Los Angeles Clippers (28-21) vs Phoenix Suns (25-25)

[Neddy]

lol@ nick young jumping all over the place as he exits to locker room. he is loving being back home. i can see him signing for a little less for a long term deal here this off season. question is, then do we trade Mo for some other part we need and sign both billups and foye back or choose one of them only?

[Cracka2Hi]

Blake is starting to look like the guy he already gets credit for being! DJ looked good tonight too. Not sure why he didn't more minutes. Defense has looked good. Young has given us a shot in the arm. I admit to being a fair weathered fan, but the weather is fair right now LOL!.

[Cracka2Hi]

lol@ nick young jumping all over the place as he exits to locker room. he is loving being back home. i can see him signing for a little less for a long term deal here this off season. question is, then do we trade Mo for some other part we need and sign both billups and foye back or choose one of them only?

The roster situation will work itself out. Add Ray Allen as a guy how would probably play here for the MLE or less. If we can move Mo we can have Allen and keep Young. Chauncey would proably sign for the minimum and we'd still have Bledsoe!

The Coach is going to be the key.

[og15]

lol@ nick young jumping all over the place as he exits to locker room. he is loving being back home. i can see him signing for a little less for a long term deal here this off season. question is, then do we trade Mo for some other part we need and sign both billups and foye back or choose one of them only?

All depends on what the market for Mo is, but it isn't even certain that he will opt in to his contract. If he opts out, he won't be in the Clippers price range. One doesn't need all those guys on a team. Paul / Young / Foye / Bledsoe with Chauncey coming later in the season is a lot of guards to have.

Glad to see the team close this one out. It's been nice to have games that don't have to go down to the wire. Some defensive intensity coming through in the second half, along with things clicking a little better on offense.

[Neddy]

yeah coaching will be a huge factor, no doubt. hoping for sloan. can you imagine if malone and stockton would come to LA to promote sloan and mentor our guys?

and og, i do hope mo opts out. he is a good player but his $$$ can be used better elsewhere.

[Angel strike1]

yeah coaching will be a huge factor, no doubt. hoping for sloan. can you imagine if malone and stockton would come to LA to promote sloan and mentor our guys?

and og, i do hope mo opts out. he is a good player but his $$$ can be used better elsewhere.

wake up. reality called

[mkwest]

I like Mo and I like the dedication he showed last summer. However, if we could add better fits to the roster, then I'd be more than willing to go another direction. His size is a huge limitation and he plays the same position as our best player.

His willingness to opt out is going to depend on what is available. The majority of teams probably see him as a 6th man at this point. 2/3 of the league either has a quality starting pg or a player that they are grooming to be their pg of the future. If he ends up coming off of the bench, he's likely getting MLE-level money. If he did opt out, I would hope that we'd amnesty Gomes. We'd then have around $12-13M in cap space to play with. If we were able to use that to sign one key piece and another solid player, we'd probably be able to re-sign Foye with the $2.5M room exception.

yeah coaching will be a huge factor, no doubt. hoping for sloan. can you imagine if malone and stockton would come to LA to promote sloan and mentor our guys?

and og, i do hope mo opts out. he is a good player but his $$$ can be used better elsewhere.

Malone said that all Sloan has to do is give him a call. He could do wonders for Blake. I'm not sure about Stockton. I know that he did help Deron early in his career during the offseason. I really don't know his desire to be an NBA level coach. Any team would love a guy like him.

[og15]

I like what Mo did in the off-season, but I too would like for him to opt out. It's hard to find many teams he could start for, but he does have some options.

-Indiana if they no longer have as high hopes for Darren Collison
-Portland if they don't draft a PG, and since Felton is a free agent
-Orlando if they are tired of Jameer Nelson and find a way to move him
-New Jersey if Deron leaves and they get no PG compensation
-Dallas if they don't get Deron, and both Kidd and Terry are free agents
(Just options, some of these teams probably wouldn't see him as an option/upgrade: Orlando and Indiana)

Other problem for him is the FA point guards:
Steve Nash, Goran Dragic, Andre Miller, Raymond Felton, DJ Augustin,

Kinda competition: Jason Kidd, Jason Terry (combo)

Opt out option: Ramon Sessions, Jordan Farmar

An then the issue for him opting in is that if he waits it out another year, I'm not sure if things get better, but in speaking to his agent, the logic is probably that he can get the MLE any year, so why not make his $8.5 million.

If Mo opts out and one amnesties Ryan Gomes, the only players left on the roster are:

PG: Chris Paul / Eric Bledsoe
SG:
SF: Caron Butler
PF: Blake Griffin
C: DeAndre Jordan

That's a GM's dream to really be able to build the team how he wants. Also if one gets a coach early,mits also a coaches dream to work with the GM and bring in players that would potentially fit the system and mindset that they plan to establish.

