Imagine what this team could accomplish if they could only attract free agents!

I brought this up a month ago. Great signing by the Clips, Jason Williams is still a borderline starting PG in the NBA when healthy. Definitely a good Plan B in case B Diddy gets nicked up along the way.

Our new depth chart
SG – Mobley/R. Davis/Gordon
PG – Baron/Jason Williams
C – Kaman/Camby/Skinner/Jordan
PF – Camby/T Thomas/Skinner
SF – Thornton/R. Davis/Novak

Happy we got a solid back-up, but sad that this effectively ends the Livingston era. =/

The Clippers go and bring in “white chocolate”......

not sure about this one-though…....

and it for sure signals the end of Livingston in L.A. as a Clipper.

because it doesn’t look like any team is going to sign him. Who knows maybe we can sign him in 2009 but I think I’m getting to attached to him.

I’ve always liked Jason Hart more in a backup role than Jason Williams. Plus I would prefer to keep a wild horse like Mike Taylor on our bench to develop…now we have Jason Williams as a second string point guard? That means Mike Taylor will probably get cut…and no Shaun for sure…another strange signing by the Clips. I suppose retaining Smush Parker would be worse…but probably not by much.

at least this year we won’t have Dan Dickau as our starting point guard

the greatest Clipper PF of all time. Brought his lunch pail everyday on bad teams.

I am not a big J Dubb fan. His biggest weakness is shot selection/defense- both somewhat mental factors….....let’s hope he brings some veteran savvy- and fills his role as a 3rd string PG. He has gotten better at the 3 over the yrs- just needs to be more steady at when to take it.

All of the moves this summer have definitely been geared to win this year and then have cap room in 2010. I think the Donald caught the “winner bug” 2 yrs ago and realizes that he won’t live forever.

Worst case- all these guys could have incredible B-Diddy inspired years and take the Clippers to new heights forcing mgt to give them all more $$$.

To add to its list of slightly past their prime Big Names, the Clips sign White Chocolate. Definitely a surprise, adding another PG. The Clips traded a 2nd round pick away for Mike Taylor, which i had assumed meant they were serious about adding him. Oh well, guess not. White Chocolate’s game has “normalized” over the years, as he is more of a steady influence now. After all, he was coached a few years by old school Hubie Brown in Memphis and Pat Riley in Miami. They might still keep Taylor, and go with a 4PG roster. Loss year’s PG nightmare may have caused management to overcompensate.

The Playoff spot this year momentum is not a bad one. Not sure how the financial records were last season, but they probably were not all that impressive, as attendance suffered, lakers were the talk of town, Media coverage plummeted, etc. Clipper Management probably doesn’t a repeat of that again, so a more urgent approach was taken. Overall, not a bad move, esp for a 13th or 14th guy.

Seriously, don’t you think Jason Williams is an upgrade from both Knight and Dickau? With a 1 year minimum contract, I see little downside with this move. To me, the biggest risk we have now is if we have an inconsistent rotation and players are unsure of or unhappy with their roles on the team. For example, I bet Jason Hart is suddenly less happy about his situation.

I can’t see how anyone can really view this pickup as a substantial problem – a one year contract for very little money (part of which is picked up by the NBA). How anyone can’t view this as a serious upgrade over Dickau and Knight is beyond me. And for those who want to bet on the promise of Fazekas, Taylor, etc., I’ve quite frankly had enough of the “let’s build for tomorrow” for the past 15 years (the guy has 50+ plus playoff games under his belt). Besides, it’s not like a TT deal where we locked up a healthy chunk of cap money for five years. We’re talking about one year… for 12-17 mins max per game

And if Jason Hart is suddenly less happy, he should thank his lucky stars he’s no longer neighboring with ten million Mormons who booed his game at every opportunity…

