Lockout Over!!! Principal Agreement Reached on 11/26

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Foye and Gomes back to work (Video)

Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes chat with LACTV on improving the team through the lockout and gearing up for the upcoming season

Building Together

Led by reigning Rookie of the Year Blake Griffin and veteran point guard Mo Williams, the Clippers worked out as a group on numerous occasions throughout their extended summer.

“Mo Williams and Blake, those were the two guys who kept in contact with everyone and gave us a four or five days heads up; like next week we want you guys to come and work out,” said forward Ryan Gomes, who also spent time working on “everything” individually in an attempt to bounce back from what he deemed a less than productive season in 2010-11. He finished last year with career lows in points (7.2 per game), rebounds (3.3), and shooting percentage (41%).

“We tried to stay in contact as much as we could even though we couldn’t stay in contact with our coaches,” Gomes added. “But as players we wanted to make sure we were still on the same page and working hard.”

At the same time, Griffin, ever frustrated by losing, pointed to what the Clippers have in mind collectively.

“First and foremost our goal is to make the playoffs. We have to get on that right out of the gate and establish ourselves,” he said, alluding to the team’s 5-21 start last season. “Everyone is ready to go, so we can’t wait to get back out there.”

Eric Patten, Clippers.com

Griffin says Clippers’ youth could be advantage

Last week, Williams said that “one thing I can guarantee” is the Clippers will make the playoffs, something the star-crossed team hasn’t done since 2005-06, also the last time they finished with a winning record. They went 32-50 last season, when Griffin emerged as an All-Star, the league’s rookie of the year and winner of the slam dunk contest.

“I’m behind him because as a team, we all believe in every single one of our guys. That’s our goal as a team and we have to believe that,” Griffin said of Williams’ boast. “Right now we’re healthy and we got a lot of good pieces and I think we’re confident from where we were last year.”

“I love where all our guys are at and the condition we’re in and how excited everybody is,” he said.

Griffin thinks the abbreviated schedule could benefit the Clippers.

“The more practice and the more time we have together gives us obviously more of an advantage,” he said, “but at the same time being youthful and having all those games in such a short amount of time, hopefully it works to our advantage having fresh legs and younger guys.”

Beth Harris, Yahoo! Sports

NBA ponders delaying start of training camps

The NBA is considering pushing back the start of training camps until Monday, multiple league executives told Yahoo! Sports.

The league office was polling team executives over the past 48 hours about the possibility, sources said. Despite the discussions, no final decision has been made.

Friday is the first day that teams are allowed to sign free agents and make trades. Training camps, scheduled to start the same day, could be pre-empted to allow teams to assemble fuller and more complete rosters.

“Teams with just a handful of guys under contract have been complaining that it’s going to be too difficult to start on Friday,” one league executive said.

Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports

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Details of amnesty provision emerge

Teams will not be able to use the amnesty provision on a player acquired in a trade going forward. The CBA summary says teams can apply amnesty to a pre-existing contract. It does not say whether teams must already have that contract on their books, or whether that contract must simply exist. There had been hope, for instance, that the Nets could acquire Hedo Turkoglu’s contract in a theoretical Dwight Howard trade and then use the amnesty provision on Turkoglu instead of the less-expensive Travis Outlaw. Turkoglu’s contract is “in place,” in some sense, after all.

Teams will not be able to use the new “stretch” provision on players they acquire via the amnesty process. The stretch provision will allow teams to waive a player and stretch the annual cap hit well into the future. For instance: If you release a player with two years and $20 million left on his deal, you could stretch the cap hit over five seasons — twice the number of years left on his contract, plus one. The goal is to soften the short-term impact on cap flexibility so that teams will be more willing to waive players they don’t want.

The catch: Teams can use the provision only on “new” contracts, or deals that don’t yet exist. But what of amnesty-related contracts? If a team bids on Outlaw and “wins” him, is that a new contract the team can “stretch” later should Outlaw continue to struggle? Or is it an “old” one, and thus not eligible to be stretched because it is linked to a pre-existing deal?

The answer is: The team will not be able to use the “stretch” provision on such a player.

Zach Lowe, Sports Illustrated

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What Brian's cooking (Video)

Brian Cook embracing his role with the Clippers and putting in work to prove it.

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In fact, source confirms that age limit stays as-is in final version of CBA. Tabled until there is time for further debate.

Ken Berger

Value of the pick will remain high, whether it stays with us or ends up elsewhere is another story.