[LOJ]

The Pink Ranger strikes again.

[LOJ]

If Mo opts out and one amnesties Ryan Gomes, the only players left on the roster are:

PG: Chris Paul / Eric Bledsoe
SG:
SF: Caron Butler
PF: Blake Griffin
C: DeAndre Jordan

That's a GM's dream to really be able to build the team how he wants. Also if one gets a coach early,mits also a coaches dream to work with the GM and bring in players that would potentially fit the system and mindset that they plan to establish.

Very much how the Bulls did with Thibs. Got him the players he wanted for his system. Would be amazing to be able to do that for Sloan.

[mkwest]

I like what Mo did in the off-season, but I too would like for him to opt out. It's hard to find many teams he could start for, but he does have some options.

-Indiana if they no longer have as high hopes for Darren Collison
-Portland if they don't draft a PG, and since Felton is a free agent
-Orlando if they are tired of Jameer Nelson and find a way to move him
-New Jersey if Deron leaves and they get no PG compensation
-Dallas if they don't get Deron, and both Kidd and Terry are free agents
(Just options, some of these teams probably wouldn't see him as an option/upgrade: Orlando and Indiana)

Other problem for him is the FA point guards:
Steve Nash, Goran Dragic, Andre Miller, Raymond Felton, DJ Augustin,

Kinda competition: Jason Kidd, Jason Terry (combo)

Opt out option: Ramon Sessions, Jordan Farmar

An then the issue for him opting in is that if he waits it out another year, I'm not sure if things get better, but in speaking to his agent, the logic is probably that he can get the MLE any year, so why not make his $8.5 million.

I did think about Portland and Indiana (if they don't get Gordon), but didn't take the others into consideration. I really think that Dallas is going to get D-Will unless the Nets pull out a miracle in the offseason. They'll have a team that can compete next season. If they still want to go after Dwight, they could look to move Marion's expiring in the following offseason and amnesty Haywood when Dwight is officially a free-agent, although it will be harder with the escalating salaries of Dirk and Deron.

If New Jersey loses Deron, they'll have money, but will be so screwed. The "Blueprint of Success" is in trouble if all they're doing is signing Mo and re-signing Lopez all while losing the franchise players and trading away lottery picks and young prospects.

Totally agree with the last line about him not turning down $8.5M. It's going to be hard for him to get that type of money on the market and satisfy his desire to play starter's minutes. He'd be better off playing out the contract then going the MLE route next (2013) summer.

If Mo opts out and one amnesties Ryan Gomes, the only players left on the roster are:

PG: Chris Paul / Eric Bledsoe
SG:
SF: Caron Butler
PF: Blake Griffin
C: DeAndre Jordan

That's a GM's dream to really be able to build the team how he wants. Also if one gets a coach early,mits also a coaches dream to work with the GM and bring in players that would potentially fit the system and mindset that they plan to establish.

Very attractive to a potential incoming coach. I really want our coaching situation to be settled prior to the start of the free-agency period unlike 2010 when we hired Vinny. Coaches do want some kind of input on who is drafted and who is signed. We didn't really have that in 2010 (not that it mattered much anyway), and whatever player personnel that is added to the team needs to be compatible to the coach or it's a waste of a pick or cap space.

Scenario where Mo opts out (or is absorbed by another team) and Gomes is amnestied:
If the cap is around $61M this summer, we'd have approx. $11.86M if we kept Leslie and Thompkins and about $12.4M if we waived them both. $8.9M to $9.48M if the cap stays at $58M. Those cap space numbers include a roster charge of $473,604 for each spot under the minimum. When you take into account the room exception we'd have after using our cap, that's another $2.5M that can be used on one player.

[mkwest]

The Pink Ranger strikes again.

Yes! He kicked their asses in the 2nd half.

[LOJ]

The Pink Ranger strikes again.

Yes! He kicked their asses in the 2nd half.

You bastard

[mj_shoefanatic]

Dope win last night fellas!

Portland and Utah up next. Two very winnable games and with the way this team has been playing lately I almost expect the W

[800LoanMart]

The Clippers did what needed to be done last night. Lob City played great and it was exciting to witness another win for the Clippers. Now the momentum is really building and the Clippers are going to peak at the perfect time for this season!

[TheNewEra]

strong win

[playaloc916]

Nice win. With games coming up against Portland and Utah, if we win those games, which we have a good shot, then it looks like our little slump is over... maybe.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

I was following the game last night and was able to listen to the 4th quarter. We really got things going at the end and wound up getting a comfortable win. Wish we could have beat the Suns like this before. Great win and Blake has some crazy dunks as always.