Clips had to have a third pg, it was either Taylor or someone else. So, now it’s someone else. But by itself I don’t think this deal t means Livingston’s gone. He was never going to be ready to play by the beginning of the season anyway… and if deemed healthy enough, he’s always been slated for the 14th or 15th slot on the roster… both of which are still open… at least that’s the way I read the situation. It’s Davis or Fazekas I’m wondering about and whether Clips will carry 14 or 15.
Dunleavy seems to like vets at the end of the bench, even if they don’t play (i.e. Aaron Williams). I think you’ll see Hart and Williams fight for minutes, and with Hart a better defender, there’s an excellent chance he’ll be the number two man… and I don’t think Dunleavy worries much about who’s sulking at the end of the bench.

the clips offered Livingston a one year guaranteed contract he did not accept it. I wonder if he really thinks he is going to get a larger offer or if he plans to take this year off for rehab. As for the signing I like we get playoff experience and decent backup pg and if it doesn’t work he is gone next year.

Well, there is no question that our point guard situation has improved greatly from last year. Jason Williams would have started over Dickau, Smush, and possibly Brevin. The problem that I have with the pick up is that we already have Baron Davis and Jason Hart, plus the rookie Mike Taylor who we traded a second round draft pick for. Signing Jason Williams will probably mean that Mike Taylor is out, which means we just tossed away a second round draft pick. Plus, Mike Taylor had his moments in the Summer League, he was a bit out of control, but he had great speed, athleticism, and he can get to the rim consistently; in short I thought he had some promise as a third string point guard this year. Moreover, this signing probably means that Shaun’s Clipper career is over. Which is too bad, because he’s a good kid and deserves better.

While Jason Williams is seen as leaving his wild-man, gunner-with-no-conscience reputation behind him, we now have four or perhaps five players on our roster with quick triggers and questionable shot selections. All our reformed rogues and young triggers might come together and play great team ball, but if they don’t, then it can be a train wreck of a season. It’s a bit like calling a conference of Pol Pot, Stalin, and Hitler to the same room. You know they can get along famously or there can be alot of blood on the floor in the end.

I also have this strange sense of deja vu…when after the promise of the Danny Manning, Charles Smith, Ron Harper, Ken Norman, & Larry Brown years went up in flames, the Clippers got a broken down Dominique Wilkins and later Doc Rivers to fill the seats. I’m not suggesting that this is what’s happening now. But a disastrous 30 win season where players fight for shots would quickly move things back to those dark days.

Does he still count against the 15 man limit? How does that work contract- and cap-wise?

You’re forgetting we had a broken down, less than 100% motivated Sam Cassell for part of the season as well. After what we had at the point last year, I couldn’t agree more and I think having JH as the third option/insurance if JWil doesn’t pan out is a totally sound strategy. No need to put more pressure on JH (a la Utah) than is needed. He is a role player who can flourish if given the right role (just like TT may well improve with a less crucial role this year)

And to echo one of the other threads… we need to keep this in its proper perspective… At the end of the day, who the 12th-14th guys are is far less important to the team’s success than who the first guy is… and that would be Baron.

Also, it wouldn’t surprise me if BD was the motivator (through the Hornet connection) to get RD to sign for peanuts, who in turn got them JWil (via the Miami connection) to sign for nothing (and he had other signing options so we can’t keep saying that JWil has nothing to offer). The moral is if you get the right foundation, the rest is so much easier to fill in.

since most of theg uys they have been signing are 1 or 2 year deals, i say its not big deal who we sign for the bench.

not to mention guys like skinner or williams, the league is picking up a portion (550k or so of each 1.2 million salary) of their salary since they are vets so technically guys like williams and skinner with 10 years service can still get over a million a year, which the NBA is paying half of.

if we did not get 10 year guys, we couldnt pay more than the regular league minimum.

not coincidentally both skinner and jason williams have played exactly 10 years. the 2008-2009 season veterans minimum maxes out at 10 years 1.2 million a year.

So if we did not sign players who played 10 years we would have pay less money. and we would probably get a player who is not as capable. this way we can exceed the cap as much as possible, to get more value, while having the league pay for some of the salary.

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#11

the league plays the difference between the minimum of a 2 year or 10 year vet.

since it goes up from 2 years on… the league pays the most amount of the salary for a 10 year vet, ..

if they had signed say a 5 year vet, it’d be the difference between a 2 year and 5 year which isnt as much.