Finally, someone covering the Clippers for the MSM has noticed that Yaroslav Korolev no longer figures into the team's plans.
In today's OC Register, Art Thompson III writes about Korolev's situation in an article entitled Clippers sever ties with Korolev. When I saw the headline, I figured there must have been some sort of official announcement from the team, but that is not the case. Thompson has simply done the roster math and drawn the logical conclusion (which was obvious from the day that Ruben Patterson was signed). One assumes that he has some verification from someone on the team as well.
Of course, the Clippers never officially made an offer to Korolev, so they don't have to officially rescind it. The only thing they officially did with him this summer was put him on the Summer League roster, and it's not like they're going to announce that they've cut ties with Daniel Santiago.
The implication here is that we had surmised correctly about Korolev on ClipsNation - the initial offer was put on hold as the Clippers tried to figure out how much they were spending on a point guard. Brevin Knight's deal was signed the same day that Brand ruptured his Achilles, and suddenly there was no room for a project at the forward.
Brand suffered a ruptured left Achilles' tendon in a workout Aug. 3, the same day that free-agent guard Brevin Knight agreed to a two-year deal with the Clippers.
A couple of other notes.
The article says the Clippers signed Josh Howard - that would be nice, but of course he means Josh Powell (both from the ACC, both named Josh, both played for the Mavs, but only one of them a budding all star).
The article says the Clippers have 13 guaranteed contracts. They have announced five signees to go with the 10 returnees, so that's 15. What we don't know is which contracts are guaranteed. We've long surmised that Diaz' offer is at least partly contingent on making the team. Is that also true of Powell? Or is this factoid just incorrect? Thornton's deal is by definition guaranteed as a first round pick, and it's certainly hard to imagine that Knight or Patterson would have signed without guarantees. At any rate it doesn't really change the roster math. The opening day roster is determined, with only the question of Guillermo Diaz or Jared Jordan left for training camp. This is one of those years when the guys invited to camp are hoping to impress someone in another front office.