Time to preview the 2010-11 Los Angeles Clippers
Music to listen to: The best of John Frushiante of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Last season/offseason changes: Last season started off terribly for the Clippers when it was learned that Blake Griffin, the top overall pick of the 2009 draft, was going to miss the entire 2009-10 season due to a knee injury.
This led to an underwhelming 29-53 record which led to the overdue firing of head coach/general manager Mike Dunleavy. It wasn’t all Dunleavy’s fault as top players such as Baron Davis mailed in the season.
The new head coach of the Clippers is Vinny Del Negro who has a good tenure with the Bulls. He led a young team to the playoffs two consecutive years and got them to play defense. He has another top pick at his disposal in LA in Griffin similar to having Derrick Rose in Chicago so he’s used to working with young players.
The only major player departure was Steve Blake, who is now a Laker, and Travis Outlaw.
Besides Griffin, the Clippers adds their first round picks from this year’s draft Al-Farouq Aminu and Eric Bledsoe along with Ryan Gomes and Randy Foye. These players aren’t superstars but should be solid contributors to the team.
Strength: The Clippers have the potential to have a playoff-caliber starting five of Davis, Gordon, Chris Kaman, Griffin and someone else.
Gordon has made tremendous strides in his game and showed this off in the World Championships for Team USA. Kaman made his first All-Star game last year and his bruising style is an excellent compliment to Griffin.
Davis is a hit or miss guy for the Clippers. If things are going well, he can be a tremendous contributor of the basketball and drive to the rim with free will…actually, this will lead me to the weakness.
Weakness: Besides having a weak bench for a squad trying to make the playoffs, the Clippers are going to rely too much on Davis for their success.
As I said, if things are going well and he feels like he is in a good situation, he can be a major contributor to a winner. Just look back at his time with Golden State.
The problem is that he’s moody and will become the over-shooting three point attempter that looks out only for himself and doesn’t consider his teammates. That’s what happened last season.
Most important player: Davis may not even be a Clipper by the end of the season so this choice is Griffin.
I’ve seen the preseason highlights. It would surprise me if he doesn’t become one of the top ten forwards in the NBA within two seasons, he can be that good. There aren’t many other players who can match his physical skills on both sides of the court and surprising basketball knowledge.
More importantly, he offers the fans a glimmer of hope for the future because despite all of the team’s best efforts over the years, the Clippers have never had a potential top-ten NBA player in the league at any point of its history. Seriously, look it up, the franchise has been that bad.
Celebrity crush from the city: I went with Tyra Banks when I did the Lakers a few days ago so I’ll take Katherine McPhee who represented for the brunettes. She needs to go back to a darker hair color.
Coaching: I’ve already gone over Del Negro.
First memory of team: I though about my first memories and they weren’t good because it’s the Clippers. However, I did enjoy the Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson years. To this day, I have no idea what the fists to the forehead move means. I think it has something to do with placing antlers on your head which signifies strengh but help me out people, do you know what it means?
Best case: Sneaking into the playoffs
Worst case: The entire unit doesn’t work well together and the Clippers win 30 games.
Uniform grade: They’ve had the same color scheme and uniforms for 30 years and they’ve been losing for just as long. Maybe it’s time to go with something different. However, the current look is decent. They should wear the blue jerseys more. Grade: B-
Overall outlook: If this was any other organization, I would say that the Clippers are making steps towards being an annual playoff team of the future, but they find ways to screw that up.
Hopefully the Clippers will give the ball to Griffin and get out of his way. They may find themselves as an #8 seed in the playoffs if they aren’t careful.
Those are my thoughts, what about yours?
2010 Backdoor Cut Previews:
Atlantic Division
Central Division
Southeast Division
Northwest Division
Pacific Division
The Sports Inquirer 
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