HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – Training camp is still about eight weeks away, but good luck trying to find any more free agents who can make a real impact on your team. A month after free agency opened, only slim pickings remain.
Want proof? The remaining free agent who played the most minutes last season is Alonzo Gee. Most rebounds? Shelden Williams. Yep, we’re down to the bottom of the barrel.
At this point, if teams are still looking to fill roster spots, they have certain needs. So we’ll list the best available guys by position. Here are three point guards, five wings, and three bigs who could be useful (or not) next season…
Point guards
1. Derek Fisher (OKC)
23.9 MPG, 5.6 PPG, 2.7 APG, 37.1% FG, 32.1% 3PT
The veteran will celebrate his 38th birthday next week, and it’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about a possible destination for next season. After a rough regular season, he shot a solid 38 percent (18-for-48) from 3-point range in the playoffs.
2. Jannero Pargo (ATL)
13.4 MPG, 5.6 PPG, 1.9 APG, 41.5% FG, 38.4% 3PT
Pargo provided an offensive lift for the Hawks in a handful of games last season. (more…)
SAN ANTONIO – It’s usually a difficult choice when you’re playing the Spurs — pick your poison.
So the Clippers swallowed the arsenic and the cyanide. They let the Spurs beat them up on the inside with 42 points in the paint and a 47-34 domination of the rebounding and they also surrendered 13 buckets from behind the 3-point line to seven different Spurs.
At times the Clippers looked like confused rats inside a maze, not knowing which way to run to try to cover up a San Antonio shooter.
“If they don’t pass the ball to an open man, they’re coming out. It’s the bottom line,” said L.A. forward Kenyon Martin. “That’s the way (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) is coaching. I’ve had lots of battles with him. This is my fourth time playing him in the playoffs and it’s always been that way. The open man always hits the shot; that’s what they do well. They do an excellent job of spreading the floor, making plays and guys do an excellent job of being unselfish.” (more…)
HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – Now you know why the Lakers were in such an uproar when that Chris Paul trade fell through.
With a playoff series on the line in a Game 7 on the road in Memphis, a beat up and worn out Paul dragged the Los Angeles Clippers to the finish line against the Hang Time Grizzlies by sheer force of will. Then, the Clippers’ bench gave the final push Sunday at the FedEx Forum in the 82-72 win that sealed their date with the San Antonio Spurs in one Western Conference semifinal.
Through three quarters, however, it was all Paul. It was his toughness and relentless attacks on both ends of the floor that set the tone for the visitors and kept the home crowd from overwhelming the moment.
“I felt like we should have won earlier,” the always confident Paul said after leading the Clippers to just their third playoff series win in 41 years. “But it doesn’t matter. As long as you win, I think it is a step in the right direction for our franchise.”
He was so confident he bought plane tickets to San Antonio for his wife and son on Saturday. You don’t operate with that kind of confidence unless you know your will to win is greater than that of your competition. And time and again in this series, Paul showed himself as the superior competitor to anyone else on either side.
HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – We won’t bother asking what took the Hang Time Grizzlies so long to figure this out. All that matters now is that we’ve all see it in action and have seen the results.
When the Grizzlies ground and pound, playing through All-Star big men Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, they look like a completely different team against the Los Angeles Clippers.
If they want to see a Game 7 back on their home floor, they must continue to do more of the same. Because as good as Rudy Gay, Mike Conley and the rest of the Grizzlies’ perimeter operators have been all season, you win games in the paint in the playoffs. Trying to beat the Clippers that way is what led to the 3-1 deficit — well, that and Chris Paul and Blake Griffin outplaying them during critical stretches in the first four games.
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — We’ve all grown used to seeing Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan on the Dunks of the Week list.
They’re not always in “Lob City” mode in Los Angeles, though.
The Clippers have a comedic side to them and some of them even think they can dance (we’re looking at you, Kenyon Martin). And as this LAC TV blooper reel shows, they can hold their own on that front as well:
With the Los Angeles Clippers in free fall, tensions are high in the club’s locker room, most notably in the relationship between coach Vinny Del Negro and his players, according to several sources close to the situation.
“Vinny has lost the team,” one source said. “They don’t want to play hard for him.”
With the Clippers having lost 11 of their past 18 games to turn this once-promising season into a mess, Del Negro’s job security would certainly seem to be in jeopardy. As it is, Del Negro is in the final guaranteed season of his contract. The Clippers hold a team option for next season.
Most of the players, according to sources, believe it’s time for a change. They cite the uncertainty of Del Negro’s rotation as a major problem. With the front office adding several players to the roster throughout this shortened season – Reggie Evans, Kenyon Martin, Bobby Simmons and Nick Young – plus Eric Bledsoe‘s return from injury in February, players’ minutes have fluctuated from game to game.
It’s hard to see anything saving Del Negro’s skin if the Clippers’ season bottoms all the way out. We’re talking about a coach who is working on his second stint with one of the league’s elite point guards (he had Derrick Rose in Chicago, before the Bulls took off under Tom Thibodeau) and couldn’t make that work.
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – It’s about time someone closed the door, stopped focusing on all of this “Lob City” stuff and lit into the Los Angeles Clippers.
Someone had to do it.
You lose 11 of 18 games since Chauncey Billups went down for the season with that Achilles injury and it’s obvious to us that someone has to step up and say something.
