Who's one Clippers player you thought would be great, but didn't live up to your expectations?

[esqtvd]

I disagree with him often but IMO he's the best Clipper Nation poster on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Kelphus]

brother, there are so many over the years. ... you asking just about the lasts year's team? Or all-time?

[Kelphus]

All-timer: Michael Olowokandi.

[esqtvd]

brother, there are so many over the years. ... you asking just about the lasts year's team? Or all-time?

All-time, I guess. I would also count anyone we traded for.

I didn't know what to expect from Olowokandi--he came from a school nobody heard of, University of the Pacific, and never heard of again. [I had to look it up to see if it's still around.]


I might go with Darius Miles, who was way hyped as the #3 overall pick, blazed onto the scene at age 19, then flamed out of the league by age 24. [A brief comeback at age 27 was a one and done.]

https://www.sportscasting.com/darius-miles-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-basketball-phenom/

[Bobbymcgee]

Probably Eric Gordon. Just thought he was going to be more. But, I guess the Clippers don't get Chris Paul without having drafted him.

[TrueLAfan]

Mmm. Definitely not Kandi. I heard through the grapevine about his refusal to listen to Kareem early in his rookie season. He had red flags up for me from the start. The obvious—and probably correct—answer is Shaun Livingston. It wasn’t his fault it didn’t work out, of course—but I thought he would be a near HOF player. And there’s Korolev, of course. He was a mistake from the start--so, kinda low expectations there.

So I’m going with Bo Kimble. I mean, dude led the nation in scoring, was a #8 pick and was/is, by all accounts, a stand up guy. A really great shooter who … forgot how to shoot. Just couldn’t get out of his own way, for whatever reason, in the NBA.

[ejftw]

Free agent acquisition wise, I truly thought Ryan Gomes was going to be the glue guy at the three we needed with CP/JJ and Buff/DJ. Obviously, Gomes was pretty putrid. Baron would be a second for me, though, I wasn't personally high on him, he brought up the expectations.

Draft wise, besides guys I thought would be great bench role guys like Jared Jordan and Jay Scrubb, I'ma go with Al Thornton. I thought he'd do a decent job replacing Maggette, but man, was it frustrating to see him attack the rim against more athletic guys but shoot fadeaways over Steve Novak.

[esqtvd]

Mmm. Definitely not Kandi. I heard through the grapevine about his refusal to listen to Kareem early in his rookie season. He had red flags up for me from the start. The obvious—and probably correct—answer is Shaun Livingston. It wasn’t his fault it didn’t work out, of course—but I thought he would be a near HOF player. And there’s Korolev, of course. He was a mistake from the start--so, kinda low expectations there.

So I’m going with Bo Kimble. I mean, dude led the nation in scoring, was a #8 pick and was/is, by all accounts, a stand up guy. A really great shooter who … forgot how to shoot. Just couldn’t get out of his own way, for whatever reason, in the NBA.

Bo Kimble is a great pick.

Unfortunately not with us, but Shaun Livingston did somehow manage a very respectable 12-year NBA career despite his heartbreaking catastrophic knee injury. Even got 2 rings with the Dubs.

An even bigger Clipper tragedy was Ralph Lawler's favorite player. This was WRITTEN by Ralph.

Who is the all-time Greatest Clipper with the last name of Smith? Here it is as a multiple choice quiz.

Take your pick:

A. Charles Smith B. Randy Smith C. Derek Smith D. Michael Smith

You have to be a long-time Clipper fan to remember any of those players. If you chose “A.” or “B.” there is plenty of evidence to make your case. If you chose “D” I suspect you are a member of Mike’s immediate family, but if you chose “C.” you move to the head of the class.

The mere mention of Derek Smith’s name brings to mind a sad and ultimately tragic story of what might have been...

...

That was the summer that the Clippers made the move from San Diego to Los Angeles, and Smith was primed and ready for the Big City Stage.

Derek averaged 22.1 points per game as a full-time starter for the new Los Angeles Clippers. This was Michael Jordan’s wondrous Rookie of the Year season in Chicago. He would go on to average 28.2 points a game that year. It was also Derek Smith’s first year as a full-time starting NBA shooting guard. The parallels would grow more clear the following season.

So why didn’t it happen? Nine games into the 1985-86 season, Smith went down with a seemingly minor knee injury. He was averaging 27 points a game at the time of the injury. It was believed he would be back within the customary four-to-six weeks. He tried. Oh, how he tried. He felt some real or perhaps perceived pressure to come back quickly. He tried to play on December 18. He was ineffective and uncomfortable in brief minutes. He was to play again in a Christmas Day game in Portland a week later. I sat with him at a team dinner the night before and he expressed concern that his knee was not right, but he wanted to give it a try. It was another unsuccessful attempt and it would be his final game in a Clipper uniform. Derek Smith was ruled out for the season.

Who knew that he would never be the same?

I truly believe that Derek Smith would be known as the Greatest Clipper of all-time were it not for that career changing knee injury. HBO would likely have followed its epic “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals” documentary with one on Michael & Derek. He was that good. Just ask those who played with and against him.

Ralph's full article here:
https://www.apbr.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4080

[clipsfever]

Watching Kobe Brown this summer gave me very slight flashbacks to Rodney Rogers... I put way too many eggs into his basket at the time of Rod Rog's acquisition, not his fault.

