Gordon and Taylor brings energy and hustle to both ends of the floor. Not only should Gordon get the start even with a healthy Ricky Davis, Gordon might have to become the go to guy on this team. Even though he’s not going to shoot 50% and score 25 points every night, he’s probably got the best shooting stroke of anybody on the team right now and the kid can create his own shots. He only had three assists I think, but all three were beautiful. His defenders had to play him tight at the end and this opened up the passing lanes. With the ball in his hands tonight, in the second half, good things happened. For tonight at least, he made better decisions with the ball than Baron down the stretch.

DeAndre might help with our lack of rebounding…Kaman is just not a natural rebounder due to his small hands and short arms, and having Camby out in the 1st half with foul trouble hurts us. Dunleavy seems to be giving Taylor and Gordon some minutes now, so lets see if DeAndre can help with defense and rebounds. The kid has the body and the tools to do it. Now Dunleavy has just got to get over his phobia of playing three rookies and learn to live with their mistakes as well as their promise.

I didn’t get a chance to post this after the Philly game, but the camera showed Baron checking into that game in the second or third quarter and he lifted his jersey to tighten what appeared to be a medical wrap around his waist that perhaps went all the way up to his lower rib cage. It happened so fast on camera, but as soon as I saw it I wondered whether he has a broken rib or something like that…

Other than what I think I saw, I have zero corroborative evidence… but if it were even somewhat true, it would sure explain why his shot has been so far off this season… If his core is not right, forget about having a natural shooting stroke.

Did anybody else see this snippet during the game and have any ideas as to what it might be for?

Offensive Rebounding: We won 13 to 10
Turnovers: We won 10 to 15
Assists: Only lost by two 20 to 22
Free Throws: We earned 6 more, but only netted 1pt in makes

Overall, there seemed to be a lot more hustle, but we have to close out better on the 3pt attempts. Even with Peja making some incredible shots, there were too many guys open out there. And what can you say about West, matchup nightmare for sure.

Taylor looks like our best option to backup the 1 & 2 positions. Now if we could only give Thornton more of a breather.

Cat’s health is holding up trade
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3724721

Good analysis as always, but Gordon breaking out and making something of his minutes is hardly a surprise, and it should have happened a long time ago, in game 6 or 7 rather than #14. There’s a weird disconnect that somehow the horrendous and pathetic play of Ricky Davis will suddenly turn around and he’ll start hitting something resembling his career averages. But the obvious fact in reality is that he has been atrocious, looking like a player that few teams would want, and certainly not somebody you should expect to make a crucial contribution. It wasn’t a bad attempt, it could have worked and he might have been energetic and excellent, but he has been a worthless scrub all season. The example of Reuben Patterson stands very clearly before us, and Patterson was actually much better than Davis2 has been.

The fact that he was unavailable (a godsend, btw) showed a viable rotation: bringing Taylor in for Gordon, and putting BD at SG. With the energy and shooting of Taylor and Gordon, BD is going to wake up sooner or later—and there’s a lot less motivation to jump out of bed when you’re already very late for work and you know you missed the meeting about going to the playoffs.

I despised the trade when it happened, but now it seems like a decent surgical operation, removing Tim Thomas from Dunleavy’s arsenal, and taking the blanket away at the same time, which was the only way, it seems, that MD was going to play Gordon sooner rather than later. Removing the blanket makes Davis2’s deficiencies more glaring, and with the minutes, Gordon will show that he’s the best option by far, and he can really help the team. Addition by subtraction. And I suppose it was critical for Davis2 to miss this game and Gordon to have a chance to go off, before the Clips try to work Randolph into the mix.

Let’s remember that Mobley was barely adequate, savvy and a solid defender, and playing very well, but he was really just okay at best. RDavis is worthless. Novak should move ahead of him, and RDavis should get the kinds of opportunities that Novak was getting in the first 12 games—very few and far between. I know that Novak for Davis2 isn’t an exact match, but you get the point, and Novak should definitely be the backup SF to Thornton (and that’s if the Clips never play Kaman-Camby-Randolph up front). Play the best players, play the guys (Jordan, Davis3, Skinner, Novak) who play hard and with enthusiasm off the bench, not the ones who can’t make shots, who have gotten the minutes and failed to produce during 12 losses. This doesn’t apply to BD, who is the Clips’ star player. He needs to be supported by guys like Gordon who can shoot, rebound, and defend, and let him feed off the enthusiasm of other guys making plays.

Very painful transition, but Eric Gordon should be the Clips’ starting SG for a long time now.

apparently they want a 1st round pick from the clippers too! But they only had until mid day today so I hope the clippers didn’t cave.

That really makes me angry. They think they’re entitled to everything. Look knicks, we did you a favor by taking on a horrible contract. In truth, I’d rather have cat back, so go ahead and call off the trade then!

here’s the article for clipsnation
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2008/11/24/2008-11-24_knicks_may_be_seeking_pick_as_cuttino_mo.html

Warriors fan here who occasionally drops into this blog (kudos, it’s excellent). Just wanted to comment about the wrap around Baron’s mid-section: He’s worn that for years. You can see it after he dunked on Kirilenko in the playoffs a couple of years ago and lifted his jersey to “pop” it. I’m not exactly sure what it’s for – I always assumed it was sort of a girdle to give him more stability due to prior back issues, more of a precaution thing. On the larger point of Baron’s game, I thought I’d give my views after watching Baron closely for two and a half years, for what it’s worth. He visibly slowed down around mid-season last year. Whereas before he was frighteningly strong and explosive to the hole, that part of his game just disappeared around February. Most Warriors’ fans were furious with Nelson for playing him too many minutes – if you remember, Davis’ shining moment was in the playoffs against Dallas, after he had missed a good chunk of the season. I just think Baron is one of those players who for whatever reason had only so many top-tier games in him, and in my personal opinion he has hit the wall. As a Warrior’s fan, I’m not gloating – the Warriors have problems of their own and we could use a PG like Baron even in his current state. And he brought me the greatest thrills I’ve ever experienced as a hoops fan, and I’ll always love that about him. But I don’t think the image of Baron as an elite PG matches the reality anymore.