The Other Blog

Apparently the Allen Iverson to Bobcats story was a little premature. He is currently entertaining a one-year 3.5 million offer to play for the Grizzlies, and it looks like from his twitter page he is trying to pump himself up into accepting that offer. At this point Iverson is not on the Clippers radar. Neither is CJ Watson, the latest out of Oakland is that Watson has re-signed with the Warriors.

The options for the Clippers are dwindling. If they fail to sign Ramon Sessions they likely won’t even use the MLE this year. The good news is that the Knicks seem to have completely dropped out of the picture. They have not made an offer to Sessions, and if you count David Lee’s and Nate Robinson’s qualifying offers they are already at the 15-player roster limit. The bad news for Clipper fans is that while the front office likes Sessions, they like him as a backup and are only offering him backup money. Which is far less than what Sessions was expecting this summer.

They Clippers may be the favorite to land Sessions, but Sessions seems to be in no hurry to make a decision. The whole situation is frustrating for everyone involved, and the misinformation is not helping. One day you hear sign and trade options are being discussed, the next day you hear the Clippers are happy with the roster as is. The Clippers aren’t talking, Sessions isn’t talking, the Knicks are busy with David Lee, and the Bucks seem to have little interest in bringing Sessions back. The Sessions saga has lasted nearly two months now and a conclusion does not seem to be near.

News and Notes

- Jason Richardson will be suspended for the Clippers home opener.  The Clippers will take it, but remember last season Carmelo Anthony missed an early season game due to suspension and the Clippers still lost the game.

- The Clippers have signed a new 7 year deal with Prime Ticket to broadcast TV games.  At least 70 games a year will be aired all in HD.

- Stephen Jackson has asked to be traded out of Golden State.  He is good friends with Baron Davis, but I don’t see the Clippers making him an offer.

Dime Magazine is reporting Allen Iverson and the Charlotte Bobcats have come to terms on a contract, but it won’t be official until next week.  However, no other news source has confirmed the story.  So I can’t say for sure how legit it is.  Larry Brown had been quoted recently that the Bobcats did not have the cap space nor playing time to make Iverson an offer he would like.

If true, that is one less guard option for the Clippers.  Iverson is seen by many as a prima-donna who would disrupt team chemistry.  IMO he has been unfairly criticized.  I see him as a great talent who could seriously improve the team.  Baron Davis and Iverson in the same backcourt reminds me of when Baron played next to Monta Ellis in Golden State.  Baron played some of the best basketball in his career next to Ellis.

Mark Madsen was waived today by the Clippers.  Here he is pictured during happier times.

Madsen was acquired last month from the Minnesota Timberwolves in a trade that also netted the Clippers PF Craig Smith and PG Sebastian Telfair.  Both Smith and Telfair are quality rotation players, but the only good thing one can say about Madsen is that he is a great locker room guy.  Translation, he is done as a basketball player.  His best contribution during games is waving towels and cheerleading from the sideline.  Sad to say, but the only thing keeping Madsen on an NBA roster was his contract.  Now that he has been cut I would not be surprised if he turned to coaching.  He would be a perfect fit in Minnesota as an assistant to new coach Kurt Rambis.

As for the Clippers, they don’t save any money by cutting Madsen.  They still have to pay him his full contract and it still counts against the salary cap.  So this move seems to be a clear sign the Clippers needed the roster slot.  The Clippers could be signing someone soon, but we have been saying that for weeks already.  As far as I know they are still waiting on Ramon Sessions to make a decision, but there are rumors they have turned their attention to Allen Iverson.

This week the Clippers introduced Rasual Butler to the LA media.  Part of the Q and A can be seen on YouTube.  Last season Butler started for the playoff bound New Orleans Hornets, but for the Clippers he is expected to backup Eric Gordon and Al Thornton at the wing.  As you see in the photo, Butler will be wearing Elton Brand’s old #42.

An interesting subplot according to Chris Sheriden is that apparently before landing Butler the Clippers were planning a meeting with and may have possibly been close to making an offer to Allen Iverson.  Personally I don’t see why landing Butler would keep the Clippers from making a run at Iverson.  Iverson can be a backup PG/SG, while Butler plays SG/SF.  Perhaps a deal can still be worked out with Iverson.  The team is still pursuing Ramon Sessions, but a deal with him would require a multi-year commitment.  Signing Iverson instead to a one year deal would save them millions for next summer when they plan to be major players for marquee free-agents.

