Training Camp News

[mkwest]

My First Peek At This Year's Clippers Did Not Disappoint



Other than those two injury notes, the Clippers collectively look very healthy and fit. The scrimmages were high-paced with high intensity. DeAndre Jordan was impressive grabbing boards and running the floor. Craig Smith scored several buckets in the paint. And Eric Gordon was driving the lane and getting the rim with regularity. Granted, it's still early in camp, but the tempo and tone look drastically different than last season, and that's without Blake Griffin even taking the court yet.

After practice, Dunleavy joined me, Don MacLean, Ralph Lawler, Mike Smith, Dain Blanton and our producer Sara Takata for lunch at Piknic in Playa Vista. It's an annual gathering we have at the beginning of camp to get the coach's ideas and plans for the upcoming season. It really helps with our tv production throughout the year.

While most of our conversation is not for mass consumption, I will share with you some overall impressions Mike has about his team and this season. As the team's general manager, he's obviously the one responsible for acquiring the new pieces, and once all the moves were made he really liked his team. Now having seen them in action for several workouts, he likes this mix of guys even more. He probably has more versatility and depth since he's been here, both of which every coach covets.

As far as a starting lineup is concerned, Dunleavy reaffirmed what he said at Media Day about the starting spots being wide open. He said the starters from last year will start atop the depth chart, but any and all spots can be won during the preseason.

He believes there are about 5-6 teams from the Western Conference who are locks for the playoffs. You don't have to be an NBA insider to figure who those squads might be. But beyond those teams, Dunleavy thinks it will be a battle for the last 2-3 playoff spots. And barring any devastating injuries, he expects the Clippers to be right in the mix.

Michael Eaves, blogspot.com

Mike Dunleavy Interview - Day 3

[mkwest]

Friday Training Camp Notes

* Blake Griffin is day-to-day with a bruised left patella. He worked out and performed some shooting drills today, but seems generally frustrated as a bystander. He won’t play Sunday evening in Oakland when the Clippers’ take the court for their first preseason game.
* With Sebastian Telfair nursing a sore foot, Eric Gordon saw some sets at the point. “He still has a ways to go with that,” Mike Dunleavy said with respect to EJ’s point play. “He’s very good in clear and simple stretch court plays where there’s not too much congestion or traffic.” Gordon isn’t a natural point by any means, but having him at the 1 allows him to post against smaller defenders — something else Dunleavy likes to see from his guards. “He’s a strong kid, can finish well, and get to the free throw line,” Dunleavy said.
* The last player to leave the court today was Al Thornton. He worked on his post game with Sean Rooks and Clippers assistant coach Fred Vinson, taking several reps from each block, spinning both baseline and middle. Al isn’t a natural post player, but his numbers last year on post sets weren’t horrendous: 43% field goal percentage (though only 0.79 points per possession). According to Vinson, the challenge for Al in the post is balance. When Al is unsuccessful, he tends to drop his shoulders as he fades away rather than squaring up. For mere mortals, fading away effectively for a shot is daunting. How can you simultaneously drift backward and keep your shoulders squared toward the basket? It seems almost biomechanically impossible — which explains why Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant is Kobe Bryant.

Kevin Arnovitz, ClipperBlog

Lawler's Law - Friday, October 2, 2009 @ 1:23 pm

A good solid morning Training Camp session for Mike Dunleavy’s Clippers today. The best sight was seeing rookie Blake Griffin on the court for running and shooting drills. He’s been cleared for non-contact work and expects to participate fully by next Wednesday which would likely make him available to play in the second pre-season game at home against Portland on Friday, October 9th.

Coach gave his team the night off tonight and expects to work them hard tomorrow morning before departing Saturday afternoon for Oakland, where they’ll play the Golden State Warriors Sunday night at 6pm (KFWB-AM980).



Second year shooting guard Eric Gordon continues to sparkle in team scrimmages. He’s slimmed down a little which has given him added quickness and it shows. He has spent some time at the point guard position and is growing more comfortable there. He was a point guard throughout high school and did not move over to the shooting guard position until college at Indiana. Sebastian Telfair (ankle) will not make the trip to Oakland, so Gordon can be expected to get some minutes at the point in the pre-season opener against the Warriors. Griffin will make the trip but will not play Sunday.

So far so good in week one of camp. The work resumes tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.

Ralph Lawler, Clippers.com

Day Four of Training Camp - Really Quick Thoughts

* We got to see more of the Blue vs. White scrimmage today, which was good.

The White team consisted of Kaman, Jordan, Novak, Collins, Gordon, Roberson and Thornton (although Al did not play while I was watching). Blue was the rest of the healthy guys, but as with Thornton, Camby wasn't playing when I was watching. It's a combination of wanting to see some other guys, and letting them rest a little. Neither of them are hurt.