Enter Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro, the man who will no doubt shoulder the largest amount of blame if things go awry down the stretch of this season, and his postgame tirade (of sorts) after last night’s humbling at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. You could hear him through the walls, according to Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times:
The Clippers coach used words like “approach,” “compete” and “defense” in his emphatic message after the Clippers dropped a 114-91 game to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
“I’m big into how you approach games and how you compete,” Del Negro said. “We have to get the mentality of we have to play a certain way to win right now.
“And it has to be through our defense because we lack certain things. In order for us to score enough points to take pressure off of us, we have to be able to guard better.
“But our overall approach and everything to the game has to be better. That’s what is disappointing to me. We have to do a better job of being in the moment from the get-go and not waiting to get into the game.”
Del Negro got his first technical foul of the season.
The Clippers gave up more than 100 points for the second straight game in their three-games-in-three-nights trip that finishes in New Orleans on Thursday.
Del Negro probably had a receptive crowd in that locker room.
Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and the crew know that they are at a crossroads. They realize they can finish one way … or the other. And they have to know that the city they hoped to take by storm is currently being reclaimed by that “other” team that calls the Staples Center home.
You either get this fixed — and now — or risk becoming another footnote in an abbreviated season filled with teams that had the look of a contender (just ask the folks in Portland if you’re unclear on what we mean) before reality ruined the party.
Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.
A month to the trade deadline: Which team in the East most likely will make a big move? In the West?
Steve Aschburner: With so much expected action in outright signings – J.R. Smith, Gilbert Arenas, Kenyon Martin already – I’m thinking fewer trades this year at the deadline. But that window between All-Star Weekend and the deadline cries out for a Dwight Howard deal, so Orlando rates as my East pick. If the team acquiring him is out West – Golden State? L.A. Lakers? – then I’m covered for a West prediction too. Otherwise, it’s Phoenix being good guys and moving Steve Nash to a contender.
Fran Blinebury: Despite their bold talk, I still think Orlando will have to trade Dwight Howard and all of his inconsistencies and insecurities. He seems to be burning his bridge one match at a time. In the West, the Lakers have to do something, anything, if they hope to be playing the Clippers, not watching them, after the first round of the playoffs.
Scott Howard-Cooper: Still going with the Magic. They can’t want this game of chicken with Dwight Howard. Unless Howard specifically gives them reason for optimism about a new contract, as opposed to him toning down the rumbles about wanting to leave, Orlando has to make the big move. In the West, it’s the Lakers. A decent-size trade exception, needing an infusion, unable to be patient – that’s a team wanting to make a move. (more…)
Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.
What player or team has impressed you the most, two days into the season?
Steve Aschburner: Hope we’re going alphabetically (as usual) so I don’t seem like I’m jumping on a Miami Heat bandwagon. But c’mon, even with the lofty expectations many of us had for Wade, James and crew, the Heat have transcended those in this sliver of a sample of a season. The pace at which they’re playing, in particular, should scare opponents, especially those coming off back-to-backs or, worse, back-to-back-to-backs. Feels like a wire-to-wire season for Miami.
Fran Blinebury: How can you not be impressed by Kevin Durant and the Thunder? They’ve picked right up where they left off in June and appear ready to lead the charge in the Western Conference. But for pleasant surprises, how about Eric Gordon taking over the starring role from Chris Paul in New Orleans and leading the Hornets to a win at Phoenix? Hmmmm, does this make commissioner David Stern early candidate for Executive of the Year?
Scott Howard-Cooper: How can it not be Miami? Not just 2-0, but with wins over the defending champions, Dallas, and one of the better teams in the East, Boston. The talent has been there. Now this looks like a group that is particularly motivated and focused. (more…)
HANG TIME TEXAS, Y’ALL – The Great Wall of China might be thousands of miles long, but it wasn’t tall enough to keep Kenyon Martin in the country.
The veteran power forward (who turns 34 next week) has arranged a buyout from his contract with the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association that will allow a return to the NBA, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo!Sports.
Two questions quickly pop up:
Will Martin’s homecoming open the door for his former Denver teammates J.R. Smith and Wilson Chandler to make their own returns to the NBA?
Since he won’t be able to join an NBA team likely until sometime in March, how much jockeying will take place for Martin among playoff contenders that might be looking for fresh legs near the end of the condensed 66-game, post-lockout schedule – Miami, Boston, San Antonio, the Lakers?
For Martin and Xinjiang, this breakup was simply a chance to end a partnership that hadn’t been productive. Martin, who turns 34 on Dec. 30, had been nothing resembling a dominant force in the CBA, averaging 14 points and seven rebounds in a league with few NBA-level big men.
After playing out his contract with the Nuggets last season, Martin is an unrestricted free agent. There are NBA teams interested in him, but clearly they’ll take a close look at his knees and try to understand why he struggled to find his past explosiveness in China. Was he simply not playing hard enough, or is he not healthy?
So that makes one more question: Now that he’s coming home, will K-Mart have anything resembling an NBA level game packed in his luggage?
Fran Blinebury: Despite their bold talk, I still think Orlando will have to trade Dwight Howard and all of his inconsistencies and insecurities. He seems to be burning his bridge one match at a time. In the West, the Lakers have to do something, anything, if they hope to be playing the Clippers, not watching them, after the first round of the playoffs.