Interbasket is now confirming that free-agent guard Von Wafer has signed with Greek powerhouse Olympiakos of the Euroleague.  The deal is worth $10 million – $4.2 million without taxes over two years.  Wafer was also being courted by the Clippers to the extent he actually had a sit down with Mike Dunleavy last Tuesday.

I’m dissapointed we did not get him because I think we could have greatly used his outside shooting.  Wafer had only one successfull season in the NBA, but his resume is not bad.  He was a McDonalds All-American coming out of high school, he played two years with Al Thornton at Florida State and lead the team is scoring, and he was D-League all first team in the 06-07 season.  He was briefly a Clipper in 06-07 season but was waived after playing one minute.

A week ago I was sure Ramon Sessions would end up a Knick. After all the Knicks offer Sessions a starting opportunity, Mike D’Antoni’s spread offense is perfectly suited to his style, plus Madison Square Garden is still the Mecca of basketball. What I hadn’t counted on was the Knicks being so cheap.

It seems the Knicks are unwilling to add more salary onto their 2010 cap space and so they will likely not offer Sessions a long-term contract. That is, unless they can somehow dump the contracts of Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries. An unlikely scenario as neither player has much game left in them and nobody wants their contracts.

What this means is the Clippers are now the front-runners for Sessions services. Apparently the Clippers and Bucks are already discussing sign and trade options. For things to be that far along it could mean the Clippers and Sessions have already agreed to money terms. But lets not get too carried away here. Sessions first preference is still to play for the Knicks. It just happens the Clippers are the only team so far willing to show him the money.

The Clippers 2009-10 schedule came out today.  Some notes.

- The Clippers have 8 nationally televised games on TNT/ESPN.  That is by far the most nationally televised games the Clippers have ever been featured on in a single year.  On a good year we would be lucky to get 3-4 games on TNT/ESPN, same years we had zero games.  Of course this is the Blake Griffin factor.  The Clippers finally have a young star that people nationally want to see play.

- With 22 back to back games the Clippers are once again near the top for this stat.  To make matters worse on 19 of those back to back games the Clippers have to travel between games.

- The Clippers have a chance at getting off to a great start by beating up some weak teams in November.  They will play Memphis 3 times, Oklahoma City and Minnesota twice each, plus winnable games against Golden State, Indiana, and Detroit.

- Holiday specials.  No Thanksgiving game this year.  But they will play on Christmas Day and New Years eve.

Games of interest (To me at least)

Oct 27 – Clippers @ LA Lakers  TNT -The Clippers are one of four teams freatured on NBA opening night.  The other three are the defending champions LA Lakers, the team with the best regular season record last season Cleveland Cavaliers, and the NBA champions of two years ago Boston Celtics.  One team doesn’t fit…

Oct 28 – Phoenix @ Clippers – Clippers official opening day.  Suns games are always fun to watch.

Nov 6 – Clippers @ Golden State – Hopefully a re-energized Baron Davis will run circles around his old team.

Nov 15 – Clippers @ Oklahoma City – Griffin’s first game in his home state Oklahoma.

Dec 16 – Clippers @ Minnesota – Our three former T-Wolves Telfair, Smith, and Madson play in Minnesota for first time since trade.

Dec 27 – Boston @ Clippers – Boston tries to get revenge for the loss we gave them last year at home.

Dec 31 – Philadelphia @ Clippers TNT – A chance to boo Brand on national television.

Jan 16 – Cleveland @ Clippers – LeBron James only visit.

I finally figured what to do with this little section of the internet that I’ve created for myself. This blog will cover all things related to the Los Angeles Clippers. Yes, those Clippers, of the NBA. The team called the worst franchise in all of sports.

It’s funny, now that I made that decision it makes so much sense to me. After all, I’ve been completely obsessed with the Clippers for years now.  In the next couple days I’ll be adding some Clipper content. I’ll cover the current off-season and perhaps write an article on why I’m a Clipper fan in the first place.