Is this season like the 1999-2000 Clippers?

[madmaxmedia]

We were absolutely atrocious that year. The only thing worse than our record was the team's collective effort.

The worst part is that we had talent- Maurice Taylor, Derek Anderson were the best vets. Lamar Odom was a rookie. Other players included Sean Rooks, Olowakandi, Tyrone Nesby, Jeff McGinnis, Piatkowski (Brian Skinner was on that team too.) I think we won 15 games that year, when the talent was there for closer to 30 wins (at least competitive ball on most nights.) But it wasn't really the number of losses that was so hard to watch, it was the absolute lack of any sense of team effort, cohesion, whatever. On these kinds of teams, unless the vets are true leaders, they're going to take the ship down with them.

Then in the offseason Maurice Taylor and Derek Anderson left for pretty significant FA contracts elsewhere (considering they were the 'leaders' of a 15-win club). Lamar Odom became the leader of the team, and we got an influx of young talent in the draft- Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson, and Corey Maggette, oh yeah Keyon Dooling too. Jeff McGinnis became our starting PG.

We only won 30 in 2000-2001, but that was the year the Clippers finally got some real fan support in LA. The average age of the team was literally under the drinking age, and Gentry had to throw out most of the playbook to make things easier for the players. But we played hard, we played good team defense, and we ran and dunked a lot. We lost a lot of close games early in the year, but ended up playing .500 ball after the all-star break. They couldn't give away tickets at the beginning of the year (I was there), but by the end of the year Staples actually got pretty loud (I was there too.) We won the last home game of the year, and after the game Lamar Odom jumped on the scorer's table and was cheering on the still-packed crowd.

Can 2009-2010 be like that season? I don't even care how many games we win, I just want the Clippers to be able to have fun and play like a team. I don't want to automatically ditch every player over 25, but I think they need to think things over carefully this offseason. Besides, Sterling always loves rookie contracts. I think a group of Eric Gordon, Al Thornton, DeAndre Jordan, and the RIGHT lottery pick is not far off in talent from the group of Lamar Odom, Darius Miles, Corey Maggette, and Quentin Richardson (man that was a nice group of first and second-year players though.)

I think Camby is an asset no matter what (you need some veteran presence, kinda like Sean Rooks that year). ZBo is not really tradable besides a salary dump so for now I'm just hoping he continues to behave, if so he's fine as our starting PF. I like Kaman but not sure if he realistically is a good fit for an uptempo offense, plus Camby starts over him. I'm hoping Baron can be better than a shadow of his former self, but if he doesn't get better this year then I would trade him any way possible, even a salary dump. If the right PG is available in the draft, then I'd rather pick him and let him develop alongside Gordon.

[Forte IV]

corey was actually the same year as lo, but ya we didnt get him until the year after.

[PerkinsFor3]

well if bdavis can stay healthy and we get a coachign change, big things could happen.

we have:


bdavis / taylor
eric gordon / ricky davis (who is playing fine)
thornton /
randolph /
camby / deandre

as a core from which we should build imo.

kaman could net us great pieces. maybe we could use him to move up in the draft. Randolph is here till 10/11 and he'll get paid 17 mil that last season. Pretty untradable untill he becomes and expirer, and don't hold your breath for teams trying to clear huge amounbts of space for the free agents class that year. It features mostly second options and role players.

Still how about (maybe we dont even need to trade up, but whatever), if we don't land the #1 pick, trading Kaman and our pick for the #1 pick and maybe a sf? We could get Blake Griffin, who will become the pf of the future, could learn a thing or two from Zach (lets pray its positive), and wehn Zach's done he can take over. The player we could get back in a trade (let's say we end up with a top 5 pick) to make the trade match if we include Kaman, could become a upgrade at the backup SF.

I'm not sure if it's realistic, but I'm just throwing it out there. It would leave us with a future young core of Gordon, Thornton, Griffin and Jordan which imo is pretty good.

[mj_shoefanatic]

The core needs to be Gordon, Randolph and Thornton. All other players should be expendable in exchange for some real winners.

btw the season reminds me more of 98-99 based on the mix of young and old talent with little to no success.
http://www.nba.com/clippers/stats/1998/index.html

[PerkinsFor3]

well if the right deal comes along im all for including thorn. i like him but he's a 13 in a dozen player. marv williams, josh howard, rj are players i look at the same way.

[PlinkingPanda]

The core needs to be Gordon, Randolph and Thornton. All other players should be expendable in exchange for some real winners.

btw the season reminds me more of 98-99 based on the mix of young and old talent with little to no success.
http://www.nba.com/clippers/stats/1998/index.html

Wow Tyrone Nesby. I completely forgot about that guy.