RealGM

So, if the Lockout is going to be over and the League is going to a 78 Game Schedule what do you think are the keys to a Clipper Playoff Run?
I think that the Clips will have to re-sign DeAndre and look at all the potential Free Agents/and Waived Players (including NEW Amnesty releases)
Look for Potential trades that include Kaman (last year of contract & maybe good trade bait)
W/ the Clippers youth, I think that it is a great idea if the Clips try and RUN teams into the ground.
Any thoughts?

I'm going to state the obvious and say that we need to hit the ground running. If this team is going to make the playoffs, then they need to show/know that they can win games immediately. Some players throughout the league are probably not in the best of shape. I'm fairly confident that ours are, at least that's an observation from the clips/pics that we have seen. For example, Thompkins went from around 15% body fat down to around 6 or 7. Most of our young guys should be ready to go as far as conditioning is concerned. I'm not worried about the offseason development of Blake or EJ, but the rest of our youngsters need to have done something to improve their games.

Re-signing DJ is a must. I can't really speak on the free-agency/trade market until we know the concrete details of the new system. It would be really nice if we could capitalize on an amnestied player for cheap. People can call me crazy or whatever, but I'm hopeful of snagging one of the big 3 free-agents. With the amnesty clause wiping salary off of a team's cap, we may need to go a more practical route.

I think MK said it best, since there are a few less games in a shortened ammount of time we cannot have a slow start. If we are behind it will be hard to play catch up.

If I'm Olshey, I offer everything but the kitchen sink for CP3. I would trade Kaman, Bledsoe, Aminu, Warren, 2012 Minny pick and 3 million cash for him. It may sound crazy but I would do this without him even signing and extension. If we were to go deep into the playoffs with a nucleus of Paul/Griffin/Gordon, it would make CP3 look really bad if he still decided to up and leave to New York. Worse case scenario, I CP3 were to walk we would have 14-17 million in cap space to use on other players. DWill, Howard and Mayo are a few of the 2013 free agents. It is also imperative that DJ as re-signed, weather it be matching a offer sheet or flat out resigning him. I'm thinking he would get a deal averaging about 8 million per year. Then as far as the SF position is concerned, I agree that we should capitalize on the many amnesty free agents that will be available for cheap. My first choice would be Trevor Ariza because he is a great defensive player with a monster 7-2 wing span. He also has the ability to play some shooting guard as well. We currently dont have any body on our roster that could swing from 2-3. On the Lakers, he proved to be a good three point shooter when he has good players around him and is not the focal point of the offense. On the Clippers I'm sure he knocks down 1-1.5 threes per game (mostly from the corner) and hits 35% o them. We might have a good chance of requiring him because he was very happy as a Laker playing in his home town and he was successful. He probably has already established a good relationship with CP3 and would probably like to continue playing with him as well.

iono ut that can probly be in a 77 game scedual