Media Day Pics/Interviews; Training Camp News Updates

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Od4H9uIJ8[/youtube]

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Nash can dance.

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Nash can dance.

Nash can do it all.

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After Chris Kaman, Clippers have a shortage of big bodies

"It's me and D.J., that's really what it is," Kaman said on Friday. "Depending on what happens with the guys that are here from camp, the way I see it is me and D.J. [at center], and then Craig [Smith] and Blake [Griffin] and Brian [Cook] at the four [power forward].

"That's how it's going to be the whole season. I'm not going to be able to play the whole game. I'm a 32-, 35-minute guy. DJ is going to get some time. Blake and Craig as well. We talked about this summer, me and D.J. I think he's ready. He's just got have a little more patience."

Said the 6-foot-11 Jordan: "This year I'm probably going to be sixth man, going into the game pretty early, which is exciting. I know it's going to take a lot of work. I'm really ready to get the season started, really anxious."

Olshey on Jordan...

"His game has gotten better every year but his maturity level has really increased," said Neil Olshey, the Clippers' vice president of basketball operations. "But he's been so physically gifted that he's relied far too much on that. And I think he realizes to make an impact in this league he's going to have to develop an NBA skill that goes beyond just jumping out of the gym and having a great body."

Lisa Dillman, LA Times

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How about we cut Cook and sign a center.

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Training Camp Thoughts Part III



There’s a reason Del Negro routinely fielded some of the best defensive teams in the league. He’s absolutely correct -- defense isn’t just one guy or two guys. It’s everyone. We see blocks and steals and think that’s what defense solely amounts to. It does not. Defense is helping at the right times and staying put during others. Defense is the guards cutting off penetration and the wings rotating correctly. Defense is closeouts and ball denials, taking charges and pinching down in the post. It’s a complicated art that takes all five guys working together in perfect harmony. One slip up, one delay, one bad rotation, and that’s two-points no matter who you have patrolling the paint.

The Clippers path to success won’t be paved through individual efforts. They’ll need Kaman and DeAndre to control the paint, but that’s just a small piece of the puzzle. If the Clippers succeed, it will be because of the cohesiveness of five guys on the court, working together, doing the less glamorous things that have been proven to provide beautiful results.

Play of the Day

Don’t tell Ryan Gomes that the Clippers might be short on shot-blocking. Gomes was on the bad end of a big time block today courtesy of Blake Griffin. As Gomes came around an off-ball screen he was able to curl clean into the paint with little resistance. After he received the ball, a little 11-foot floater looked like easy money…until Griffin came out of absolutely nowhere and spiked the ball clear across the other side of the court. If he can time it correctly and get a running start, there’s no shot Griffin can’t get to.

Chris Kaman on Training Camp & New System

DJ Foster, Clippers.com

Also, Gomes has been running with the starters at the 3.

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How about we cut Cook and sign a center.

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Annual Camp Pendleton Scrimmage





Blue team beats white team 40-32.

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Is it just me or our jerseys are a combination of the Hawks' home jersey pattern and knicks colors.

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Is it just me or our jerseys are a combination of the Hawks' home jersey pattern and knicks colors.

They are definitely similar to the Hawks.

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Sunday Scrimmage

The Clippers were obviously excited to entertain, but the Marines at Camp Pendleton were just as pleased to play host.

“I’m just ecstatic right now,” Private First Class Marine Daniel Heiserman said. “Blake Griffin is an amazing player. This just gives us something to talk to the folks back home about.”

“The Clippers are my team,” Private First Class Marine Clint Hargrove said. “I love the Clippers.”

After a week of grinding away in training camp with no fanfare, many members of the Clippers were just happy to be out and in front of a crowd again.

White Team 39 – Blue Team 32

The white team roster was composed of Eric Bledsoe, Rasual Butler, Stephen Dennis, Ryan Gomes, Brian Cook, Chris Kaman, and Jarron Collins. Craig Smith and Willie Warren were also on the white team roster, but were a little banged up and sat out as a precaution.

The blue team roster sported Randy Foye, Eric Gordon, Jon Scheyer, Marqus Blakely, Al-Farouq Aminu, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Jake Voskuhl. Baron Davis was also on the blue team roster, but sat out to due to injury.