White won, mostly on the inside strength of DJ and Kaman. That's when I noticed that Camby wasn't out there - when I saw Craig Smith giving away like 6 inches to DJ. Skinner and Smith just couldn't hang with the bigs on the white team.

Jordan looked great, by the way. Not that he made a single move, but when he's active on both ends, he's just a force. He was rebounding, blocking shots and just making things happen. MDsr once again heaped praise on him in his comments as well.

Baron looked good for blue, penetrating and getting to the rim almost any time he wanted to. Unfortunately for him, either DJ or Kaman was usually waiting there.

* After practice broke up, Baron stayed and went through shooting drills with John Lucas. And Lucas was working him too. Baron is putting in the time, that much is evident.

Griffin, although he's being held out of contact, is able to work out and to shoot. Like Baron, he was shooting for a long time after practice. Fred Vinson has his mechanics looking much better. In that sense, it's not as if Griffin is missing crucial time right now. We know he's in phenomenal shape so that's not a problem, and yes, we'd like to have him working on the sets and defensive rotations with his teammates, but he's watching and listening on all of that, and his hoops IQ is very high, so he'll pick that up. And if he is getting his shooting practice in, then he's moving forward in his development.

Steve Perrin, Clips Nation

Training Camp Day 4: Mike Dunleavy

[jflipclip]

No surprise with the whole Dunleavy wanting everyone to learn how to post up.. lol.

Interesting how DeAndre and Kaman are getting some good reviews. Sucks that one of those five big men are going to get limited minutes.

[mkwest]

Followup on Clippers' Training Camp

Baron - Going into Friday's practice, I was feeling a little nervous about Baron. Every day the beat reporters (like me!) would ask the coach who looked good, and every day he'd single out a few guys - and Baron was a little conspicuous by his absence. Now, that's an unfair inference on my part - not saying that he stood out as looking good does not mean that he looked bad, or even that he didn't look good for that matter. But on Friday, there were several questions asked specific to Baron, and coach is clearly pleased with what's happening in camp. It didn't hurt the montage that Boom was dripping sweat running shooting drills with John Lucas 90 feet away at the time. And as I mentioned, in the Blue vs. White scrimmage I watched, Baron was getting the rim with ease, and playing tough defense on the other end (he blocked a Novak jumper at one point) and just plain leading. (Citizen Zhiv did the math on the teams and rightly concluded that the talent was stacked against Baron a bit - but I'll tell you right now, he was trying to win that scrimmage.) It remains to be seen if we'll ever again experience the explosive Baron who dunked on Kirilenko in the 2007 playoffs (MDsr says he hasn't seen that guy yet, but that he's getting closer). If he's lost a step, he's lost a step. But his effort is not lacking.

Gordon - Both in summer league and in training camp, it's been interesting to see the coaching staff pushing Eric Gordon. MDsr has always had a penchant for post isolations, and he'll run that iso for any matchup on the floor he fancies. The 2006 Clippers that advanced to the Conference Semis LOVED to post Cassell and Mobley. Hell, remember when the Suns put Steve Nash on Quinton Ross? The Clippers immediately posted Ross, who probably hadn't gotten a play called for him since he left SMU (did you know that he averaged 20 points per game in college?) But Gordon didn't play with his back to the basket at IU, and didn't post up his entire rookie season that I recall. Flash forward to July in Las Vegas, and most of Gordon's points in two summer league games came on post ups. Likewise, they've been isolating him some in scrimmages this week. Baron Davis is a big and strong point guard - so defenses will sometimes defend him with a two, and stick their point guard on Gordon. But Gordon, although not super long for a shooting guard, is even stronger than Davis. MDsr wants to be in a position to post which ever guard he believes has a matchup advantage, hence the work EJ is putting in down low. In addition to that new wrinkle, the Clippers also had EJ working the point some yesterday with Telfair out. We know how good Eric Gordon already is. I for one am pretty pleased that the coaches aren't just basking in the glow of his perfect jumper and relentless drives to the basket, but rather working with him to expand his game further still.

Steve Perrin, Clips Nation

[DunknDave]

Thanks for the report, i really liked this piece. Totally agree with the last line. Eric being able to post upexpands his game, and gives him another way to score. Once Blake gets back to practice, I suspect he'll also be working on expanding his game as well.

Was concerned a little about Baron's report, as we'll need a big season from him. Maybe Dun will have to monitor Baron's minutes. Hopefully EJ can make some serious strides as a pg this season. I'm hoping EJ can play some minutes at pg playing a "Wade" style point..