Clippers Sign Paul Davis

Oh well, maybe Fazekas just has something better cooking and is completely off the table.

Nice of the Clips to hold off on this until CS was back, throwing him a little bone to pick.

As much as I like the idea of three guys named Davis on the same team (and do the jerseys say PDavis, RDavis, and then just “Davis” for the one who matters?—and what kind of first name is “Baron” anyway? Has anybody else ever been named Baron? just wondering), I’m not sure that I get this one.

My guess is that it means that the Clippers like Paul Davis better than they like Josh Powell or Nick Fazekas. And the reason for that is… very hard to say. Because he’s coming off a major injury? Because he wasn’t especially impressive playing behind Reuben Patterson and Tim Thomas and backing up Chris Kaman before he was injured? Because they couldn’t make a deal with Josh Powell, who refused to play in summer league? Because Powell is more like Brian Skinner, while Davis doesn’t rebound as well and is a little less athletic? Because Davis doesn’t have the soft touch or the nose for offensive rebounds of Fazekas? Because they thought they were going to sign Shaun Livingston, who turned down a guaranteed deal, and then they forgot that they have an open roster spot?

Again, the basic rule of thumb is not to get too concerned about these final roster spots. Some will remember that I was a big Paul Davis fan at the beginning of last year, after Brand’s injury, and I wanted him to start at PF alongside Kaman, with Tim Thomas coming off the bench. Davis didn’t get a ton of great opportunities, and then his injury was especially untimely. That’s a lot of bad mojo for one guy to overcome.

So we’re assuming that PDavis is the 14th player on the roster with a guaranteed contract, while Jordan and Taylor have make-good contracts, and are battling for the 15th roster spot.

I don’t really care about Taylor—although they did trade one of those seemingly unlimited picks to grab him—but Jordan seems to be a worthwhile project, and I’m curious about what their plan might be. At one point Jordan seemed to be right behind Kaman and Camby at center, with Tim Thomas in front of him in the rotation. But that was before the Skinner signing, and now Davis.

Maybe they thought that they saw enough of Josh Powell last year, but the injury cut short their look at Davis, and they want to give him another year to see if he pans out, while they’re planning to wait on Jordan for at least a year and possibly longer.

except Paul Davis. This is the signing I absolutely detest. I know it’s the end of the bench and all, but Fazeke has proven to be much more productive, and Powell much more experienced. And neither have been injured.

Ricky Buckets, White Choco, and Novak were all excellent signings. They filled particular roles and needs. Paul Davis, not so much. I feel like this move was made for the sole purpose of having the triple-Davis gimmick. Bleh.

that the clippers at least gave him a workout before signing him, right? like they do for the draft or something… and hopefully they compared him and nick to see which fit their needs more.

remember, this isn’t the team from last year!

BTW does anyone know of any other team in NBA history that has had as much of a roster overhaul as the clippers this offseason?

Swamigusto asks a good question, one that the new readers from the July flurry might well be wondering about. Nick Fazekas has some big time fans here at ClipsNation. How did that happen?

First of all, let’s remember that we’re fans of a routinely pathetic franchise. I’ve been thinking about this a fair amount recently, and it may be more grist for Jax’ mill, but we all probably bring our own internal conflicts and histories and self-esteem issues to the table as Clipper fans. We root for the underdog. We wallow in the dysfunction, and try to find order, meaning, and hope in chaos and failure. Wouldn’t it just be easier to be a Laker fan? That’s the age-old question.

Given that—certainly worthy of its own post and thread at some point—, secondly we have to walk through the catastrophic 07-08 season and the dominoes that led to the arrival of Fazekas. Brand goes down. Paul Davis—hey, he’s back!—goes down (and no one cared, btw). Tim Thomas tweaked his leg in December, and the Clips were suddenly extremely thin up front, not to mention relatively pathetic. Thornton started getting minutes and the tanking began in earnest. All of these things heralded the arrival of the Great Fazekas.

We like Fazekas because he’s funky. It may turn out that he’s just the perfect garbage time player, but that counts for something on the Clippers, and it had a very high value in the spring of 08. Game after game, in limited minutes, every ball seemed to bounce his way, and he put up gaudy PER and wages of wins numbers. My own goal was hoping for him to get more offensive rebounds than Tim Thomas in 10% as many minutes, and he easily made it more than halfway.

Another part of the attraction comes from limited minutes. You’re wondering, wow, what if he has a breakout game, and there’s something truly uncanny about it, but he could be a solid rotation player if he gets the chance. That was a big part of last season in general: it was a long tryout. Kaman showed that he was worth the money he’s getting paid, and Thornton stepped up once he got minutes and wasn’t playing behind Patterson and Thomas anymore. QRoss went in the opposite direction, proving once and for all that he didn’t have any offensive game whatsoever. Josh Powell earned himself a contract with the mighty Lakers, where he will shortly be celebrated as the second coming of Rony Turiaf. Fazekas, as I said, looked pretty good, even weirdly great at times. There were a couple of games where he got extended minutes and disappeared, but it still seemed possible that he possessed a rare mojo. Despite the fact that he can’t run and he can’t jump. We also discovered that, besides being advertised as a fantastic perimeter shooter, he rarely attempted any perimeter shots. That caused a pause. And then in summer league, which would have been a good time to dominate scrubs and earn big minutes, Fazekas looked mortal and less than that. He didn’t do much of anything. He made Paul Davis’ 07 summer league performance look epic by comparison. So who knows. It was fun while it lasted.

he can’t even do anything, just takes up the roster space.

bestclipfan is right about Davis starting to play better before the injury. It was only a few games, but he seemed to just begin to turn a corner. We he went down, I was disappointed as he we was just starting to earn more minutes as could have grown a lot last year.

He is a larger body then Powell and more athletic then Faz. Remember we are talking about the bottom of the roster. Also, maybe (hopefully) Jordon quickly rises on the depth chart pushing Paul to pratice time only.

Davis gave a pretty strong performance here against the Bobcats. Although the Clippers as a team looked mostly lethargic and bored, Davis made a good impression with his energy. He appeared to be a solid bench player. I’m not sure how he compares to Fazekas, but I’m glad at least one of those two is returning.

Davis can fill an important role as Kaman’s backup. He should be ready to emerge as a role playing contributor In his 3rd NBA season. Pairing Davis with Skinner or Camby for 10-12 minutes a game should be much better than Camby & Skinner (no offense) or Skinner & Thomas (unwatchable).

And while I like Jordan as a long term prospect, I doubt he’s ready for NBA minutes. Since he seems to have even less offensive game than Skinner and Camby, this year should be a learning experience for him in the D-League.