From RealGM:

“On Thursday, the Los Angeles Clippers extended a contract offer to point guard Carlos Arroyo, a source close to the situation tells RealGM’s Alex Kennedy.While terms of the deal were not revealed, it is the only offer Arroyo has received this summer.

Arroyo’s last stint in the NBA was with the Orlando Magic. He averaged 6.9 points and 3.5 assists per game in 2007.

Last season, Arroyo led Maccabi Tel Aviv to an Israeli Premier League Championship and was named Finals MVP.

He would be the fourth point guard on Los Angeles’ roster, which suggests that they’re no longer pursuing restricted free agent Ramon Sessions.”

Eric Pincus, senior writer at HoopsWorld.com, says otherwise via his twitter page:

“I’ve been told by rock solid source that the Clippers did NOT make an offer to Arroyo – and aren’t planning to.”

The conflicting reports around Arroyo are interesting to say the least. There is some speculation that Arroyo’s camp is floating this rumor to spark interest around the league, and while that may be the case, the prospect of the Clippers bringing in Arroyo is very believable. The need for a third point guard to back up the injury prone Baron Davis and the sometimes shaky Sebastian Telfair is ever present, and Arroyo has enough talent to warrant being given that roster spot. The issue with Arroyo has never been his talent level, but instead his attitude. In Arroyo’s previous NBA stints he clashed with coaches Jerry Sloan and Stan Van Gundy, and because of that he’s earned a less than favorable reputation around the league.

Brian Robb of CelticsHub recently profiled Arroyo, and is relatively high on Arroyo as a quality backup point guard. Robb makes some nice points in his article; Arroyo is a decent enough outside shooter (32% from 3 on his career), and has shown to be a good distributor when given the minutes (5 assists a game for Utah in ’03).Perhaps Arroyo, now 30 years old, has grown up a bit and was humbled by a year away from the NBA lifestyle.

If Arroyo does become a Clipper, the Ramon Sessions saga will uneventfully come to a close, at least for this offseason. The prospects of the Sessions camp breaking down and signing a Clippers offer sheet, if one was ever offered, became slimmer and slimmer as the summer progressed. With more free agents jumping overseas, more teams completing their rosters, and training camp inching closer everyday, the Clippers front office may have finally decided to move forward and complete the roster sans Sessions.

In related news, the man Arroyo may be replacing seems to have found a spot in Memphis with the Grizzlies, according to RealGM:

The Memphis Grizzlies have offered point guard Mike Taylor a contract following his workout with the team on Thursday, sources tell RealGM’s Alex Kennedy.Memphis also worked out Juan Dixon, Jason Hart, and Bo McCaleb. They planned to bring in Brevin Knight, Luther Head, and Tyronn Lue for workouts before extending the offer to Taylor.

As a rookie last season, Taylor averaged 5.7 points and 2.1 assists with the Los Angeles Clippers

Is it Mike Taylor out, Carlos Arroyo in?

There may not be a bigger testament to Mike Taylor’s worth than the emotional response elicited from fans and teammates upon hearing the news late Friday night. No one seemed more hurt by the news than Taylor’s best friend on the team, DeAndre Jordan, who briefly commented via Twitter. DeAndre is clearly upset (s.m.h means ‘shaking my head’) that Taylor is no longer on the team, and as of right now he’s probably not the happiest Clipper.

If you’re able to take the emotion out of it, Taylor’s release becomes a little easier to understand. If the decision was based purely on basketball talent and raw potential alone, Taylor surely would have stayed over a few other Clippers. This move was purely a financial decision, as Taylor’s contract was non-guaranteed and saved the Clippers $736,420 dollars and a much desired roster space. Ricky Davis and Mark Madsen likely stayed because they would have had to been bought out, something that Sterling is likely not in favor of doing. In addition, both Davis and Madsen’s contracts expire this year, so their deals have additional trading value that Taylor’s did not. Lastly, by releasing Taylor the number of signed players goes down to 13, giving Dunleavy one extra spot to reach his standard 14 man roster.

In hindsight, it’s hard to expect more than what Taylor gave the Clippers last season. Taylor not only beat out veteran Jason Hart for the primary backup point guard role as a rookie, but he also performed admirably when Baron Davis went down late last season. He was prone to turnovers and off games, but the flashes of potential he showed largely outweighed the mistakes.

