Marqus Blakely

[Brian_Cook_Fan]

Sorry, but he deserves his own thread

I'm so happy that he signed and I really hope he makes the team

Now the Clippers have my 2 favorite players Brian Cook & Marqus

I think I have a new favorite team!!!

pretty good starting lineup:
Davis, Blakely, Cook, Griffin, Kaman

[Forte IV]

Sorry to tell you that your two favorite players suck. And I literally lol'd when you said Blakeley and Cook would start.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

Let's stay positive on the board. We can let Brian_Cook_Fan have some fun. We all know Cook and Blakely won't start unless the situation would call for it. I am happy with the Blakely signing, but I would have rather kept Novak than signing Cook.

[mj_shoefanatic]

Blakely and Cook are buried behind Gomes/Aminu and Griffin/Smith on are depth chart so no way in H*LL either of those dudes work their way into our starting 5.

[illastrate]

Sorry, but he deserves his own thread

I'm so happy that he signed and I really hope he makes the team

Now the Clippers have my 2 favorite players Brian Cook & Marqus

I think I have a new favorite team!!!

pretty good starting lineup:
Davis, Blakely, Cook, Griffin, Kaman

I like Blakely and think he can contribute, Cook can ride the bench for all 82 games for all I care.

[Brian_Cook_Fan]

thanks for understanding thanumba2clippersfan

[Vermont Dude]

I watched Marqus all four years at Vermont. Really happy he signed a contract. He is a high-IQ player who at the next level could be a 6-5 version of Luc Mbah a Moute from the Bucks. He filled the stat sheet his senior year at Vermont, leading the team in points, rebounds, steals, blocks and assists while playing primarily in the post, carrying the team to the NCAA Tournament. He will be a good player to come in and make smart plays with good defense (long, 7-1 wingspan) and if you get him out in the open floor, he will throw down some nice ones, as evidenced by the youtube videos. I think he demonstrated that in the Summer League games.

He will have to work on his jumpers outside 10 feet, but you could do a lot worse than filling out the bench with Marqus Blakely. If the Clippers put the investment in developing him more (he started playing basketball at 16 I think, was playing tennis before), I think they could get a pretty good return.

If anyone has anymore questions, I'll try and answer them as best I can. I can tell you the Clippers gained a lot of fans in the Green Mountain state.

[CLiPPzWeRD12]

If Cook and Blakely are starting, then we are in BIG trouble.

[Paper Clip]

Welcome, Vermont Dude! Thanks for sharing your opinion. I must admit, I hope to be pleasantly surprised by Blakely. We also could use more fans from Vermont, since I'm not sure which team Vermontians (?) root for geographically.

[Vermont Dude]

I think Blakely could be a surprise. He certainly is used to it. When he came to Vermont as a freshman he was probably considered the least-heralded recruit in the class and was sitting on the end of the bench until later in the season he started getting more minutes and I think everyone realized he was special. He then threw down this dunk ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PozPrv0pGdA ), then the next year he was averaging 19 and 11 and was conference player of the year for the next two years and defensive player of the year for the next three and part of 90 wins in 4 years at Vermont.

He also is very humble and selfless (he did lead the team in assists after all), he is the type of kid who didn't care about his individual accolades and wanted to get to the NCAA Tournament. This past season when another player was given conference player of the year, Marqus just went out and led Vermont to the NCAA berth with a 25-point, 18-rebound, 5-assist performance in the conference final. The guy that got player of the year? His team lost in the semis and he was like 0-100 from the field.

While he isn't going to be a world-breaker in the NBA, I think he definitely can find a niche and be a help to a team with his skill set and attitude. If he does the little things like he showed in summer league, and maybe gets some help developing his outside game, I don't see why he can stick it in the NBA and be a useful part of a team.

P.S. - We are called Vermonters, and its probably 60/40 for Boston/NY teams in this region. Its totally acceptable here to be a Red Sox fan and a NY Giants fan though.

[PerkinsFor3]

Remember Simmons, Singleton etc? Clippers FO is good at signing undrafted players.

[illastrate]

Remember Simmons, Singleton etc? Clippers FO is good at signing undrafted players.

+1

But remember Wilcox, Ely, Korolev? The draft(prior to the last few years) was a different story

[PerkinsFor3]

Indeed the drafting sucked, FA was good.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

Now I'm reminded of our sucky picks