The Clippers are back in the lottery after a one year walk in the
playoffs. Their net GM is:
Paul Osmond
With the 7th pick, the Clippers take:
Carlos Rogers, PF, 6-11. Tennessee State
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TEAM NEEDS
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The Clippers are pathetic. Any signs of hope are all free agents who
dont want to be Clippers, and are headed for teams that need 'missing
pieces' With them gone the Clippers will have a whole heap of room
under the salary cap, but no one wants to play for them, so it wont
help them. If they can't resign any of their free agents they need
help in all pretty much all positions and will be happy with whatever
they get. Of course the player wont want to play for the Clippers and
will probably end up in Europe. What this team needs in a new owner,
and new management. Somehow Baylor has managed to avoid being a
scapegoat through 9 coaches. Weiss was fired and if I was him, I
would enjoy the next two years salary - being paid NOT to coach the
Clippers sounds like an excellent position to be in. Who will coach
them next - John Lucas is the name mentioned most often - but since he
is no longer an option they are in real trouble.
HOW THIS YEARS TEAM LOOKED --------------------------
CENTER: Ok - Stanley Roberts is talented. We all agree on that,
otherwise he would have joined the NBA's other "MealMan" Mel Turpin in
some other basketball backwater. Shaq weighs 300 lbs or so. Roberts
MUST weigh 340 AT least. (Side note - only 2 players list their weight
at over 300 lbs in the NBA - Shaq and Muresan - yeah, right) Too bad.
If he ever lost the weight he would be a great center. Elmore Spenser
is ok as a backup - sometimes.
POWER FORWARD: Dominque Wilkens - what a player. Great scorer. Great
leaper. Great player. Enjoy him Clips?- say bye-bye now. Wilkens is
gone - to a contender. Tom Tolbert is another Jeff Turner of the
world, but at least he plays hard on a team that normally doesnt. John
Williams immense bulk plays here sometimes as well.
SMALL FORWARD: Vaught played OK in parts. Charles Outlaw is a keeper
if they can keep him - he is a restricted free agent, and there may be
some teams putting up some nice offer sheets. This is also the
position John "Hot Plate" Williams should play if he didn't weigh
'officially' as much as Stanley Roberts. He was listed at 295, but is
probably closer to 310. These boys are on the Shawn Bradley 'bulk up
by eating 12000 calories a day' diet - and they dont need to be.
SHOOTING GUARD: Harper was a great player for the Clips this year,
regaining form that he showed before his knee injuries. He's gone as
well. Harold Ellis is a keeper as well, as he can play 3 as well, but
is he keepable - he is a restricted free agent, and there are a bunch
of teams intesrested - some who will even be under the dreaded salary
cap (Dallas, Bulls, Celtics). Dehere showed some good signs that he
would be OK - but not much more than OK. He will get plenty of chance
to show how OK he is going to be with Harper gone.
POINT GUARD: Mark Jackson played well since being a Clipper. He's gone
to. San Antonio will be lusting after him. Gary Grant will stay
because without him they havent got any guards at all(and he isnt a
free agent just yet much to his disliking).
MY SELECTION: ------------- Carlos Rogers - this guy is a monster.
They talk about him being the Vin Baker of this draft. I agree.
OTHERS CONSIDERED:
Clifford Rozier, Brian Grant, Khalid Reeves I almost took Rozier, but
the Clippers needed a strong attitude as well and Rozier just doesn't
have it. Grant was close to, but I couldnt justify a #7 on him - maybe
a #12. Reeves would be ok - certainly they need guards here at the
Clippers, especially with the absence of Jackson and Harper next year.
WHO THEY'LL PROBABLY TAKE: --------------------------
Yinka Dare. This would be a typical Clippers pick. They have no one to
pass to him, and I doubt that even if they did he could score anyway.
By the time Dare is any good, he will be a free agent and be gone.
And playing for the Clippers, Dare might never be any good. They also
might take Jalen Rose, who couldnt stand playing for the Clippers. I
hear they are high on Lamond Muarry who can score, but can't do
anything else - he can pad his stats on the Clips before he goes
elsewhere. I don't think they will take anyone I considered because
that would be a smart move.
OTHER MOVES: ------------
They'd love to sign free agents and will have the money. They can't
get the coach they needed, so they are in trouble.If they cant get
someone good to coach you can forget it. With no hope or future they
are going to end up with some no names playing,like Antonie Carr and
Wayman Tisdale. This team is going nowhere til it is sold to someone
who knows how to run a sports franchise. Expect the Clippers to be
the Dallas of next year (Tarpley if he shows even HALF of what he did
b4 his problems is worth 10 wins alone). In previous years the
Clippers have had the talent but lost it due to bad management. Now
they dont even have the talent. Most players would rather be paid less
on a different team than play for the Clippers - other teams have a
chance of going someplace like the Kings, Bullets, Dallas and even
Minnesota/New Orleans.
The Clippers dont even have that.
The Hawks probably wont do as well as they did this year, so they will
probably want to keep the Hawks pick til next year - but they could
screw this up to.
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