Play of the Day

The Clippers have a lot of explosive dunkers on their roster. DeAndre Jordan. Blake Griffin. Marqus Blakely. Eric Gordon. Chris Kaman. Wait. Chris Kaman? Although he’s notoriously a finesse type center, Kaman looked anything but Sunday. The play of the day came off a pick and roll with Eric Bledsoe where the young guard drew two defenders after splitting the play. A quick flip back to a trailing Kaman left an open lane to the left, and Kaman took full advantage by tomahawking a left-hand dunk that left the support system rattling well after the play.

DJ Foster, Clippers.com

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White Clippers 39 - Blue Clippers 32

Kaman in mid-season form; Bledsoe's play is night and day from summer league

Chris Kaman looked terrific and was unstoppable early. He scored 10 of White's first 15 points and Blue more or less never recovered. Unfortunately, it's difficult to disentangle Kaman's good from Jordan's bad (see below), but White won the game mainly by winning the center position. I had Kaman making 4 of his first 5 field goals, while also recording a sweet block of an Eric Gordon layup. He looks to be in mid-season form.

The difference between Eric Bledsoe in summer league and today is night and day. Watching him today, we saw some of the tantalizing athleticism (he got to the rim easily on more than one occasion, and absolutely froze Jon Scheyer in his tracks on one crossover), and none (well, almost none) of the silly mistakes. When he got in the lane, he had a plan, and there's little question that he led all players in assists, though I was not tracking those specifically. I've been assuming that Bledsoe was not going to help this season - after today, I'm not so sure.

Eric Gordon, the playmaker

Before the final 10 minutes of play, I would have had Eric Gordon in the bad category, but he really turned it on late. With Randy Foye running the point at the start of the game, Gordon was coming off screens and looking to shoot, but was more or less a non-factor. Late in the game, Blue put the ball in Gordon's hands and the game turned around. A squad that was having trouble finding good shots, suddenly was getting dunks and layups (or Gordon jumpers, which is a good thing too). On the final five Blue possessions of the game, Gordon assisted DJ for a monster slam and a layup, got the ball to Griffin for a dunk attempt which resulted in a foul and two free throws, and made a three and a mid range jumper. On a sixth, he came off a screen, split the double team, and lobbed to DJ - whether the lob was too quick or DJ's jump was too slow, they didn't connect, but it was nonetheless another impressive play made by Gordon. It was easily the best I've seen of EJ as creator/facilitator, and even if it was just in a scrimmage, it was great to see.

Steve Perrin, Clips Nation

This One Time At Camp Pendleton

What was incredible though, was that while one team did dominate the other, it was the White team that played superior. Much of that responsibility can be placed on one player. If you were going to predict who ran the floor, played efficiently (great shot selection and few turnovers), involved teammates, played great D, knew how to work the pick and roll perfectly (both on offense and guarding it on D), would your guess be the White Team’s Eric Bledsoe? Maybe, but he wasn’t the most likely. The Clippers signed Randy Foye because they didn’t know if Eric would be ready to play right away. And yet, here was Bledsoe running the offense beautifully (there was a point in the first half that he ran three straight plays with Kaman for buckets, their chemistry was remarkable). He was unquestionably the reason that the White Team played so much better.

Ryan Gomes – He wasn’t a guy that fans hoped the Clippers would sign at small forward, but he’s not going to disappoint either (unless you hope he’s going to have LeBron/Carmelo numbers). In the scrimmage he was a quiet, efficient addition to the white team and a large reason why they won. An interesting tidbit about his offensive style, he’s not a ball-handler so he’s not going to take too many touches away from the rest of the team, and he spends a lot of his time on cuts and curling off screens. And it’s the way he goes through screens that’s interesting. He’s not like Ray Allen or Richard Hamilton where they use their speed and endurance to constantly lose guys on those baseline double screens. Gomes jogs his defender into the screen and when the defender picks a side, Gomes goes the other way. Two or three times during the course of the scrimmage, he found himself with just a touch more space due to that little screen shimmy. Also, he was one of the few Clippers that consistently made outside shots.

