duncan228
07-01-2008, 03:12 PM
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/steve_aschburner/07/01/clippers/index.html
Davis poised to provide silver lining to clouds surrounding the Clippers
Steve Aschburner
Just when it looked as if the Los Angeles Clippers would be slipping back into the primordial ooze -- not that far to slip, given the club's spotty successes and the convenience of tar pits just five miles west of Staples Center along Wilshire Blvd. -- there actually might be signs of new life and hope for the southern California's other NBA franchise.
The team's possible loss of both power forward Elton Brand and swingman Corey Maggette to free agency looked considerably different Tuesday morning in the light refracted through the Baron Davis prism. Davis' unexpected decision to opt out of the final year of his contract with Golden State set up the possibility of a Brand-Davis pairing that could get the Clippers right back on the path they sampled so briefly, and strayed from so swiftly, back in 2005-06.
While Brand and his people were painting his contract status in terms of roster flexibility for the Clippers, Davis' decision to vacate his deal with the Warriors gives Clips' bosses Elgin Baylor and Mike Dunleavy a shot to return the former UCLA star to his Los Angeles roots. It could get their team two-thirds of the way through the Boston Celtics' school of championship team building, while providing Brand and Davis -- a pair of budding filmmakers -- with the perfect Hollywood location.
"It means I'm a free agent, but my intentions are to stay with the Clippers," Brand told the Los Angeles Times Monday night, as the deadline for free agents passed. "That's always been my intention."
Brand, 29, would have earned $16.4 million had he stayed put in his own contract for this season. But after waiting seven years for the Clippers to get it right, Brand -- the producer or executive producer of four feature films, according to IMDB.com -- seems to be taking matters into his own hands. It's good to be an NBA superstar who has made so much money, he conceivably can leave millions on the table.
Agent David Falk told the Times that Brand attended Game 2 of the NBA Finals and turned more envy green than Celtics green that night at TD Banknorth Garden. "I think it was a wake-up call for him at age 29 that he needs to put himself in a position that a lot of his peers have," Falk said.
His druthers, then, over the league's nine-day period of negotiations-but-no-signings would be for the Clippers to aggressively pursue and land Davis, who was drafted two spots after Brand in 1999. The solid 6-foot-3 point guard still is a game-changer -- he ranked 11th in the NBA in scoring (21.8), seventh in assists (7.6) and second in steals (2.33) -- and, after missing an average of 28 games in five season from '02-07, started all 82 for Golden State and ranked sixth in the league in minutes (39.0).
Unlike Brand, Davis' strategy of pushing back from the $17.8 million he would have made in '08-09 was fueled less by a sense of we and more by a sense of me. As in self-preservation, at least. He and agent Todd Ramasar were unable to nail down a long-term contract extension with the Warriors and the team's overall status -- with guard Monta Ellis and big man Andris Biedrins in need of new deals, and coach Don Nelson always in here-today, gone-tomorrow mode -- is in flux.
This summer's free agent market is flat to begin with, with only a few teams expected to spend much in a fairly shallow talent pool. But it only takes one, as they say. And given Brand's and Davis' possible agendas, both on the court and off, it might not even take raises to get new deals done. Davis, remember, already has three film credits as producer or executive producer, including "ABCD Camp," an in-production HBO movie starring James Gandolfini as sneaker hustler Sonny Vaccaro.
The Clippers, strictly a straight F's basketball camp last season, would love to shift all of Davis' enterprises back to L.A. It was only two years ago, after all, when their plan finally came together (had there been a plan prior to that?). The Clips got a career year from Brand, who led the team in scoring (24.7 ppg), rebounding (10.0) and blocked shots (2.54), and a fountain-of-youth season from then-36-year-old point guard Sam Cassell (17.2 ppg, 6.3 apg), who always delights his new teams in his first season with them. Maggette (17.8 ppg) was hitting his prime. Cuttino Mobley arrived as a free agent and polished his image as a team guy and veteran influence. And the roster was stacked with promise, including center Chris Kaman, Shaun Livingston, Quinton Ross, James Singleton and, until he was traded in February for Vladimir Radmanovic, Chris Wilcox.
The Clippers won 47 games, only two shy of the franchise record but an all-important two more than the Lakers that year. They held opponents to 43.5 percent shooting (fifth best in the NBA) and were one of just 11 teams that won 20 or more road games that season. In the first round of the playoffs, L.A. beat Denver in five games, then pushed Phoenix to seven before falling in the second (including a 125-118 double overtime loss in Game 5 that would have had them up, 3-2, with Game 6 at home).
