Hypothetical Scenario Opinions

by peterghost on Jan 17, 2012 4:39 PM PST

So I'm sure we can all agree that Blake Griffin's awesomeness is the reason for the recent turnabout in this franchise. Well I wanna take everyone back to the 2009-2010 season for a completely hypothetical, might not have even happened scenario just for laughs and giggles and good ol' blog speculation.

So the 09-10 season was supposed to be the original rookie year for Blake Griffin but we all know that he got injured and was delayed till the following season. In that season, we still had Mike Dunleavy as a coach, Marcus Camby, Chris Kaman, and DeAndre Jordan were our front court, Baron Davis and Eric Gordon was our back court, and SF kept rotating between Al Thornton, Rasaul Butler, and occasionally Ricky Davis. And our bench had the great Brian Skinner, Mardy Collins, Craig Smith, Sebastion Telfair, Steve Novak. Midway through the season after the infamous waterpipe game at Memphis, the whole team took a new identity by trading away Camby, Telfair, and Thornton for Drew Gooden, Travis Outlaw, and Steve Blake, none of them staying after the season. And we also fired Dunleavy and had Kim Hughes coach for a bit. And the offseason after was the great Lebron sweepstakes that saw the Clippers not really try and losing out on LBJ and grabbing Ryan Gomes/Foye/Cookie instead.

So now after that history lesson, what if Blake Griffin never got injured in pre-season and instead had his fantastic rookie year during that season. How different would our team be today. Now remember, this is all hypothetical and based on assumptions. But I'm assuming with Griffin, our team would've done a lot better than we actually did. Dunleavy was able to coach that ragtag group close to .500 until the Memphis game. I'm guessing with Griffin, our record might have been a lot better. And because our record wasn't so bad, the team would not have given up and traded away Camby, Thornton, and Telfair for rentals. And more importantly, I don't think Dunleavy would have been fired had the team was actually decent that year.

And to take it one step further, Griffin's star power in his rookie year was able to convince Chris Paul to come play with us, what if we were able to convince Lebron James out of going to Miami with his friends to come play for the Clippers that offseason. Our biggest hole was SF and every other position was pretty filled up and ready to roll.

Would you guys have taken this team of

C - Kaman

PF - Blake

SF - LBJ

SG - EJ

PG - Baron Davis

Bench - DJ, Camby, Rhino, Thornton, Telfair

And Coach Mike Dunleavy

Over what we have today?

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Comments

Of course.

by ReignMan on Jan 17, 2012 5:27 PM PST reply actions

No doubt

But LeBron was never coming here.

by NewCavsfan on Jan 17, 2012 5:41 PM PST reply actions

The water-pipe game...

was easily the saddest moment in all my years as a Clipper fan. The team was about to claw their way back to .500, choked in bizarre fashion after that once-in-a-lifetime water main burst, THEN we found out after the game that Griffin would be out for the rest of the year. The team was never the same.

Clippers // Chargers // Rays // Boise State
"The Lakers do win games. But things can change." - Blake Griffin

by 82-0 on Jan 17, 2012 5:46 PM PST reply actions

that ranks with livingston's injury and brand leaving

by LJ Hann on Jan 17, 2012 9:45 PM PST up reply actions

I'd maybe throw in Ewing on Raja to that list as well. . .

by cassellmania on Jan 18, 2012 10:19 AM PST up reply actions

Yea

I take the above roster above. But you have to take off Telfair and Thornton who both would still be traded at the deadline so the Clippers could have max cap space. The Camby/Outlaw/Blake trade was a wash cap wise. The only difference is the Clippers could have used his bird rights to retain him. Not sure what his cap hold would be so he might have to be renounced.

Still the starting lineup of EJ, Baron, Kaman, Blake and LBJ is ridiculous.

Also if this happened maybe DJ never gets as much PT last year thus he would garner a lot less free agent attention and be resigned for less than his 4 year 40+ million deal.

Clips would also still have draft picks, the 2011 one (which would be at worst a mid 1st rounder), the Minnesota pick. Maybe they lose a draft pick to get the Cavs to agree to a sign and trade. Still would have more trade assets than the Clips do now.

And obviously MDSr would still be here if they signed LBJ. Anyone who won the LBJ sweepstakes would be Executive of the Year.

Help us Altered Beast you're our only hope.

by ClipperChuck on Jan 17, 2012 9:08 PM PST reply actions

forgot about the capspace thing with Thornton and Telfair

thought we always had that going for us.

But still, seeing how one year of Blake was able to convince CP3 and get looks from Dwight, who knew what we could’ve got in 2010 free agency with the plethora of superstars.

by peterghost on Jan 17, 2012 9:27 PM PST up reply actions

if Blake was never injured

…would he have even started?

MDsr main idea on rookies was to bring them along slowly….EJ came off the bench for Mobley half the season of his rookie year.

make makes u think Camby+Kaman wouldn’t have been the starting front court until Jan/Feb

…then again. would have gone with a 3 PF lineup like how MDsr played with the idea of Kaman-Zbo-Camby?…a Kaman-Camby-Blake seems like it might have worked out really well

Ralph, "Last year so often with Blake Griffin you would see these things coming, with Paul, he's so crafty, all of a sudden boom there it is."

by KidJustin on Jan 18, 2012 1:30 AM PST reply actions

One point I made during the CP3 trade

is that if LBJ signed here in 2010, he wouldn’t really have used any of the assets used in the CP3 trade (I guess Aminu, but he didn’t seem like a major piece). So from the original post, technically the lineup could be CP3, LBJ, Blake, DJ. Don’t know if we would’ve been under the cap still to acquire Billups, and definitely wouldn’t have signed Foye, but definitely could squeeze someone in there. Heck, Rip or Caron might’ve come to play with that lineup.

by osamu on Jan 20, 2012 1:51 AM PST reply actions