(Piatkowski also had a huge game in college vs. Texas that I caught on TV.... I was so hyped for him)

[esqtvd]

Probably Eric Gordon. Just thought he was going to be more. But, I guess the Clippers don't get Chris Paul without having drafted him.

Thanks, Bobby. You are much-needed new blood around here.

You're more right than you know. But disappointing for a different reason: If he'd have played here his entire career, Eric Gordon would be the Most Beloved Clipper by far. 15 years, 16 ppg, 43%/37% shooting, came to play every night. Not a HOFer but just below the cut.

EJ was one of our best draft picks ever [#7 overall, 2008], especially in light of the aforementioned Kandi [1], Miles [3], Livingston [4] Kimble [8] and Aminu [8].

ERIC GORDON was the JEWEL in the Chris Paul trade. No Eric Gordon, no Chris Paul trade. [CP3 is the Clipper GOAT by far. I hope there's no dispute about that ffs?]

--Tom Van Dyke, Universally Admired Internet Basketball Expert

ERIC GORDON when he was traded for CP3 in his 3rd season at age 22:

22.9 ppg/2.9 rpg/4.4 apg/1.3 steals per game

ERIC GORDON was one of the best Clippers of all time
[last year, not so much ]


Great nomination.

[ERClips]

Darius Miles great pick

Here’s one not necessarily for hype but legendary for other reasons… Keith Closs

[MartinToVaught]

I had high hopes for Al Thornton for some reason, but outside of a few games in his rookie year, he was brutal to watch.

I also remember getting hyped that every year would be the year that Big Sofo finally came over from Greece. The one year he actually played in Summer League, he sucked and that was the end of that.

It's actually tough to think of many other examples because our draft picks that didn't pan out have generally been either injury-related or obvious busts/reaches that everyone other than our front office could see on draft night.

[MartinToVaught]

All-timer: Michael Olowokandi.

I hated that pick from the moment it was made. I wanted Vince. I wasn't surprised at all when Olowokandi turned out to be a bust.

[mttwlsn16]

I thought Byron Mullens was going to be the perfect stretch big

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[NickP]

Stanley Roberts.
Only if he'd have loved the game more than food

[Clemenza]

I disagree with him often but IMO he's the best Clipper Nation poster on Twitter

Read on Twitter

I didn't really expect a lot from him because I wasn't familiar with him at all when we drafted him. But I saw him in LAX a few days ago from afar. Man this dude looked 7 feet tall/260 tank like. How he's not on a roster is baffling


-As for the topic, I thought Corey Maggette was going to be a star. Not a star but I thought Darius Miles would develop more and turn into a Great Value Paskal Siakim type.

[Clemenza]

brother, there are so many over the years. ... you asking just about the lasts year's team? Or all-time?

All-time, I guess. I would also count anyone we traded for.

I didn't know what to expect from Olowokandi--he came from a school nobody heard of, University of the Pacific, and never heard of again. [I had to look it up to see if it's still around.]


I might go with Darius Miles, who was way hyped as the #3 overall pick, blazed onto the scene at age 19, then flamed out of the league by age 24. [A brief comeback at age 27 was a one and done.]

https://www.sportscasting.com/darius-miles-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-basketball-phenom/

UOP is a west coast thing. I grew up in Fresno and UOP was well known back in the days. The old PCAA Conference which later became the Big West Conference. UOP is in Stockton and they even had a D1 football program and a respectable D1 basketball program but a lot of those mid major west coast schools like UOP, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State ditched their football programs years ago. Only ones left standing outside of the Pac 10 schools are Fresno State, San Diego State, and San Jose State.

[clipsfever]

I had high hopes for Al Thornton for some reason, but outside of a few games in his rookie year, he was brutal to watch.

At age 39, Al just signed for another year in the Argentinian league... ball-stoppin' in the Southern Hemisphere.

[esqtvd]

-As for the topic, I thought Corey Maggette was going to be a star.

Great comment.

Our bar is low, let's face it. But C-Magg is one of the greatest Clippers of all time. Just sayin'. I thought we drafted him but...we almost did--

Drafted at #13 overall by ORL in 1999. Played one year there.

June 28, 2000: Traded by the Orlando Magic with Keyon Dooling, Derek Strong and cash to the Los Angeles Clippers for a 2006 1st round draft pick (Marcus Williams was later selected).

Is this one of the greatest trades in Clipper history?




COREY Maggette: 8 seasons as a Clipper, 17.3 ppg, 5 rpg, 3 apg. Averaged 20+ ppg 3 times as a Clipper. A 6'8" SG/SF.
Frankly, we have PG and KL but I'll take Clipper Corey RIGHT NOW too. So would most teams.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/maggeco01.html

[MartinToVaught]

One caveat about D-Miles: he didn't wash out of the league because he wasn't good enough. His career was derailed by injuries. He blew out his knee while playing for the Blazers, missed two entire seasons due to microfracture surgery and still never recovered from it.

You can gripe about him being the #3 pick, but 2000 was a historically weak draft and he wasn't an outright bust like Stromile Swift or Marcus Fizer, so I think we did okay that year. Mike Miller probably would have been a better pick in hindsight, but I don't think the on-court results would have been different enough to qualify as a "what if" that's worth ruminating about 23 years later.