Q&A with ClipperSteve of Clips Nation

Previewing the Suns and Clippers game Sunday at 1:30, I was fortunate enough to speak with ClipperSteve of the fantastic Clippers blog, “Clips Nation.”  Be sure to take a look through their site, great stuff.  There is one passage in particular about the Clippers and Dunleavy playing a lot of matchup zone this year that’s a must read for Suns fans, as we are kind of in the same boat.

Anyway, back to the Suns/Clippers game.  ClipperSteve’s answers to my questions are below.  Be sure to visit Clips Nation here for my answers to Steve’s questions.  There is also a video at the end of this post with highlights of the last Suns/Clippers game on 1/2/09.

Ben:  Injuries have killed you guys this season and you’ve never really had a healthy squad all year.  When can we expect to see Baron, Kaman, and Zach Randolph back and talk about how that’s been a hindrance to the team.

ClipperSteve:  The injury situation is so bad right now that the team they’re putting on the court has almost no chance to win ball games.  Somehow, they almost beat Detroit and Dallas within the last week, but ended up losing both games in the final seconds.  But it’s important to recognize that the team has not really been right all season, even if the injury situation has only been severe since the holidays.  The pre-Zach Randolph team had a horrible start, because of injuries to Camby and Baron, and because of the issues stemming from so many new players on the team.  After adding Randolph, they actually won some games (they’re .500 with Randolph in the starting lineup), but even then Kaman missed all but 12 minutes of the games Randolph has been in. 

With neither Kaman nor Randolph, the team is pretty hopeless.  That’s partly because we have found out this season, once and for all, that coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. can only coach one way.  Leading up to training camp, he talked a lot about playing up tempo and running with Baron Davis - didn’t happen.  The reason the Clippers started playing better after the got Randolph wasn’t that he’s a good player - just as importantly, suddenly Dunleavy’s play book all made sense again.  It’s like going to the Theater and seeing the understudy - “In tonight’s performance, the role of Elton Brand will be performed by Zach Randolph.”  He’s an awfully good understudy in that role, while Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby do a lot of other things well, but could never play the Elton part in the play.

All of the injuries are so nebulous, it’s really hard to know when these guys are coming back.  Kaman is the toughest one - he’s been out well over a month, and when he was first sidelined it was supposedly a day-to-day thing.  So who knows?  He’s scheduled for an MRI next week, but don’t ask me what they’re looking for.  Randolph has no structural damage, but is still really sore from being pushed to the floor by Jake Voskuhl.  You gotta love having your leading scorer sidelined 8 games so far by the ultimate NBA journeyman.  But Zach said recently that he’s hoping to be playing within a week.  I’m hoping that Baron can play against the Suns Sunday, but I’m basing that mostly on, well, hope.
 
Ben:  Eric Gordon is good, really good.  Talk about his progress this year and his importance to the team.

ClipperSteve:  Some times good young players don’t get a chance to show what they can do in the NBA for awhile.  In Gordon’s case, every imaginable thing that could happen to give him an opportunity to shine has happened - and he’s taken full advantage.  He started the season third on the depth chart at shooting guard, behind Cuttino Mobley and Ricky Davis.  It was pretty obvious early on that he needed to be playing ahead of Davis, but the coach didn’t seem to agree.  Then, in the course of a couple of days, Mobley was traded and Davis went out with a knee problem.  Overnight, EJ was the starter by default.  But he’ll remain the starter for a very, very long time.  He is averaging almost 17 points per game since becoming the starter, and had a string of 7 straight 20+ performances going before scoring 15 against the Hornets Friday.  But he’s also been the Clippers best perimeter defender, and shows the potential to be a real shut down guy.  His shooting stroke is Mozart beautiful, he can get to the hole, and he’s strong as a bull when he goes inside so he can finish in traffic.  If the referees forget he’s a rookie and start giving him some calls, watch out.  It will be really interesting to see what happens when guys get healthy, particularly Randolph and Baron.  Gordon’s been the number one option for a couple of weeks now, and he’s carrying the offensive load.  So are Z-Bo and Baron going to be willing to give up some touches to him when they’re back on the court?

 
Ben:  With a month to go before the trade deadline, do you foresee the Clips making any moves?  How are the Clippers positioned long-term?

ClipperSteve:  I don’t think the Clippers are going to do much if anything.  I think Dunleavy (who is also the GM) likes what he has put together.  I believe that he believes that they just have to get everyone healthy, and they’ll put it all together.  He won’t make any major moves until he sees this group on the court together for awhile.  Given that Kaman is likely still at least a couple of weeks away, it’s just highly unlikely that they’ll make a move this year. 

There have been a lot of rumors out there, but I think that’s just uninformed and somewhat simplistic speculation.  People look at what they perceive as a logjam of bigs on a team going nowhere and think ‘They should make a trade.’  But Camby’s been their best player, and Kaman and Randolph are young and signed, so he won’t part with any of them lightly.  Of course, if some other teams step up with a killer offer that’s one thing.  But these trade deadline deals usually have the ‘bottom of the standing’ team trading talent for salary relief.  The Clippers like their roster and aren’t overly concerned with their payroll right now, so I don’t see them being active. 

The one really long shot exception is Baron Davis.  If he continues to struggle (and let’s face it, he’s been terrible), I could almost imagine the Clippers sending him to a playoff contender that needs help at the point in a straight salary dump.  Think Baron to Portland for Raef LaFrentz.  But I don’t realistically think that’s going to happen.

The long term picture either looks pretty bright, or equally bleak, depending on what you think of this collection of players.  They have six guys that should be high level NBA starter type players - Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, Al Thornton, Zach Randolph, Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman.  The four veteran guys have put up all star numbers at one point or another in their careers, while Gordon and Thornton are just starting on promising careers.  And all five court positions are covered by that group.  So if you’re making a wish list, you want all of them to play well, and you want some more depth, and that’s pretty much it.  But at the same time, there are major question marks with most of these guys as well.  Gordon just turned 20, so you figure he’s just going to get better, and his future may be the brightest of all of them.  But Baron and Randolph have reputations as problem children, and Baron is having the worst year of his career.  Camby is 34, though he’s playing as well as ever.  Thornton is a poor defender, a terrible passer, and inconsistent.  And Kaman is inconsistent and injury-prone.  If they all play well, it’s a really good team.  And I think that’s the plan right now - get them back healthy, and hope they play well.

Highlights of the 1/2/09 game: 

 

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