone that calls every single foul? Even if he’s the one that charges in to you at full speed? Well, that’s Maggette. He does his bull in the china shop routine and completely ignores teammates once he puts the ball on the deck. Everyone hates playing with the guy who calls every foul, and I have a hard time seeing anyone getting any joy out of playing basketball with Corey Maggette. To wit, Maggette went into full blown black hole mode en route to a three-for-16 performance from the field tonight.

Baron Davis is that guy who has the most talent on the floor, but there’s always something missing. Whether it’s his jumper or his defense, there’s always something that you can point to with him and say “that’s the reason why he’s not elite.” Tonight, Baron plays as close to a perfect half of basketball as possible, going seven-for-10 from the field for 19 points, five rebounds, five assists and zero turnovers. But then Baron injures his wrist late in the first half, and he eventually has to leave the game because of it. It’s a shame. Even when Baron does everything right, something eventually goes wrong.

With Eric Gordon, Drew Gooden, Travis Outlaw, Craig Smith, and Baron Davis all out of action, the pressure fell squarely on the shoulders of Chris Kaman (or, the one guy taller than everyone else) to lead his team offensively. Kaman responded well against the Warriors small front line, scoring easily throughout the game on the inside and totaling 27 points on the evening.

Steve Blake plays the role of gym rat tonight, logging an outrageous 46 minutes due to the Clips being shorthanded at guard. It’s always fascinating to watch players like Blake in the midst of chaos. Blake’s that guy that passes, cuts, screens away from the ball and all that other nonsense. It looks out of place at the park, and it looks out of place at Staples tonight.

There are a couple of funny moments in the fourth quarter of this one. Devean George brushes off the cobwebs to hit a few shots, and both times he runs down court screaming and pumping his fists. It’s hard to tell if he’s being sarcastic — I have no idea how serious of a person Devean George is, but it’s hard not to picture George as the ridiculous old dude down at the park who once a month turns back the clock and hits a few shots and simply has to let everyone know about it.  Between George’s theatrics and the slightly insane enthusiasm of Ronny Turiaf, the Warriors at least provide entertainment value down the stretch.

The Clippers win this one behind the late game scoring of Rasual Butler (or, that guy who tries to do way too much) and DeAndre Jordan (that one kid that can dunk). After three straight buckets right at the rim by Jordan, Butler knocks down a mid-range jumper and then a big three to pull the Clippers within one at the 6:22 mark of the fourth quarter.

From there, the game plays out like both teams are locked up at game point. Suddenly, the defense ratchets up about 40 notches, and the previous Laissez-faire approach to defense goes out the window. Mike Smith actually mentions at the three minute mark that the “next bucket wins.” He’s referring to Lawler’s Law of course, but you could have fooled me.

The play of the game comes in the clutch at the [2:02, 4thQ] mark. Chris Kaman gets the ball on the left block, and DeAndre Jordan ambles over to the left wing to act as a kickout for Kaman should he get in trouble. Aside from the hilarity of DeAndre Jordan acting as a spot up shooter with Kaman having the ball in the post, the play works wonderfully. After looking confused for a bit, Jordan gives a quick basket cut and Kaman delivers a beautiful pass (!) to Jordan for the easy dunk. The Clips lead goes to five, and they hang on the rest of the way.

April basketball for the Warriors and Clippers isn’t much different from the pickup game for us regular scrubs. The more experienced players on both sides won’t remember this game for any reason, as it will just blend into the thousands of other games they’ve played. Neither team cares much about the result really, as wins and losses don’t really matter at this point.

But then there’s the kid who can dunk. He isn’t experienced yet, so these wins mean something. It’s confidence. It’s matching the second highest total for rebounds in your career (15). It’s a game deciding bucket. Maybe to the bitter veteran those things don’t mean anything, but you don’t survive as a young player in the NBA if you don’t enjoy the small victories when they come your way.

With all eyes focused on the looming offseason, the Clippers were reminded tonight what a star player looks like when they took on the Portland Trailblazers and Brandon Roy.

I’ve never been bashful about stating my admiration for Roy’s offensive game. His body control around the rim is second to none. His midrange game is deadly, and he’s a mismatch in either size or quickness (usually both) for opposing players. But what most impresses me about Roy is his silent nature in which he controls the game. Roy rarely acts out, rarely demands the ball and demeans teammates, and is often willing to take a backseat to another Blazer if there is a better matchup on the floor.

