NBA Blog

The Clippers are scary.  I’ve watched them, and actually paid attention to them ever since they beat the Spurs a few weeks ago.  Now, I’m not a fan at all of reactionary journalism.  You know what I’m talking about, the type of press that comes out after an athlete/team has a great game and they are proclaimed as the greatest ever.  That stuff pisses me off.  However, I really think this Clipper team may be on to something here.  To prove my point, I’m going to give a little rundown of this squad:

Starting Line-up (as of right now):

1. Sam Cassell – flat out winner, and he’s never been afraid of the tough shot.
2. Cuttino Mobley – much better without Steve Francis.  Now his shots don’t seem forced, and I think there is an interesting corollary here between guys taking too many shots out of rhythm and playing with Steve Francis.  We’ll call it the Marbury corollary just to poke fun at the Knicks.
3. Quinton Ross – Poor man’s Bruce Bowen.  That is an excellent thing.  He’s coming back from a back injury, yet he’s still the defensive stopper who can knock down a wide open jumper.  When has that ever been a bad thing?
4. Elton Brand – puts up 24 and 10 every night, and is the best and most consistent player on the court nearly every game.
5. Chris Kaman – still highly underrated as a center in the NBA.  He finishes with both hands, and produces just enough for him to be considered efficient and better than most centers in the league.  If teams would go back to acknowledging centers offensively in this league, Kaman would post strong-to-quite strong numbers.

Bench:

1. Corey Maggette – he’s healthy and he’s on the verge of being awesome again.  I’m not a fan of trading for an injured player, but several teams missed the boat on this one.  Corey is a stud on the court in every sense of the word.
2. Vladimir Radmanovic – Poor man’s Peja.  Scores when he is open, just don’t expect him to hit the all-important game winner.  Still, it’s always good to have a scorer at your beckon-call.
3. Shaun Livingston – he’s going to be really good.  I mean really, really good.  He’s a 6’8’’ point guard who passes like LeBron should, which means he passes like an imitation of Magic Johnson.

NOTE: At this point, we’re talking about an 8-man rotation.  In the playoffs some teams don’t go beyond that.  Vlad can play the three and four.  Livingston can play the one/two, alongside Cassell or Mobley, and he can do it well.  Ross can play the two or the three.  This leaves Coach Dunleavy with several short rotation options come postseason time.

4. Zeljko Rebraca – Tough down low.  I think that his heart issue cost him a lot of money.  A few years ago, I thought he might become a quality player.  Just for the record, I really don’t recognize any differences between Zeljko and the amazing Darko Milicic, other than one has a bad heart and Darko hasn’t shown one yet.
5. Daniel Ewing – Superb athlete.  Still might not be a point guard, but he’s decent enough to eat some minutes while the others get some rest.  He can play both the one and the two and he can offer some defense and, on occasion, will light it up around the rim.