I hate it when this happens.
Art Thompson III of the OC Register reported Friday that the Clippers have made a preliminary offer to Brevin Knight. We were all having a lively discussion in a diary about Brevin posted by Citizen Korolev is my Hero, and I went as far as to say that any talk in the LA Times about Knight was probably just speculation. Meanwhile Thompson's got the whole story, with quotes from Knight's agent and everything. D'oh! In my defense, it was NOT listed under the Clippers heading on the OCR's web site.
C'mon people. I'm counting on you to inform me when I'm missing something like this. Maybe we were all a tad distracted by the gambling ref.
So anyway, here's the (three day old) story. The Clippers have made an offer, and Knight is apparently interested. According to his agent, Bill Strickland:
Knight would bring veteran leadership, superior ball control skills (see John R's comment in the Diaries about his assists and assist ratio numbers for his career) and excellent defense. He would not bring youth (he's 31), size (5'10") or a three point shot (16 makes and 15% for a 10 year career).
In the most recent ClipsNation poll, about a third of you think that Knight is the best choice for the Clippers at this point, which is higher than any other choice, if underwhelmingly so. 34% want to sign Knight, 26% think we should stick with the point guards we've got and hope for the best, and 17% think we should be looking for a trade.
As for the price, you can look at a couple of facts and surmise a range. Chucky Atkins signed for 2/$6.6M. Charlotte waived Knight when he was due to make $4.2M next season. The buyout on that final season was $1.5M. In other words, it was worth $2.7M to Charlotte just to be rid of him, which can't help his negotiating power. I'd guess he could be had for about the same as or possibly a little less than Atkins (and for the record, I'd MUCH rather have him than Chucky).