There have been some Clipper angles on ESPN.com stories the last few days, in case you missed them.
- John Hollinger gives us his All-Star team votes (sorry, Insider required - it was a free preview yesterday). Not surprisingly (given that PER views Kaman less glowingly than raw stats or several other combined metrics like NBA Efficiency or WP48), Chris Kaman gets barely a mention. Chris' tendency to turn the ball over, not offset by lots and lots of shots, puts him into what I would consider a blind spot for PER. Interestingly, in what has always been a forward heavy conference, Hollinger is advocating that the West's two 'wild card' spots go to guards this season. Hard to argue. Of course, the bottom line is that you'd have about 25 all stars in the Western Conference before you filled a 12 man East squad.
- On the Kaman subject, Empty the Bench puts him high on their list of Top 10 Players who are relative unknowns in the NBA. I agree with the placement, though not with their assessment of his game: "he's not the most attractive man in the world and ... his game isn't much prettier." I understand the compulsion to take a swipe at Chris' appearance, but his game is absolutely gorgeous. His game has long been much prettier than his results. Hat tip to TrueHoop.
- And speaking of TrueHoop, Henry brings us some idle Tracy McGrady trade speculation, including this deal that would work on the TradeMachine.
To the Clippers: Tracy McGrady, Luther Head, and Carl Landry for Corey Maggette, Cuttino Mobley, and Dan Dickau.
Um, I'd do that deal. Can't see why Houston would.
- David Thorpe keeps weekly tabs on NBA rookies. He's a pretty big fan of Al Thornton's potential, and Big Al had recently climbed up into the top 10, though he's since settled back down to 15. Considering that the top 10 includes three rookies who were not part of this draft (Moon, Scola and Navarro), the Clippers choice of Thornton with the 14th pick is looking solid, if not spectacular.
- Finally, the Clippers managed to avoid inclusion in the '5 biggest disappointments' list in today's Daily Dime. Of course, that just means that no one expected much from the team, so it's kind of it's own insult. Miami, Chicago and New York are such profound disappointments that it only leaves room for a couple others. I'm not sure you can call Minnesota a disappointment, but then again... I mean, we all knew they were likely to be the worst team in the league, but who knew they'd be this bad? At any rate, let's not take anything Jalen Rose says too seriously.
Did I ever tell you that the ClipperWidow wanted to name our daughter Jalen Rose? True story. She thought it sounded pretty. I, um, disagreed. ClipperZoe is so much nicer.