That, unfortunately, was that. In '06-07, the Clippers lost 157 games to injuries or illness, including that gruesome video clip of Livingston's left knee dislocation, ending his season 25 games short. Brand, Maggette, Cassell, Mobley and Kaman all slipped in performance, the defense faltered (opponents shot 45.2 percent) and the Clippers' point differential went underwater from plus-1.6 to minus-0.5. Their record went with it to 40-42.
Momentum for '07-08? More like less 'mentum. The teams' injury woes more than doubled -- to 321 "man" games missed -- thanks to Brand's ruptured Achilles tendon in August; he returned for only the final eight contests. Livingston spent the entire season rehabbing his shredded knee and Kaman missed 26 games. Despite the addition of rookie forward Al Thornton, the Clippers went 23-59, their worst record since '99-00 (15-67). They were 4-26 after Feb. 22, won only three of 12 home games against the East and only three of 26 road games against the West and missed the playoffs for the 28th time in 32 years. Cassell was bought out in time to join Boston, while Miami reject Smush Parker finished the season as L.A.'s point guard, its seventh player at that position in '07-08.
Davis, with Golden State, just wrapped one of those magical, memorable seasons. The Warriors won 48 games, their most since '93-94, and set an attendance record with more than 800,000 at their 41 home games. They averaged 111.0 points, 22.0 points on fast breaks and 20.4 points scored off foes' turnovers -- all league highs. Ellis added a jump shot that exponentially boosted him as a threat, and Stephen Jackson -- one of the club's captains! -- made the right sort of headlines in his own career year.
However, the Warriors went just 3-6 in April and finished ninth in the West, two games behind Denver. That earned them the distinction of the second-best record in NBA history to miss the postseason (the 1971-72 Phoenix Suns went 49-33 but failed to qualify) and, thus, no warm-and-fuzzies from any sort of spring excitement. No afterglow to get in the way of business this summer. No momentum.
With Baylor, Dunleavy and Clippers owner Donald Sterling apparently willing to wave goodbye to Maggette, and the Warriors reportedly eager to lure Washington's Gilbert Arenas back to the Bay Area, the prospect of Davis joining Brand in L.A. is a Clippers fan's delight. Maybe a documentarian's dream, too, if you're thinking championship DVD.
Davis poised to provide silver lining to clouds surrounding the Clippers
Steve Aschburner
Just when it looked as if the Los Angeles Clippers would be slipping back into the primordial ooze -- not that far to slip, given the club's spotty successes and the convenience of tar pits just five miles west of Staples Center along Wilshire Blvd. -- there actually might be signs of new life and hope for the southern California's other NBA franchise.
The team's possible loss of both power forward Elton Brand and swingman Corey Maggette to free agency looked considerably different Tuesday morning in the light refracted through the Baron Davis prism. Davis' unexpected decision to opt out of the final year of his contract with Golden State set up the possibility of a Brand-Davis pairing that could get the Clippers right back on the path they sampled so briefly, and strayed from so swiftly, back in 2005-06.
While Brand and his people were painting his contract status in terms of roster flexibility for the Clippers, Davis' decision to vacate his deal with the Warriors gives Clips' bosses Elgin Baylor and Mike Dunleavy a shot to return the former UCLA star to his Los Angeles roots. It could get their team two-thirds of the way through the Boston Celtics' school of championship team building, while providing Brand and Davis -- a pair of budding filmmakers -- with the perfect Hollywood location.
"It means I'm a free agent, but my intentions are to stay with the Clippers," Brand told the Los Angeles Times Monday night, as the deadline for free agents passed. "That's always been my intention."
Brand, 29, would have earned $16.4 million had he stayed put in his own contract for this season. But after waiting seven years for the Clippers to get it right, Brand -- the producer or executive producer of four feature films, according to IMDB.com -- seems to be taking matters into his own hands. It's good to be an NBA superstar who has made so much money, he conceivably can leave millions on the table.
Agent David Falk told the Times that Brand attended Game 2 of the NBA Finals and turned more envy green than Celtics green that night at TD Banknorth Garden. "I think it was a wake-up call for him at age 29 that he needs to put himself in a position that a lot of his peers have," Falk said.
His druthers, then, over the league's nine-day period of negotiations-but-no-signings would be for the Clippers to aggressively pursue and land Davis, who was drafted two spots after Brand in 1999. The solid 6-foot-3 point guard still is a game-changer -- he ranked 11th in the NBA in scoring (21.8), seventh in assists (7.6) and second in steals (2.33) -- and, after missing an average of 28 games in five season from '02-07, started all 82 for Golden State and ranked sixth in the league in minutes (39.0).
