But put it this way, the Clippers will be starting 2 guys twice as productive as the average player, and just added another about 3 times as productive.

IF health holds, the Clippers vaulted past teams tonight.

but he was playing out of position for most of the year. I expect improvement there.

Mobley and Thomas are kind of sucky, too. I’m surprised about blanket. Thought he would show up a lot better in those stats.

what’s that called when you take a spike to the face?

I must say that you do seem fairly positive at this point, Jax, which is nice. There are some cracks in this new formula, of course, but there would be in anything.

My main objection to the Dave W issues is that he didn’t seem to factor Baron Davis into his equation. Davis seems to be the primary difference-maker out of all the guys on the move (Camby, FElton, Maggs) or being considered (AI2, Deng, Okafor, Smith). They’re all high level players. I don’t see the Clips standing still in nowheresville when you add Davis to Kaman and Thornton. Add Gordon and Camby along with Davis and it seems like you’ve shuffled the deck in a dynamic way, even with the subtraction of FElton and Maggs. Cassell was old and rickety and still made a big difference to the Clips, and Davis is a lot better and younger than Cassell.

The injury-prone vets argument. There’s always some risk, and I happen to be highly anxious about injuries just because it’s the Clippers and they have such a horrendous history. As far as Davis is concerned, two things. One, Steve Nash was an injury-prone vet before he went to Phoenix. Two, Davis went on a new fitness program and played 82 games last season. Just hoping for the best. I think the same optimism about durability applies to Camby, who was very much an injury-prone younger player, but he became a durable and productive vet and then some over the last 5 seasons, and he played 79 games and had 1000 rebounds last year. He led the league in blocks and the year before that was DPOY. There’s definitely a bright side, if one wants to look at it.

Backups and the bench are the big issue right now. I think the Clips are in better shape at PG/SG than you’re giving them credit for. Knight was relatively healthy last year as a starter for much of the season, and he figures to be healthy enough to back up Davis. In my summer league post I noted that Taylor has the size to be a different type of backup, and he also doesn’t seem to be a tweener or combo like Ewing, Dooling, or others. The rule of thumb is that if you have your 3rd string PG starting (Brunson), you’re in big trouble anyway, and with the Clips’ hopes pinned to Davis, things will be difficult if he’s out for extended periods no matter what. He’s the guy, and any of the elite teams would have the same problems if their main guy goes out. But the main point I want to make is that I really believe that Gordon can be the “good young backup PG/SG” that you’re talking about. Although he had a very quick trigger, he was strong and a good penetrator and showed a lot of PG ability in the small sample I saw in summer league. He will really help the cause in that spot. And all of that is without any discussion with Livingston, which I for one am not very eager to even discuss at this point.

The big question mark for me is the SG/SF spot. They need a defender, because Thornton and Thomas don’t play enough defense, but they also need a guy who can hit the outside shot. I agree with you that QRoss really isn’t an option—as solid as his defense can be (and I’m in the camp that thinks he’s really good, but not great), you just can’t have that type of offensive black hole out on the floor. It’s really a shame, and maybe it would be different with Davis and Gordon, but Ross has just had too many chances to provide basic shot-making and failed. Where is that Posey/Bruce Bowen/Shane Battier guy? They don’t grow on trees, but Dunleavy was able to pick up Bobby Simmons and he found QRoss, who could have worked out. It seems to me that the backup SF is the guy to find now.

watch this.

find a wing who plays pretty good defense who can also shoot. EG, BD and Cat can play D.

The team as currently constituted has two bigs. To create appropriate spacing, the other three players should be able to stretch the defense, becuase otherwise it will sag. If I were playing a team like that, with Q Ross as one of the wings, this immediatley frees up his man to roam and to ignore him on switches. I reaize he could conceivably cut to the basket, but in addition to the fact he didn’t do that consistently (if at all), it will be difficult with the two bigs that we will have. Unlike EB, they cannot hit the consistent 18 to 20 footer, and we want them inside.

The team will have great interior defense. I’d rather compliment that (and the twin tower offensive approach) with three other players who can shoot and stretch the defense. The benefits of that outweigh Q’s defense on the court. Q is a g/f who cannot shoot. He kills your offense. Frankly, he doesn’t belong in the NBA.

There is no point in discussing impossibilities. Given the known circumstances, it doubtful the Clippers could have come out of this free agency looking better.

They will field a competitive team, while maintaining maximum flexibility for continuing to rebuild.

Frankly, the 2008-09 Clippers would have been worse competitively signing either of those two players, even though its probably not possible since their teams controlled the situation, and the rebuilding opportunities would have been more inflexible in the future since their bigger and longer contracts would have wiped out flexibility for at least the next five years.

I don’t see how this doesn’t fully address the issues raised.

I was rather inexact in the definition of unknown quantities. They’re both proven NBA players, solid starters and producers. What’s unknown is whether they’re guys that you want to give up a big chunk of capspace to, and build around for five years. On top of that, another big question is how they fit into the team and the roster.

With Smith, the big unknown for me was whether, on the Clippers, he would be able to play PF, or whether he would be able to defend guys like Duncan, Boozer, Gasol/Odom, Nowitzki, etc., and play alongside Thornton at the same time. He seems to be something of a tweener to me, with a fair amount of duplication of what Thornton does, which the Clippers already have, on a very affordable first contract. The Clips had a hole at PF, and I just wasn’t sure that Smith was the best way to fill it, based on the money. I wanted to err on the side of defense and rebounding and preferred Okafor, even before Camby. The Sixers were the other team talking about Smith, before they stole FElton, but they drafted Speights and now with FElton they’re a little bit heavy in PFs, and they had Smith down as an SF, so that tells you something. And Smith didn’t play very much PF in Atlanta—about the same relative amount that Thornton played here. The “unknown quantity” in Smith’s case was if he could fill the hole left by FElton, and not get in Thornton’s way in the process. I’m happy now to give Thornton a full year as a starter to see how he fares. He probably won’t be as good as Smith, but he doesn’t need to be, and he can still be very good.

Iggy is great too but it’s a different version of the same equation. His natural position is SG, and he’s a good one. I don’t know that he’s a Paul Pierce or Ray Allen or a little bit of both or a little less than either. If the question is would I trade Mobley and Eric Gordon for Iggy, the answer is yes, in a heartbeat, but who is the Clippers PF? Iggy is an unknown quantity in that we don’t know that he can dictate the flow of the game and produce wins down the stretch, the way that Baron Davis and Pierce can. On a team with Miller, Dalembert, Young, and FElton, he’s going to have to be that guy. If the Clips had known that FElton was leaving and could have drafted KLove (unknown quantity) or more of a sure thing to fill his slot, targeting Iggy for a team with just aging Mobley would be a good move. But drafting Gordon changed the equation.

Mobley and Thomas aren’t NBA starters, and I don’t think they’re starters on the Clippers. Mobley may start for awhile but Gordon is going to get a lot of minutes. Mobley and Thomas are solid enough rotation guys for the time being, however. The less they play the better the Clippers are doing, I would think, but they can fill roles and will know their way around in tough games.