There were quite a few people around here who wanted the Clips to sign Adam Morrison back in July after his hot summer league performance. Hearts swelled as my colleague LJ Hann brashly sub-titled his Adam Morrison love letter, "Pay the Man". (That thread garnered 400 comments... a remarkable feat in the middle of the NBA winter.)
Of course "AmMo" was inarguably on fire in July, as he led the Clippers in scoring with 20 points a game, shooting 55% from the field and a torrid 62% from the 3 point line. Of course, it was July, which isn't a month where professional basketball matters much. The subsequent lack of interest in Morrison is a perfect illustration of how little NBA teams value summer league
The Clips didn't pay the man and neither did anyone else. Finally, the Portland Trail Blazers announced yesterday that they were signing Morrison... but only to a non-guaranteed contract. He's basically a training camp invitee. Of course, to some people around here, they hear the Blazers name and they see red, because the Portland team is being managed by former Clipper Senior VP, Neil Olshey. You remember Olshey. Sure you do.
Instead the Clippers signed a lot of other guys in late July, including Grant Hill, Willie Green, and most recently, Morrison's former LA Laker teammate, Matt Barnes. Are any of these guys the offensive player that Morrison is? Probably not, but they can all do things that Morrison has never been able to do (run the floor, pass the ball, play defense).
Now LJ's so upset that he bitterly texted me from school this morning (between, no doubt, Calculus, a spitball fight, and a pep rally), stating that his hatred for Barnes is so great that he'd rather "have an empty chair". Of course how our young friend feels about Barnes is unimportant. What's important is how Chris Paul feels about him, which is apparently pretty darn good.
My guess is Adam Morrison won't make the Blazer's final roster. They are a team desperate for revival, have a hot young rookie point guard (Damian Lillard was the real star of summer league) and, though they lost third year guard Eliot Williams to an Achilles injury last week, probably won't keep a 27-year old one-dimensional player on a young roster. But that's just a guess. Feel free to disagree.