Perhaps the most confusing thing about Taylor being released has more to do with how he was acquired. Taylor was originally drafted last year by the Trailblazers, but the Clippers ended up acquiring Taylor for a 2009 second rounder. Dunleavy and company had to have known what they were getting themselves into by drafting a player out of the NBDL, as Taylor would obviously require great patience. Instead, despite his overall impressive performances, Taylor was given only his rookie season to develop . It’s hard to believe the theory that Taylor played his way out of a job by performing poorly in 5 summer league games, as his fate seemed to be decided long before.

The most troubling thing about Taylor’s release is the possible indication that the franchise isn’t as willing to be as patient with it’s young core as it probably should. Trading for draft picks with an eye towards the future is good; releasing them after a mostly successful year is not. You’d like to believe that management could have found a way to keep a 23 year old prospect amidst some of the dead weight on the current roster, regardless of the previously outlined circumstances. Before casting too much judgment though, let’s wait and see what is done with those expiring contracts and empty roster slot.

There is one thing this move definitely signifies: The Clippers aren’t done making moves quite yet.

According to InsideHoops, the Clippers waived Mike Taylor today. Taylor’s contract was to become guaranteed after today, but Clippers management decided against retaining him. Taylor was scheduled to make $736,420 this year.

Taylor showed a ton of potential towards the end of the year. Taylor went off for 35 points at Madison Square Garden on March 25th, which was good for one of the highest single game point performances by any rookie last season. Taylor’s rough summer in Vegas, where he struggled with inconsistency and maintaining the proper tempo, probably lost him his job. Mike Taylor may not have been a true point guard, but many Clippers fans were hopeful he could blossom and enjoy a career similar to Bobby Jackson.

It’s quite the turn of events, considering Taylor was a player that management traded a 2009 2nd rounder to acquire. That traded pick eventually became pick 33 of this years draft, who Portland used to select Dante Cunningham.

Taylor became quite the fan favorite in L.A. for his electrifying dunks and speedy play. In the dying months of the season, Taylor was routinely applauded by fans for his consistent effort and hustle.

Taylor’s waiving leaves the Clippers with only three true guards on the roster; Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, and Sebastian Telfair. This move may further intensify the Clippers pursuit of Ramon Sessions.

If this is truly the last we’ll see of Mike Taylor in a Clippers uniform, we might as well let him go out in style.

• There are two primary reasons why Eric Gordon has missed each of the past two games: [1] He has a bruised leg, though it’s nothing serious. [2] He’s been invited to Team USA mini-camp here in Vegas next week. “We don’t want to kill him,” assistant general manager Neil Olshey said.  There’s a precedent for too much summer basketball taking its toll in the subsequent season. As disappointing as it is not to see him play, sitting out makes sense in the longterm.
• Gordon’s absence is making life far more difficult for Blake Griffin. With virtually no teammates on the floor who demand attention, the Wizards swarmed Griffin last night in their waxing of the Clips. They trapped him aggressively anytime he got the ball inside of 15 feet. Although Griffin’s stat line was still nice-looking (19 points on 21 possessions, 10 rebounds, four steals against five turnovers), he was far from the dominant force that controlled the game against the Lakers. Still, he passed out of the double-teams fairly well, and we have to appreciate that life will be much easier for him in these situations when Eric Gordon, Baron Davis, Al Thornton, Marcus Camby, and Chris Kaman are on the receiving end on those passes, no disrespect intended to Mike Taylor and the hard-working grunts filling out the Clippers’ Summer League roster. Griffin has been a little prone to overdribbling out on the perimeter. Given Washington’s defensive strategy, it got him in trouble. Again, this isn’t a grave concern because, come October, he’ll be playing alongside seasoned NBA players and will, by and large, be on the receiving end of most halfcourt action.
• As much as I wanted to see Dionte Christmas have a good week, he hasn’t impressed. Christmas is 4-for-13 from the floor with two rebounds this week in 53 minutes.
• After lighting the gym on fire over his first two games, DeAndre Jordan has appeared less comfortable the last couple of outings. It’s the usual diagnosis: His motor starts running in the red, and he gets ahead of the game. He wasn’t awful last night: 14 points in 14 possessions to go along with 10 boards and three blocks. The better news? He’s hit 13 of his last 19 free throws, something he’s been working tirelessly on.
• Mike Taylor is killing the Clippers. The stats aren’t pretty (25.7% from the field, 14 turnovers against five assists), and his command of the game has been even worse. If Taylor is truly interested in being more than a novelty in the NBA, he’s going to have to slow down and put some serious work in on his shot.
• I’ll be tweeting Summer League today from about 1:30p until the last game ends. Though I’ll be bouncing between Cox Pavilion and the Thomas & Mack Center most of the day, I’ll tweet every minute of the Clippers-Suns game at 7:30p.  Please follow me here.