Roy demonstrates his unselfishness early on tonight by deferring to LaMarcus Aldridge for much of the first half, and the Blazers carry a four point lead into halftime. With playoff positioning on the line in a tight game, Brandon Roy comes out in the second half and does what any real star should: He absolutely takes over the game.

[11:25, 3rd Q] Right away the Blazers get Brandon Roy the ball in post. Here, Roy catches it in the mid-post with Baron Davis on him. Baron is a very strong post defender who is accustomed to guarding bigger guys on the block, but Roy simply manhandles him with a simple blast back that knocks Baron into next week. With the new found space, Roy wheels into the paint and hits an easy little floater at the rim.

[10:45, 3rd Q] The Blazers go right back to it the very next possession with Roy on the left mid-block. Roy once again creates contact, but this time it’s with Gordon covering him, a bulky dude in his own right. Gordon flies back a bit on the initial bump, but quickly recovers and bodies up on Roy’s back. Roy gives him a few more bumps, the last of which creates enough space for him to get off a turnaround jumper from the baseline that’s true.

[9:52, 3rdQ] After sending a double team to Roy on the block and forcing a Marcus Camby missed slingshot from 19-feet on the previous possession, the Blazers choose to clear out for Roy at the top of the key. It’s Rasual Butler who draws the assignment this time, but Roy is much too quick off the bounce for Butler here. It only takes a few dribbles for Roy to get by Butler, and with Butler trying to play catchup, Roy stops on a dime and nails the pullup jumper from about 10-feet.

[8:52, 3rdQ] Here’s where you really start to see the effects of having a star player like Roy offensively. Brandon Roy and Marcus Camby run a pick and roll from the right elbow, and Drew Gooden comes off Camby to trap Roy and get the ball out of his hands. Roy swings the ball to Batum at the top of the key, and Batum finds LaMarcus Aldridge with deep position in the post against the recovering Clippers’ bigs. The baby hook goes in, for Aldridge, plus the foul. Hockey assist to Roy.

[6:40, 3rdQ] Roy and Aldridge clear out to the left side of the floor, with Aldridge on the block and Roy on the wing. After the entry feed, Aldridge has all day to wheel and deal on the block because Rasual Butler can’t leave Roy and double-down with any help. The result is a turnaround jumper from Aldridge, which is exactly what he wants to get in that situation.

[4:06. 3rdQ] Roy is isolated on the left elbow against Gordon where he is absolutely lethal, mainly because his entire offensive repertoire can be utilized. Here, Gordon gives Roy’s penetration ability a little too much respect, and Roy simply rises and fires from 18-feet. It’s good.

[:02, 3rdQ] With the exception of LeBron, Manu Ginobili, and maybe Kobe, there’s no one I’d rather have in a late clock situation than Brandon Roy. It’s actually a little silly how easy Roy makes it look here in isolation at the top of the key against Gordon with time running down. Roy beats Gordon to his right, slows down a bit to let Gordon catch up, throws a tiny fake drop step to the middle of the lane, and raises up from about eight feet to hit a right-handed jump hook. Basically, that’s a Tim Duncan move pulled off by a 6-foot 6 guard.

Roy’s incredible third quarter performance buries the Clippers. After being down just four going into halftime, the Clippers fall behind 17 points to end the third. Steve Blake tries to bring the Clippers back into it all by his lonesome in the fourth quarter, but it’s too little, too late.

Watching Roy dismantle the Clippers defense in a variety of ways just further illustrates that the Clippers don’t have that guy. When they need buckets to put games away, there’s no player who can do everything. Baron can do a little bit of what Roy does, but his shooting deficiencies stop him from being a crunch time threat. Kaman can usually score one on one in the post, but a simple double team can end that quickly. Gordon can usually get by his man in isolation, but send waves of help and he has trouble finding the open man. We don’t know for sure what Blake Griffin can and can’t do, but his skillset doesn’t scream “end of game scorer.”

If the Clippers are dreaming of being a playoff contender in the Western Conference, they need that guy.

Anyone know where we could find one?