Eric Bledsoe – Holy mole, he looked good. It’s still hard to believe that the best looking player on the floor was the one that spent the vast majority of last year playing a different position (he had to defer his point guard position to John Wall). What was most impressive about him was just how patient he was. He made sure that Kaman was set before working the pick and roll and he made real efforts to get the ball to the open man (even if those shots weren’t made). He never took forced outside shots and his dribbling was impeccable. No one could get the ball from him. On defense, he played a sneaky brand, coming up with clever steals by using his bursts of speed to jump into lanes but only when necessary. For the most part he stayed in front of his man, although he made one really simple but astonishing block on Randy Foye on a jumper and then acted like nothing happened. I like humility like that in a player because it means he’s just going to keep trying hard and not get out of the moment.

Breene Murphy, ClipperBlog

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Blake and DJ unveil new handshake

Blake gears up for 1st preaseason game

Camp Pendleton Scrimmage Re-Cap

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Clipper training camp update: Baron Davis practicing

Baron Davis, who has been slowed by a sore left knee, finally practiced on Monday. Eric Bledsoe, rookie and student of all things point guard, made it sound as though Davis didn't miss a beat out on the court.

"Oh yeah he's looking good. First day back ... he put a couple of moves on me," Bledsoe said, smiling.

More importantly, Davis has been doing a lot of talking and Bledsoe plenty of listening.

"Just make the easy play," Bledsoe said of the advice from Davis. It doesn't always have "to be me making the play."

"They told me, 'We're going to listen to you -- you've got to be more vocal. We don't care if you're a rookie or not,' " Bledsoe said.

Additionally, Brian Cook and Craig Smith were able to practice on Monday. Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro pulled Eric Gordon out of practice a little early, saying he "just needed a little rest."

Lisa Dillman, LA Times/The Fabulous Forum

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Hoops of Youth

“We have a lot of potential as a young team,” said Blake Griffin, the Clippers 6-foot-10 power forward. “The youth is something exciting. I think that will bring a different aspect to the Clippers that they haven’t had for the past few years.”

“The beauty of our youth is that they’re contributors,” Olshey said. “You’ve got two guys under 22 years old in Blake and Eric that are going to be starters. One is coming off a gold medal and one we think is one of the most talented power forwards in the league.”

“I think that we have great young talent,” Davis said. “We have a lot of athleticism on this team and a lot of really good, solid players that can compete and play multiple positions. Our versatility is scary as well as our athleticism and our commitment to defense is what is going to win us basketball games.”

“We have veterans at almost every position so all of us rookies that will come in will have somebody we can look up to,” said Aminu, the Clippers first round draft choice out of Wake Forest.

“I don’t think I’d rather be any place else in terms of playing with veteran players like this, with Baron and Chris Kaman,” Blakely said. “And, we have a young nucleus too so you are able to relate with them and understand what you need to do because they’ve been there already.”

“I’m loving it,” said Bledsoe, the Clippers rookie guard out of Kentucky. “I couldn’t be in a better place. I’m looking forward to getting better and seeing how much we grow since the first day we started.”

Daisy Wiberg, Clippers.com

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Steve's Clipper Practice Report - Oct. 4

The big news from Playa Vista today is that Baron Davis had his first full practice. And according to Eric Bledsoe, he put some nasty moves on the rook, perhaps exacting some revenge for Bledsoe's 'old' comment at his introductory press conference back in June. Baron was doing some extra running and shooting when I was there, so it seems like he's rounding into shape.

Coach Vinny Del Negro was duly impressed with Bledsoe's performance at Camp Pendleton, and said the the rookie had an even better practice today. The key (and this is something I harped on during Summer League) is that Bledsoe is beginning to understand the importance of changing speeds, as opposed to pure speed. If you're going at top speed at all times, (a) you're going to tend to make mistakes and (b) the defender only has to defend you at that speed. The key of course is the change of pace, get the defender to relax, and then put on the after burners. Bledsoe is a work in progress, but he does seem to be figuring some things out

VDN was pretty tight lipped concerning who would or wouldn't play in Portland. As you would expect, he wants to get minutes for the rookies and free agents in these early games. Depending on how many healthy bodies he has for practice, he'll proabaly make his first cut next weekend, before the team heads to Meixco City to play the Spurs.

Steve Perrin, Clips Nation