• DeAndre Jordan continues to impress. You always have to offer a qualifier in Summer League, because many of Jordan’s easy routes to the hoop won’t be there when long, speedy NBA help defenders in the regular season slide over to cut off DJ’s path to the rim, but here in Vegas, he’s winning every race to the basket — by a mile. His post moves are far more refined. He’s pivoting middle, bumping his defender with authority as he backs in, and isn’t rushing his shot. He’s shooting 15-for-19 from the field over the two games. Equally impressive? The defensive strides. DJ is communicating with his teammates. He’s not dropping back aimlessly on the pick-and-roll.
• Blake Griffin is a far more versatile player than he was five months ago in a Sooner uniform: the interior passing out of double-teams and his range, in particular. So far as his work down low, his fundamental understanding of his strengths is unparalleled. A nice example of this came in the third quarter, when he was fed the ball underneath on the right block. The defense came quickly. Rather than travel or get flustered (which would’ve been the case for 65% of the PFs in the league), Griffin showed great control and patience moving his pivot foot for a reverse layup. Griffin’s obvious physical gifts jump out at you. But it’s his more subtle attributes –  balance and a good low base –  that will make him a dominant force. Even the most physical interior defenders are going to have a tough time knocking Griffin off his move. Defensively, he’ll have some work to do. He’s a great communicator and has the ability to read opposing offenses. Switch-and-recovery? Check. Driving point guards away from the screen on a trap? Check. But as a post defender, he has room to improve — and he will.
• Eric Gordon‘s performance was encouraging in that he scored 22 points on 19 possessions without hitting a shot from beyond the arc. Obviously, you always like to see EJ light it up from the outside, but it’s not as if his shot won’t be there. What you do like to see is the expansion of his post game, something he utilized effectively against some of the Hornets’ smaller defenders. Eric’s defense was also a nice feature to yesterday’s game. He kept a crafty Darren Collison out of the paint on a couple of occasions, and I like the way he did it. Gordon employed an almost Battier-ish approach. Rather than overcrowd Collison, Eric instead chose to guard the paint rather than the man. Collison still had a productive game, though the bulk of his points came against other Clipper defenders.
• Mike Taylor needs to slow down, particularly on halfcourt sets. There’s nothing wrong with running out in transition to initiate the offense before the defense gets set, but Taylor’s frenetic pace is making life harder than it needs to be for the Clippers. He’s getting to the line at a good frequency, but his iffy ballhandling is costing the Clippers possessions. It’s not the turnovers, per se, but Taylor’s insistence on improvisation in the halfcourt, when he’s got weapons like Gordon, Griffin, and Jordan establishing position in the right spots. Taylor simply doesn’t have the vision to run a drive-and-kick scheme, which means that, except on breaks, he should be looking for his horses first.
• “We’re talking to a lot of guys,” was Mike Dunleavy‘s response to a questions about Allen Iverson. He acknowledged that the conversations with Iverson and his camp are real, but that there are several point guards on his radar, Iverson being one of them.  “It’s in your interest to talk to everyone,” Dunleavey said. “That’s how you understand where the market is.” Speaking with a number of other executives and agents in Las Vegas, the vast majority of them put the likelihood that Iverson will be in a Clippers jersey come October at less than 50%.

I’ll have more on Griffin’s debut over the next several hours. This is what I filed for TrueHoop:

Moments prior to Blake Griffin’s NBA debut, the Los Angeles Clippers’ brass was lined up courtside, smiling widely like expectant parents. And if the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas weren’t a smoke-free facility, they would’ve been lighting up stogies two minutes into the Clippers’ Summer League game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Blake Griffin: Scoring Every Which Way (Garrett Ellwood/NBA via Getty Images)

Griffin, the Clips’ prized rookie and the first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, delivered seven points in the game’s first three possessions. In his first professional set, Griffin hooked up with second-year guard Eric Gordon for a pick-and-roll that resulted in an easy layup for the rookie.

“That should be the bread and butter this coming year,” Gordon said. “We’re both young guys and we should have a great chemistry.”

The Gordon-Griffin connection was just the opening salvo in Griffin’s 27-point, 12-rebound attack, but it was a huge relief for the rookie who was antsy to play competitive basketball for the first time since suiting up for Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament last spring.

“I really wanted to hit my first layup to take the edge off a little bit,” Griffin said. “I kind of settled down on my jumpers.”

You could say that.