Negotiators have 'closed the deal' on b-list

According to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, the league and players union have pretty much "closed the deal" on the number of so-called "b-list" issues holding up a final collective bargaining agreement.

Players will beging electronic voting on a new CBA Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET and finish at 6 p.m. Owners will vote at their Board of Governors meeting Thursday. All of this needs to be done in time for free agency and training camps to officially begind Dec. 9 as scheduled.

Three interesting points in the resolved b-list items, via Berger:
Players will be subject to offseason testing, but only for steroids, a source says. Prior random tests were only from Oct. 1-June 30.
Unlimited D-League assignments for three years. Veterans can go, but only with consent. League had wanted five-year program.
All indications remain that draft eligibility age will stay the same until there is time for further discussion. Which means this year's superstar class won't be affected.

Once the new CBA is ratified, the league will be fully open for business once again. With not much time between now and camps, there really wasn't the opportunity to haggle over some of these smaller issues, which is a good thing. If we've learned anything about these negotiations, the two sides love to haggle.

Royce Young, CBS Sports

Clippers postpone Media Day to Tuesday 12/13

Eric Pincus

Enough time for DJ to be matched if given an offer sheet or something else?

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Kaman, Thompkins and Gordon are all at the facility today. The only person that has not been in this week has been DJ. Hopefully, he'll join the guys on Friday.

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Eric Gordon just arrived at Clippers facility. Hopes to get a contract extension. Wants to remain a Clipper and not be traded.

Brad Turner

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Clippers hire new assistant trainer

The Los Angeles Clippers today announced that Joe Resendez has been named the team’s Assistant Athletic Trainer/Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach. Resendez spent the last four seasons as the Athletic Trainer/Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA Development League. He came to the Vipers for their inaugural season after a two-year stint as the men’s basketball athletic trainer at Louisiana Tech, where he earned his Master of Science in Exercise Physiology in 2006.

After earning his Bachelor of Science in kinesiology with an emphasis in sports medicine from the University of Texas-Pan American in 2003, the Brownsville native spent one season as the Assistant Athletic Trainer at the University of Texas-San Antonio.

Resendez is a certified athletic trainer through the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) and as a performance enhancement specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). He also served as physiotherapist for the Great Britain National Futures team during the summer of 2010.

Inside Hoops

Details of the B-List Items in the New CBA

The minimum team salary will be 80 percent of the salary cap in 2011-12, 85 percent in ’12-’13 and 90 percent in ’13-’14. (Note: This was previously reported to be 85% for both 2011-12 and 2012-13.) 80 percent of a presumed $58 million is $46.4 million.

Player contracts can be renegotiated downward in extensions, as long as the player’s salary does not decrease by more than 40 percent. Previously, renegotiations could only increase a player’s salary. This could provide another key avenue for teams to maintain roster flexibility and add players with space created by restructuring existing contracts, similar to the NFL.

Players with three or fewer years of service can receive unlimited assignments to the NBA Development League but will be paid their NBA salaries. Players with more than three years of service can be assigned to the D-League with their consent, for example, for injury rehab. Previously this was limited to players with two years or less of service.

Jason Fleming, HoopsWorld

Once again, the draft eligibility will remain at 1 year removed from high school. Hit the link for the rest of the items that detail drug testing, international buy-outs and more.

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Time is Now - Training Camp Opens Today

On Thursday, about 24 hours after Williams made his playoff guarantee, it was widely reported by numerous news sources that the Clippers had potentially added another piece to their already promising mix in free agent forward Caron Butler.

After what is expected to be approximately a 3-hour workout on Friday the team will run practice again on Saturday and then hold its first two-a-day session on Sunday.

“Our roster is intact for the most part. It is only going to get upgraded,” Vice President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey said. “The coaching staff is back and that can accelerate how much more effective we are going to be. I don’t want to speak for [Coach] Vinny [Del Negro], but I think practice is going to be more efficient because you don’t have the learning curve we had last year.”

The well-known foundation is Gordon and Griffin, who, along with Williams, was deeply involved in organizing team workouts during the lockout.

“A lot of guys have been in L.A. playing pick-up [games],” Griffin said. “It has been productive, but at the same time we are glad to be back.”

And when Gordon was asked if he heard Williams’ stance on the playoffs, the budding star responded accordingly.

“Yeah, I did. I am right along with them, I guarantee it, too.

Eric Patten, Clippers.com

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Teams can officially begin signing players at 11am (PST) today.