NBA Ticket to the Playoffs

Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images

The LA Clippers have found an interesting way to recover from the Elton Brand defection to Philly. With the Denver Nuggets looking to purge salary from their team, the Nuggets agreed to send Marcus Camby to the LA Clippers for the rights to switch 2nd round picks. That's it.

Simply, the Nuggets are admitting that their current core is not going to get it done in the West, so they are retooling and cutting back costs. They have been over the NBA luxury tax for some time and have grown tired of 1st round flame outs for such an expensive roster. Kenyon Martin's max salary is the major culprit, as Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson are at least earning their money. Nene Hilario also has a 10+ million per year contract.

You will probably just see the Nuggets now play much smaller, with Carmelo Anthony assuming the power forward slot. Nene should provide more offense, especially interior scoring. He has the bulk to finish at high percentages, but lacks Camby's athleticism and length for blocks. So a porous defense may be even worse in 2008. With Allen Iverson's monster contract off the books, they can either resign him to a more reasonable amount or use that cap space after the 2008-09 season to completely reform their team.

This deal is very similar to last year's trade of Jason Richardson from Golden State traded to the Charlotte Bobcats for nothing. The Warriors knew they had a lot of young, guard talent they were going to need to sign and the Bobcats like the Clippers had cap space to offer.

Camby with the Clippers should provide an interesting combination with Chris Kaman. Both can block shots, but Camby being a league leader type will likely have the lion's share of chances at the rim now. This should allow Kaman to focus his energy on his post scoring, and overall the defense will be aided by Camby's 3+ blocks per game. Camby at 8 million per year is a steal for his all around production.

This is assuming he stays healthy. Camby has been fortunate the last few years to show up for 70 and 79 games respectively after being very brittle early on in his career (~50 games per year in the 90's).

The same problem can be said about Nene, who has been even more injury prone. The Nuggets were probably unwise to lock up both him and Kenyon Martin for long contracts, but they will have to ride them out and hope both players can stay on the court.

Posted by Ken Walker at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AP Photo/Tom Mihalek

The LA Clippers internal plans for an Elton Brand / Baron Davis combo have been dashed. Brand has spurned the Clippers after talks "fell through", and he began to look at other offers from Golden State and Philadelphia. The 76ers initially did not have the room to sign Brand, but after a contract dump trade to Minnesota (Calvin Booth and Rodney Carney) the 76ers had room to offer Brand a near 80 million dollar deal.

Brand leaves what seemed to be a rejuvenated Clipper squad with the addition of a real PG in Baron Davis. Now he leaves the Clippers with a lot of question marks and a lot of cap space to spend on someone else. They just lost Corey Maggette a few days ago to Golden State, so maybe the Clips will wait to use their cap space later or throw some money at restricted free agents like Andre Iguodala or Emeka Okafor?

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, the addition of Brand moves this team to a top 5 team in the East with the potential to compete for the conference title in a few years. Whereas in the unforgiving Western Conference, the Clippers would have been lucky to make the playoffs with Brand. Remember, the 76ers had the Pistons down 2-1, including winning the 1st game of the series in Detroit. The series then was dominated by Detroit because of Philly's lack of a threat in the half court game (notably Andre Iguodala's 33% from the floor with 2 / 14 from three point land). Adding Brand solves the post scoring woes and along with Dalembert, the two should provide a solid defense at the basket.

The one thing the 76ers are really lacking is an outside shooter. Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller are not proficient in three point shooting. Kyle Korver was traded in the middle of last season to create some cap room, and they could really use him now. Quality shooters like Ben Gordon are on the market but he exceeds the dollar amount that the 76ers can go over with a maxed out Brand signed.

One idea is to let Andre Iguodala walk. Sure he is young and athletic, but he is demanding superstar, max contract type money after performing poorly as the top offensive option in the Eastern Conference NBA Playoffs against Detroit. Ultimately Iguodala is better as a 2nd option with someone setting him up for athletic plays at the hoop. Teams do not respect his jump shot and he does not shoot 3's. So why not let him walk to see if you might find a more complete superstar next summer or in the talent rich 2010 summer. If they were to commit to Iguodala they might regret not having that flexibility when Wade, Lebron, Bosh, Melo, etc are available.

As currently constructed, the boost with Brand should push the 76ers back into the top half of the Eastern Conference. They are finally on the upswing after the mediocrity that followed their 2001 NBA Finals run, and the Allen Iverson trade helped open up the room for all of this to happen.

Posted by Ken Walker at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

AFP/Getty Images/File/Jed Jacobsohn

It did not take long for Baron Davis to bolt the Golden State Warriors. It seemed like just yesterday watching him carve up the 67 win Dallas Mavericks in 07.

Davis followed that playoff series with one of his most productive and healthiest years in the NBA. With 21.8 pounds 4.7 rebounds 7.6 assists and 2.3 steals, Davis put up numbers all around the board. He will be taking his act to the Los Angeles Clippers.

A bold move by Clippers owner Donald Sterling, but I think now you see why Brand opted out. Corey Maggette is likely gone, so with Brand resigning at a pay cut, the Clippers could afford a big splash at point guard with Baron Davis. Beno Udrih was actually a target of Mike Dunleavy's, but was snatched back up quickly by Sacramento.

The NBA Western Conference is stacked, but look for the Clippers to fight for one of the 6-8 playoff spots with this addition (assuming Brand / Davis stay healthy). The good part of their porous 2007-08 is that players like Chris Kaman and Al Thornton got a chance to log major minutes and ball opportunities, preparing them for this moment.

The LA Clippers also drafted Indiana Guard Eric Gordon to provide a scoring spark at the 2 spot, taking over for Cuttino Mobley in what has long been a problem for the Clippers. With the addition of Gordon and Davis, there may not be enough balls to go around Gordon / Thornton / Kaman may suffer in production.

Baron Davis' LA Clippers deal is 5 years 65 million dollars. Considering how close of a max-type player Davis is, this is a steal of a deal assuming he can stay healthy until he is 34 (a big if). At least for the short term, the LA Clippers are back on the board after having a few off years following their Western Conference Semifinals year.

Posted by Ken Walker at 3:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)