Though Griffin hit a grand total of three 3-pointers in his two-year college career, he followed up that first layup Monday night by moving out to the perimeter for his next two buckets. On the Clippers’ second possession, Griffin got the ball from guard Mike Taylor, absorbed hard contact from Lakers big man Ben McCauley, squared up and went glass from 15. He bested that the next trip down with a silky 3-pointer.

What got into Griffin?

It might have something to do with the fact that Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy actually stopped practice the other day to implore the rookie to launch the ball when he’s got an open look.

“I caught one almost in the same position, passed it up, and he stopped me and said, ‘Shoot the ball. I’m not going to get mad if you take a wide-open shot’,” Griffin recounted. “So I’m trying to get into that mindset.”

Griffin has been plugging away to refine his outside shot. In a league increasingly dominated by power forwards who can do more than just throw their weight around inside of 15 feet, he knows he’ll have to develop a face-up game if he wants to live up to his promise.

“The kid’s been working like crazy on his outside shot,” Dunleavy said. “Yesterday in practice, he hit a twenty-footer, then a 3-pointer to end one of the games, and made probably six jumpers over 20 feet.”

Griffin finished 11-of-15 from the field, and those 11 shots came every which way. He worked familiar territory on the right block. He pulled down offensive rebounds and muscled up putbacks. He fired turnaround hook shots. He even ignited a solo, coast-to-coast break to punctuate his performance in the fourth quarter. Granted, Griffin will draw tougher assignments this fall than McCauley and David Monds, but the range of skills the rookie displayed Monday night was impressive.

“He did everything we expected him to do,” Dunleavy said. “For a guy like him, it’s hard to have a bad game because he plays so hard and does so many things. He’s very unselfish and he draws a lot of attention. Tonight, he made the plays to the right people at the right time and got them easy scores.”

Along those lines, Griffin repeatedly laid out hard screens for Gordon and Taylor, precisely the sort of grunt work that the Clippers sorely missed last season at the power forward spot. Twice when he got doubled in the right post, Griffin whipped sharp interior passes to open teammates.

On defense, Griffin was the most vocal presence on the floor for the Clippers, playing traffic cop on every defensive set. He let his guards know when screens were coming, and called out defensive assignments in transition.

“I did a lot of that last year in college,” Griffin said. “This year I have to step it up even more because it will help me out, and if I talk I’m more aware of everything that’s going on around me.”

Awareness wasn’t a strong suit of the Clippers last season. They finished 19-63, and dead last in the league in offensive efficiency. Although injuries played a measurable role in the team’s struggles, their nightly routine was marred, above all, by laziness and a lack of intensity.

Griffin brings no such deficit to the court. If anything, the rookie was overly keyed up for his first game. After his early scoring spurt, Griffin racked up a couple of careless turnovers — a function of playing too fast. As he went back to the bench at the end of the first quarter, the coaching staff had a tip for him.

“Just relax and have fun,” Griffin said.

The Clippers currently hold their mid-level exception, as well as a traded player exception worth between $7-8M. Clipperblog spoke to a source inside the Clippers organization who offered the following:

• The Clippers are in no hurry to use their trade exception. They feel that the exception will only increase in value between now and the trade deadline. “If there’s a great value out there this summer, that’s one thing,” said the source. “But there’s a much better chance of our picking up a very good piece down the road closer to the trading deadline, as teams get squeezed by the tax, or fall out of [playoff contention].”
• The team likes the progress Mike Taylor is making, but wants to find a prototypical point guard this offseason to backup Baron Davis, considering Baron’s injury history. “We’re really happy with Mike as a third guy right now,” the source said. “He’s doing all the right things, but it’s not something we’re ready to hang our hat on yet.”
• The Clippers recognize that depth on the perimeter remains their most pressing issue, particularly defensively. They see Mardy Collins as a versatile utility man who does nothing exceptionally, but a lot of different things fairly well. Q is regarded as a guy who can play the 2 or 3, and Ricky Davis as a big question mark because of the tendinitis in his knee. If the Clippers make a splash — an unlikely event — it will probably be at the 3.
• What about the Clippers’ MLE?  The Clippers are putting out feelers, but are cautious. “Everyone has an inflated opinion of their value right now,” the source said, alluding to Shawn Marion’s rejection of a multi-year deal worth $8M/per from Toronto.  The Clippers see the MLE as an opportunity to maneuver within the confines of the cap, but not as an excuse to pay a $3M player almost $6M/per.  “If there’s someone who makes sense and is a value, sure. But right now, the market is unsettled.”