After losing to Golden State, Toronto, and Denver in recent games, you’d figure the Clippers would have a pretty decent idea of what was in store for them Sunday night against Mike D’Antoni and the New York Knicks. Since all of the aforementioned opponents play at a quick pace and feature big men who can step out and knock down jumpers, you would certainly think the defensive game plan would be fresh in the minds of the players.

Instead, the Clippers keep on keepin’ on and fall into the same bad habits that have led them to become the worst post-trade deadline defensive team in the entire NBA.

Despite shooting over 70% from the field, the Clippers end the first quarter down one to the Knicks. Not surprisingly, it’s David Lee and Al Harrington carrying the offensive load for the Knicks. Chris Kaman and Drew Gooden, perhaps hampered by years of playing against traditional big men, seem to almost forget at times that Lee and especially Harrington are capable of knocking down outside shots. Al Harrington isn’t going to beat anyone off the dribble, but he’s rarely forced to do that in the first half. Harrington and Lee combine for 32 of the Knicks’ 59 first half points on 13-for-25 shooting. Good defenses routinely strive to take away opposing offenses primary options, but the Clippers, whether by forgetfulness or bad habit, give the Knicks precisely what they want to get.

It’s a shame too, because the Clippers game plan on the offensive side of the ball is executed pretty well. Chris Kaman gets quite a few touches in the post and attacks the smaller Lee as much as he can before the Knicks swarm and double down. Kaman’s best work in the first half is done off the ball, whether it’s rolling hard to the rim off a screen or cutting to the hoop off penetration.

The prettiest play of the night [4:43, 1Q] comes from an Eric Gordon isolation on the left wing. Gordon drives with his left hand to the baseline, but Toney Douglas gets his body in front of Gordon and cuts off penetration about 8 feet from the rim. Feeling the contact, Gordon pulls off a great spin move to the middle of the floor and delivers a beautiful shovel pass to the diving Kaman who finishes at the rim.

The play has everything you want to see in a late season game: Gordon attacking the rim and working on his playmaking abilities, and Kaman moving without the ball and finishing at the tin.

As pretty as the play is, it’s followed up a disastrous play coming out of a timeout a few minutes later [1:36, 1Q]. Rasual Butler stands with the ball on the left wing, directing traffic. The Clippers look confused — no one is quite sure where they are supposed to be, and it’s unclear whether Rasual wants a clearout or not. Eventually, Rasual calls over Drew Gooden for a high pick. Rasual jab steps towards Gooden and his screen, but then inexplicably dribbles away from his pick. After a couple of bounces, Rasual picks up his dribble and floats a skip pass to the opposite wing, which is easily picked off by Toney Douglas and sent the other way for an easy two. Throughout the course of a game these things will happen. But coming out of a timeout, that’s what you get?

It’s errors like this that ultimately cost the Clippers the game. When you don’t play any defense, the margin for error in the other aspects of the game become very slim.

Never is this more evident than the fourth quarter. After being down five headed into the fourth, the Clippers get some big threes from Rasual Butler, who breaks Terry Dehere’s record for most three-pointers in a single season as a Clipper. The Clips do a nice job of utilizing their advantages in the post, putting Craig Smith in iso situations and positioning DeAndre Jordan at the rim to swallow up any misses. Offensively the plan works pretty well, as DeAndre gets some putback dunks and the Knicks start to get in a little foul trouble. But as often is the case, DeAndre’s good works on the offensive end get nullified by silly some mistakes. Whether it’s the goaltending or leaving Earl Barron (who does his best Johan Petro impersonation) all alone, Jordan gets lost a little easily and gives up some easy hoops defensively.

Maybe because they were able to step away and see the success of Smith and Jordan offensively, Kaman and Gooden emulate their performance after checking back in late in the fourth. Gooden comes in and right away positions himself right at the front of the rim, and as a result gets two huge tip-ins to tie the game.

But back come the mistakes on the ensuing possessions. Kaman takes way too long to make a move in the post and probably travels, but Drew Gooden is whistled for the three seconds in the key. The next possession, Kaman commits an offensive foul. Still tied due to a cold stretch of shooting by the Knicks, Baron Davis gets whistled for trying to take the charge in the post against the much bigger Al Harrington. After knocking down both free throws, Gordon comes back and tries to answer with a deep three over two defenders, despite having Kaman open on the roll. The shot misses.