Unlike Brand, Davis' strategy of pushing back from the $17.8 million he would have made in '08-09 was fueled less by a sense of we and more by a sense of me. As in self-preservation, at least. He and agent Todd Ramasar were unable to nail down a long-term contract extension with the Warriors and the team's overall status -- with guard Monta Ellis and big man Andris Biedrins in need of new deals, and coach Don Nelson always in here-today, gone-tomorrow mode -- is in flux.
This summer's free agent market is flat to begin with, with only a few teams expected to spend much in a fairly shallow talent pool. But it only takes one, as they say. And given Brand's and Davis' possible agendas, both on the court and off, it might not even take raises to get new deals done. Davis, remember, already has three film credits as producer or executive producer, including "ABCD Camp," an in-production HBO movie starring James Gandolfini as sneaker hustler Sonny Vaccaro.
The Clippers, strictly a straight F's basketball camp last season, would love to shift all of Davis' enterprises back to L.A. It was only two years ago, after all, when their plan finally came together (had there been a plan prior to that?). The Clips got a career year from Brand, who led the team in scoring (24.7 ppg), rebounding (10.0) and blocked shots (2.54), and a fountain-of-youth season from then-36-year-old point guard Sam Cassell (17.2 ppg, 6.3 apg), who always delights his new teams in his first season with them. Maggette (17.8 ppg) was hitting his prime. Cuttino Mobley arrived as a free agent and polished his image as a team guy and veteran influence. And the roster was stacked with promise, including center Chris Kaman, Shaun Livingston, Quinton Ross, James Singleton and, until he was traded in February for Vladimir Radmanovic, Chris Wilcox.
The Clippers won 47 games, only two shy of the franchise record but an all-important two more than the Lakers that year. They held opponents to 43.5 percent shooting (fifth best in the NBA) and were one of just 11 teams that won 20 or more road games that season. In the first round of the playoffs, L.A. beat Denver in five games, then pushed Phoenix to seven before falling in the second (including a 125-118 double overtime loss in Game 5 that would have had them up, 3-2, with Game 6 at home).
That, unfortunately, was that. In '06-07, the Clippers lost 157 games to injuries or illness, including that gruesome video clip of Livingston's left knee dislocation, ending his season 25 games short. Brand, Maggette, Cassell, Mobley and Kaman all slipped in performance, the defense faltered (opponents shot 45.2 percent) and the Clippers' point differential went underwater from plus-1.6 to minus-0.5. Their record went with it to 40-42.
Momentum for '07-08? More like less 'mentum. The teams' injury woes more than doubled -- to 321 "man" games missed -- thanks to Brand's ruptured Achilles tendon in August; he returned for only the final eight contests. Livingston spent the entire season rehabbing his shredded knee and Kaman missed 26 games. Despite the addition of rookie forward Al Thornton, the Clippers went 23-59, their worst record since '99-00 (15-67). They were 4-26 after Feb. 22, won only three of 12 home games against the East and only three of 26 road games against the West and missed the playoffs for the 28th time in 32 years. Cassell was bought out in time to join Boston, while Miami reject Smush Parker finished the season as L.A.'s point guard, its seventh player at that position in '07-08.
Davis, with Golden State, just wrapped one of those magical, memorable seasons. The Warriors won 48 games, their most since '93-94, and set an attendance record with more than 800,000 at their 41 home games. They averaged 111.0 points, 22.0 points on fast breaks and 20.4 points scored off foes' turnovers -- all league highs. Ellis added a jump shot that exponentially boosted him as a threat, and Stephen Jackson -- one of the club's captains! -- made the right sort of headlines in his own career year.
However, the Warriors went just 3-6 in April and finished ninth in the West, two games behind Denver. That earned them the distinction of the second-best record in NBA history to miss the postseason (the 1971-72 Phoenix Suns went 49-33 but failed to qualify) and, thus, no warm-and-fuzzies from any sort of spring excitement. No afterglow to get in the way of business this summer. No momentum.
With Baylor, Dunleavy and Clippers owner Donald Sterling apparently willing to wave goodbye to Maggette, and the Warriors reportedly eager to lure Washington's Gilbert Arenas back to the Bay Area, the prospect of Davis joining Brand in L.A. is a Clippers fan's delight. Maybe a documentarian's dream, too, if you're thinking championship DVD.