Even when they stumble to a dismal 19-63 record, the Clippers manage to keep it interesting. Whether they’re lucking their way to the top pick in the draft, assembling a roster of high-priced malcontents, or deflecting another bizarre story about their owner, the Clips never deprive their fans and observers of stuff to talk about. Over the next week or so, Steve Perrin of Clips Nation and I will explore it all — the rebuilding process (or lack thereof), trade speculation, the trials of Nación citizenship (and postnationalism), Zach Randolph, and the “It’s the Clippers” shibboleth. Here’s our first installment:

From: Kevin Arnovitz
To: Steve Perrin
Date: June 3, 2009

Steve:

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where to begin a dialogue about the state of the Clippers. Should we zero in on the upcoming draft and the prospect of Blake Griffin joining the team?  Should we fully diagnose what the Clippers need to do on their long road back to respectability?  Should we take a look at the franchise from 30,000 feet and survey all the destruction since the hopeful days of the youth movement and the 2005-06 run? Should we answer the persistent, facile “It’s the Clippers” rap that infects most discussions about the club? I suspect we’ll touch on all the above.

I hit a crisis point this last season trying to blog the Clippers. I started Clipperblog in the winter of 2006 because the team was playing quality basketball that was, by and large, going uncovered. The basketball is what lured me to the blogosphere and what kept me writing late into the night. The Clippers were only a middle-of-the-pack offensive squad that season, but more nights than not, they exhibited a coherent, watchable brand of basketball — and, man, did they play some good defense. Breaking down Clippers games was a fun exercise, and even when they played badly, the loss was part of a larger narrative that meant something.

Maybe I’m the fair-weather type, but if the basketball isn’t worth a thoughtful critical analysis, I have a difficult time maintaining interest. That might be more of a commentary on the craft of blogging than it is on the Los Angeles Clippers. I imagine most restaurant critics love their jobs — but what would happen if they were restricted to only the worst joints in town?

Last season, the Clippers ceased to be interesting from a basketball standpoint with a few exceptions — Eric Gordon’s maturation, the two or three Mike Taylor games, the challenge of getting a limited, but prolific shooter like Steve Novak shots. Apart from that, it was painful to dissect — much more so than the losing teams at the beginning of the decade. To put it in the simplest possible terms, I have no idea what the current team aspires to be, what it wants to accomplish on a given offensive possession, or hopes to deny on a defensive one.

There’s something instructive about having this conversation in the shadow of the NBA Finals. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a lot of good basketball played by smart, well-assembled teams who know what they’re doing. In contrast to what we had to endure for six months, Orlando has been a revelation of what an adroit system looks like in the hands of players who understand (and have been conditioned to understand) how to maximize their talents on the floor. It isn’t just the Magic. Houston demonstrated what a franchise can do by making good choices with empirical savvy. The Bulls, decimated by injuries and reconstructed on the fly, still achieved a measure of success, even with an unexceptional coach. The Nuggets weren’t expected to compete for anything this season, but by not being afraid to take risks, Mark Warkentien remade a team with a semi-toxic culture into a winner.

Let’s fast forward exactly one year. In an ideal world, is there a hypothetical sentence about the 2009-10 Clippers that could fit snugly at the end of the preceding paragraph?

• Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune: “The Clippers are probably five times as talented as the Golden State team that beat the Jazz with seven players on Saturday, but they sure didn’t play like it. Baron Davis – - no C.J. Watson – - was 1-for-13 and finished with three points and seven assists. For the game, the Clippers went 5-for-19 from three-point range, got to the foul line less than half as much as the Jazz and were outrebounded 50-36 and outscored 23-7 on second chance points.”
• Know what else is on the line tomorrow night when the Thunder and Clippers face off at Staples Center?  The battle for 29th and 30th in Offensive Efficiency!  The Clippers clawed their way out of the basement about a week ago, and have maintained a paper thin 0.1 point per 100 possession edge over OKC ever since.
• Ian Thomsen at SI.com is the latest to discover Eric Gordon.  Eric’s two toughest covers this season? “I would say Dwyane Wade was the hardest guy for me to guard this year … He and Brandon Roy were the two toughest guys.’
• Mike Taylor: One reason to get to the game early.
• Mike Taylor: One reason not leave the game early.  Taylor still isn’t a natural passer, but he’s gotten pretty proficient at finding his trailers, especially when he’s driving baseline.
• One of the fixtures on NBA League Pass over the past couple of days is hearing broadcast teams thank the crews for their season of service.  With the regular season coming to a merciful end tomorrow night, I’d like to thank Mike Fiske, who has made this endeavor possible for more than three years.  He also helped me install a new HDTV the other day, a process during which we determined via the very cool A Level iPhone app that my house has settled into the hillside on a slant — which may or may not explain my imbalance.