Season Preview: Los Angeles Clippers

Joe: I feel like the Clippers simply overachieved in the 2005-2006 season and expectations were far too high coming into last season. Sure there were injuries to key players, most notably what is most likely a career altering knee injury to Shawn Livingston, but bottom line is that placing much credence into Sam Cassell's renaissance season and deciding that Chris Kaman is a legitimate NBA center set this team up for failure. Now the injury bug continues to run rampant and this team is in definite trouble if Elton Brand is not able to contribute for the first several months of the season. The Clippers will have to rely on youngsters Josh Powell and Al Thornton down low til their one true all-star caliber player returns, and even upon Brand's arrival, this team is not talented enough to reach the postseason.One player who may be able to step up now that he is the "go-to guy" in Brand's absence is Corey Maggette. Maggette has bitched for most of his recent career about playing time and his role on teams and this is the perfect opportunity for him to put up or shut up. The Clippers will definitely need Maggette to prove something because after him, the small forwards on team are Tim Thomas and Ruben Patterson and if there is ONE thing I know about basketball it’s that the less Tim Thomas is out on the court the better. I can’t see this team doing much else than competing with the Kings neck-and-neck for sole possession of last place in the Pacific Division.

Dhivy: Sports analysts are constantly proclaiming that Elton Brand is the most underrated player in the NBA. But if everyone says he’s underrated, then doesn’t that increase his arbitrary rating? I would argue that it’s gotten to the point that people talk about him so much, that Brand is overrated. The biggest question the Clippers face going into this season is the severity of his achilles injury. They drafted Al Thornton to back up Brand, but he may see extended minutes to start the season. Combined with Chris Kaman and Paul Davis at center, the Clippers have a formidable front line that will keep them in games.

Unfortunately for Clippers fans (Frankie Muniz and maybe some other people), the rest of their roster is not helping them out. For the fifteenth year in a row, Sam Cassell is slowly decaying before our eyes. Veteran savvy can only take you so far and at some point this season Cassell will realize that his bag of tricks is empty. Shaun Livingston is one my favorites on YouTube, but he won’t see any action until 2008. And Corey Maggette is still going to be unhappy with his role, there will still be trade rumors surrounding him, and he will still stay with the Clippers throughout the season. I get bored on having the same people on my fantasy roster; I can’t believe the Clippers haven’t gotten tired of Corey Maggette yet. The most egregious mistake the Clippers made was signing Tim Thomas to a deal after his obvious fluke of a season with the Suns. It has never been more obvious that someone was playing for a new contract and was going to regress once he got it.

When the Clippers made the playoffs in 2006, they had an amazing seven game series with the Suns and there was a legitimate excitement about the team. But when the beginning of last season rolled around, the Lakers were once again the only game in town. So what happened that caused the Clippers to lose all that momentum? Whatever it was, the Clippers have faded into an afterthought once again and as long as Kobe sticks around, I don’t see them challenging the Lakers for supremacy in LA. Maybe they could get Guillermo Diaz and Dan Dickau to guest star on “The Hills”. Drama!

Quang: the clippers entered last season brimming with confidence after taking the suns to seven games in the conference semifinals the year before. being so pleased with themselves became their downfall because last year nearly every player regressed. so instead of building on their surprise success, the clippers spent the season fighting for a playoff spot up until the final day. they fell short and got an early start on getting their tans in the warm los angeles sun. i guess no one had the heart to tell them that there's only one sun and not individual ones for every city. but give i figure we should give them a break since they were probably upset about not making the playoffs.

as if this season wasn't going to be hard enough for the clippers, during an offseason workout elton brand ruptured his achilles and is going to miss a good portion of the season. this prompted some genius on the clippers to ask elton whether or not he was on steroids. i would love to know what prompted this. was he sitting around thinking, "elton brand ruptured his achilles?! hmm... didn't i read that taking steroids makes you rupture your achilles? or wait, maybe i read that taking steroids gives you severe backne. no, i'm pretty sure severe backne is something else. i bet elton brand's on steroids. i better ask him." what did he expect elton brand to say? and what would he have done if elton brand said "yes i took steroids, how did you know?!" idiot.

anyways, the clippers have people other than elton brand and that dummy on their payroll. sam cassell is back and is the cagiest and craftiest player in the nba. corey maggette returns just to be at odds with coach dunleavy. cuttino mobley has had the same season for five straight years. quinton ross is the team's defensive stopper and a player who jon hollinger compares to jud buechler. tim thomas admittedly played better than i was expecting last year, but i was expecting him to play all of his minutes with his jersey on backwards and eating paste. and lastly, chris kaman hasn't recovered from being molested by reggie evans. the two players i'm interested in watching this year is al thornton and paul davis. thornton because he was unbelievable at florida state last year and davis because he was awful at michigan state. davis is going to see a good number of elton brand's minutes. you may remember paul davis from that great gatorade commercial with dwyane wade. uh, why would you be in a commercial where you get dunked on? i bet the gatorade people told paul davis that they wanted to film a commercial where dwyane wade dunks on paul davis and then paul comes back and dunks on wade. then after wade does his take the crew pretended to film paul davis. "how'd that look, good?" paul davis asked. "uh... that was perfect, paul. thanks," the director replies.

Achilles Heel

• Tim Thomas (d)
• Tim Thomas (j)
• Tim Thomas (q)

Unsung Hero

• Paul Davis (d)
• Josh Powell (j)
• Al Thornton (q)

Bold Prediction

• In a game against the Bucks, Brevin Knight stops at mid-court and starts dancing when the stadium sound system starts playing Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual”. (d)
• Realizing he doesn't have the basketball ability to be called "The Kobe Stopper" anymore, Ruben Patterson uses the co-habitation of the Staples Center to his advantage, paying off Staples Center employees to play annoying tricks on Kobe. (j)
• Tired of living in the Lakers' shadow, the Clippers legally change their name to the Los Angeles Clippers of Anaheim. After the season, tired of living in the Angels' shadow, the Los Angeles Clippers of Anaheim legally change their name to Hooters Presents the Clippers. (q)

Favorite Moment

• Tricking people into watching Shaun Livingston’s injury by telling them he had an awesome dunk. (d)
• Chris Kaman shoots two air-balls in the final 19 seconds with the Clippers down one in a loss to the Hawks. (j)
• The Clippers signed University of Washington's Will Conroy and played him for a few games. Will Conroy is so much better than Nate Robinson it makes me want to eat dinner right now. (q)