Now up two, the Knicks go right back to their advantage in the post with Harrington, and Baron tries to sell the charge again and gets no whistle. Harrington ends up finishing on an easy shot in the paint, and the Knicks take a four point lead with :36 seconds to go.

Here’s where it really gets silly: Chris Kaman gets a quick easy bucket out of the timeout. The Clippers are now down two and there are :31 seconds on the game clock…but Eric Gordon fouls. It’s a rookie mistake from a second year player, and it dooms the Clippers. Toney Douglas knocks down both his free throws, and Rasual Butler misses a three-point attempt on the other end. And that’s your ballgame.

Do the mistakes hurt? Of course, but you expect them every now and then from the younger guys. What really hurts is that the mistakes wouldn’t have even mattered if the Clippers had played intelligent defense throughout the game. Instead, Baron Davis’ near triple-double (23-11-8), Rasual Butler’s record breaking night, and a 49.4 percent outing from the field go unrewarded, and the Clippers fall to small-ball yet again.

Pardon the coachspeak, but you always learn more from losses than you do from wins. Out of all the teams the NBA has to offer, losing to the Warriors may provide the biggest learning experience possible. Sunday night the Warriors play only eight guys in total, five of which were never even drafted. But it isn’t “who” does it, it’s “what” does it that truly matters.

Under Don Nelson the names and numbers change, but the game remains the same. The Warriors want to get out and run against you, they want you to take long quick shots, and they want to turn you over. No matter who they toss out on the floor, that’s the Warriors agenda.

Why does the Warriors’ scheme give the Clippers so much trouble? Let’s take a look.

Turnovers:

• The Clippers own the third worst turnover rate in all the league, while the Warriors are the number one team in the league at causing turnovers. Obviously, this presents some issues. The Warriors are tricky because they allow you opportunities to get up and down the floor, but for the most part it’s fools gold. Running up and down with the Warriors is exactly what they want to happen. It’s hard for a lot of teams not to get sucked into this type of battle, and tonight the Clippers don’t really show much restraint. The Clippers get outscored 40-14 (!) in the second quarter and turn the ball over eight times during that period alone. The Warriors take advantage of the Clippers’ multiple mistakes in the first half by scoring 24 points off turnovers.

Smallball:

• On paper, the Clippers should absolutely punish the Warriors on the block. Chris Kaman is head and shoulders above his opponents in terms of both talent and height, but it’s rendered meaningless unless properly utilized. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the problem lies with Kaman’s mindset. The best example of Kaman’s lack of aggressiveness is witnessed through his free throw totals for the month of March. Kaman has shot just 33 free throws this month, compared to the 73 he shot in October or even the 52 he shot in November when he was playing his best basketball. It’s become routine for Kaman to face the basket immediately upon every post entry, regardless of who is defending him. Because he’s not fighting for deep position and rarely playing with his back to the basket, Kaman has been unable to take advantage of any size mismatch. Instead of punishing smaller defenders and drawing fouls, Kaman instead has tried to take guys off the dribble from 18-feet out or launch long jumpers. Only going to the line once against the Warriors tiny frontcourt is downright criminal. Smallball looks genius if no one is punishing you for going small, and tonight the Clippers have no legitimate back to the basket presence in reality, even if they do on paper. Despite their immense advantages down low, the Clippers get outscored in the paint 56-40.

Contesting Jumpers:

• Since the trade deadline, the Clippers have posted the worst defensive efficiency number in the league. Some of it can be attributed to individual effort, but for the most part the problem lies in a general lack of continuity on the defensive end. No one exploits this better than Golden State. Outside of Corey Maggette, the Warriors suit up no one who can regularly penetrate and finish at the rim. A smart defensive club would recognize this and force a team without the services of Monta Ellis to beat them at the tin. Instead, the Clippers spend the night staring at jump shooters, giving space out on the perimeter, and practicing their patented zombie closeouts. Want to know how Reggie Williams goes for 25 points and Anthony Tolliver goes for 19? It’s almost exclusively on mid-range jumpers that weren’t contested well enough.

This was only the Warriors fifth road win of the season, and they’ve only defeated five playoff teams all year long. Clearly, the Golden State Warriors are not a good basketball team. But this game just goes to show that if you don’t make adjustments and at least attempt to knock teams off their track, they’ll run you right over.