I think we’re all a little saddened to see Elton go, and to loose out on maggette too after brand left makes things worse. The real question is what do we do now?

I’m personally not a fan of the whole 2010 strategy because I think that depends on a lot of projection that these players will even be available and won’t sign extensions with their current teams. And lets not forget the biggest assumption of all, that they’ll want to play for the clippers.

What do we have:

A top center in the league, 2 young pieces in Thornton and Gordon, a leader in Baron Davis and 2 “2010” contracts in Mobley and Thomas.

Davis/knight/(Livingston)

Mobley Gordon

Thornton/Williams

Thomas/Powell

Kaman/Fazekas

First things first: pick a player to go after, preferably Josh Smith or another power forward (Emeka Okafor) without overpaying. I tend to like josh smith more because I can see baron davis getting him a lot of easy baskets. I admittedly know almost nothing about Emeka Okafor.

Second: If we cant get Josh Smith or Okafor, FRONT LOAD Baron’s contract!!!! It’ll still give him the same amount but it gives the clippers more options in the future so we’re not paying him as much when he gets into the 4th and 5th years. (if we can do that with anyone else that we sign that would be good as well) We have more cap room now than we’ll probably have a few years from now.

Next try to work out a trade to get a power forward, only a 3 year contract at most. One player we could get on the cheap would be Randolph. I don’t know what the league rules are regarding trades under the salary cap but we might not have to give up that much. If we do have to match salaries it might not be worth it… (I’m hoping this wont happen since I despise his game)

Other possibilities include rasheed Wallace, or AK47. However to get either of these guys we might have to give up a pick and maybe Gordon on Thornton. I don’t think that would be worth it.

ideas or thoughts?