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As Olshey spoke, nearly the entire Clippers roster was on the court warming up for the day's full-court pick-up game.

The only regular player who wasn't in attendance was shooting guard Eric Gordon, who was taking a break after winning a gold medal with Team USA at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

"Blake [Griffin] has been here the whole summer. The draft picks came right after [Tim] Grgurich's camp, Eric [Gordon] had another obligation with the U.S. team, BD's [Baron Davis] been here since the week before Labor Day, Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes came in from the East Coast. They could've waited until media day, but they knew the rest of the team was here and they wanted to come out early and be a part of it.

"So instead of spending training camp getting guys in the kind of shape they should've been in, these guys will all have banged out [coach Vinny Del Negro's] conditioning test before camp even starts. We start camp now and we're straight into basketball. We're not worrying about, Who is in shape? Who isn't? Who's late? Or who gets some nagging injury?

And all of this is voluntary.

"That's the way it's got to be when you have a young team like we have," Del Negro said. "I think it's important to get everybody together as soon as possible.

"It's the culture and atmosphere that I think is important, especially with some of the injuries we've had the last couple years. It really is just about putting your time in every day and being a professional."

Ramona Shelburne, ESPN Los Angeles