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Why do the Clippers need a completely new roster?

Besides shipping out Butler, Turiaf, Hollins and Bledsoe the roster is still pretty deep. You can argue we can not resign Paul with this roster, but the chemistry is still amazing if we made a few changes. The Spurs always do it, so why can't we? Here is how I would like to see the roster before the season starts, you can fill in where I do not have spots. I am not a close enough follower of other basketball player besides box scores and other basketball games nationally televised, so I can not accurately fill in FA spots.

PG: Paul/Billups or Bledsoe

SG: Green/Crawford

SF: Hill/Barnes

PF: Griffin/Odom

C: DJ/?

Besides signing the dotted line (which I firmly believe will resign), Chris Paul does not need any improvement in, besides touching up his three point shooting, but other than that he is perfect. He is the Point God after all.

I understand we will lose the majority of the bench defense losing Bledsoe, but when there is a possibility of him giving us assets from trading him to a team willing to have him as a starting PG on another team or the team letting go of Billups I don't see him staying. With Billups in his role, he would be an established distributor and occasional three point shooter when needed to do so. Billups would lead the second unit and increase the offensive output of the other bench players. I don't know what would happen if both Bled and Billups were let go.

I really wouldn't mind seeing Green come back as the starting SG, we won fifty six games with him mainly as the starting SG and it infuriated me when he did not get the nod to start even though Chauncey was back from injury. Green would gladly take the role he played through the whole season because he is such an understanding and humble player, he is honestly my favorite player. I do hope he is able to knock down threes a bit more often than this season next year. I give the nod for Willie over Chauncey because he is more nimble than him and can play up tempo ball still, he already knows how to play with the starting unit, and Billups in the second unit would make more sense.

If DJ stays, he needs to address the flaws he had the whole season, (yes the offense wasn't run through him) the looks he did receive he almost always looked unsure and never attacked. He has to work on his offensive game and finish the looks he gets, so that defenses can't double Griffin or slack of Jordan. FREE THROWS! He must improve to at least a sixty percent free throw shooter, I cringe every time he is sent to the line. I don't understand why Bob Thate can't work with DJ as well. Jordan is improving, but it is too slow for anyone's benefit. His time to step up is this off season and I believe he can do it.


Griffin was spectacular this season, he was criticized for not having a jumper and not being able to make free throws. He has certainly hit one of them, being free throws. According to his stats recorded by Basketball Reference, Griffin improved his FT% from .521 to .660. That is a fourteen percent increase, but his FT shooting did not solidify until the second half of the season so the total percentage isn't reflective of how good of a free throw shooter he really is. He made 21 of 26 free throws in the playoffs this season, yes it is a limited sample, but I believe he will be a seventy percent FT shooter for seasons to come. His mid-range jumper is something I would love for him to work on this off season, as of now his jumper is not consistent I am sure he will be working on it in the summer. I also hope he realizes how much of a monster he really is, he too defers from attacking the basket at times and it's a bummer, he used to be relentless with highlight plays. With the defenses always focusing on him, it opens things up for DJ and the rest of the team. Blake Griffin is an All-Star as of now, but imagine if he is able to sufficiently hit these points in the off season. Also he can work on the three point shot, you never know.

Everyone bashes on the Odom signing, YES he has been disappointing for most of you, but if Odom signs for reasonable price he would be an amazing pickup. He is also very, very close to getting back into shape and the summer gives him the opportunity to focus solely on his conditioning. We don't need him to do spectacular feats as a backup PF and C in our small lineups, we just need him to not look always tired and running with the rest of the team. Odom's jumper is slowly coming back and his shots are slowly starting to fall, like Jordan, we need him to just make the shots he does receive. I do have faith in Odom if we do resign him.

Jamal Crawford, I know we have him for a remaining three years so there is not much to worry about with Crawford. I know everyone everyone has there FA SG's they are pushing for, but I'm pushing for team chemistry and I'll stick with Crawford for the established bench scoring he provides. Side note, imagine if VDN had put Crawford instead of Billups when we were down five in that last game against Memphis.

Grant Hill showed us he could still hang and if he doesn't retire he could do us a great service and he would recieve a more greater role which he can fill easily if we trade Butler away. Hill is still signed for a year if he decides to stay.

Hollins and Turiaf must go in my opinion, maybe Hollins can stay if he signs for the same amount if there is no backup C better we can pick up. What we really need in a backup center is what Reggie and Martin gave us last year, grit and grind defense. If we had those two players how they are playing this year, we probably would have exited the second round in the 2012 playoffs. They are actually scoring this year and I am glad they are thriving in their new teams. If we can find a defensive or even an established offensive backup big it would improve our team by multitudes, for the last two years our bench scoring for our bigs was downright embarrassing, if we could get even a consistent fourteen points from the backup frontcourt, we would have won a few of those close games we lost this year.

Matt Barnes must be resigned, he is the second priority after CP to resign. Matt Barnes was phenomenal this year and behind Paul, he is my team MVP. He is so crucial to our bench and towards the end of the year he became the main SF just as Crawford is. Matt tallied his career high in PPG this season, because of the way he fits in our system. I would be surprised if the FO does not pick him back up, he himself said the Clippers are a team he would love to come back to in his exit interview with Madelyn Burke. LINK:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL3ZQBuDpT8&list=UURFhhQWfw7TigF_RHvai5VA&index=3

I really believe we do not to explode our team, because we only need changes in the main two players of DJ and Griffin, the conditioning of Odom, and upgrades over Turiaf and Hollins. I know some of you are strongly pushing the Kevin Garnett for DJ/DJ+Bledsoe/DJ+pick, but what happens when some other team transforms DJ to an actual offensive force and KG retires? We'd end up losing in the long run. There are also people who vouch for Afflalo+Harkless for Bledsoe+Butler, it sounds awesome on paper but Afflalo would take up all of Crawford's minutes, so maybe tension would surface with this trade.

These are my opinions, and yes there are a lot of what if's, but I just wanted to put mines out as well.

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