30 teams in 30 days - Clippers Tim Chisholm 9/22/2006 7:28:51 PM TSN.ca basketball columnist Tim Chisholm is looking at one NBA team each day for the month of September. Season Preview LA Clippers For the last month, I've been writing a lot about players who just seem to be missing that ability to elevate their teams to victory. Among the few players who seem to have that trait, however, is Clipper guard Sam Cassell. Love him or hate him, winning follows Cassell like a disease. At nearly every stop he's made, Cassell has been a key contributor to a winning team. In Houston, he won two titles, in Milwuakee his Bucks were always among the best teams in the East. In Minnesota he led the Timberwolves to their first ever playoff series win, and had he not gotten injured, he probably would've marched them into the Finals. Related Info NBA Preview Archive Page But last year he cemented his reputation as a winner. No player has come through the doors of Clipperdom and turned around their fortunes like Cassell did last year. It wasn't about whether or not this team had talent, because they always seem to have talent, yet even with a player like Elton Brand, who is clearly their best player, they couldn't turn this franchise into a playoff contender. Enter Cassell, and all of a sudden all those close losses are coming out as Clipper wins. All of a sudden the playoffs aren't the question, but how deep they can go. Cassell may not have won them each and every game, but his presence on this team did give them that nudge each and every night. The simple fact is it isn't that often that a guy comes along who knows how to win basketball games like Cassell. He's the kind of player who knows how to read a game, he knows when he's needed to score, he knows when he's needed as a playmaker, he's knows when he has to pick his teammate up or tear him down. He just knows. Sure he's brazenly cocky with ego to spare, but if he doesn't deserve to be, who does? Sure, he's not the most talented guy in the league, far from it. But he knows his game, he knows what he can and can't do and he doesn't try and convince himself otherwise. Re-signing him may be the most important move this team has made since moving to LA outside of re-signing Elton Brand. The bottom line is there is a lot to like about this team. They won last year, and they won well. Brand finally cemented his place among not only the best forwards in the league, but among the best players, period. He slimmed down his playing weight and beefed up his presence and he had a true career year, where he had his best statistical output in the same year as he won. That shouldn't be overlooked since it's easy to pump up your numbers when your team is tanking because it doesn't matter how selfish you are with the ball, you can feel free to run up your stats till the cows come home. But it's another thing altogether to elevate your game individually while at the same time elevating your team as well. For all that Cassell pushed this team over the edge, it was Brand that got them to that edge and kept them there. He's just now entering the prime of his career and looks ready to challenge the big boys like Duncan and Garnett for supremacy at their position. The only question mark for this team right now seems to revolve around the future of forward Corey Maggette. He is the team's second best scorer who was relegated to the bench last year after his inability to play defense wore out the patience of head coach Mike Dunleavy, who opted to go with Quentin Ross for the bulk of the season. Maggette made no bones about his dissatisfaction with this move early on, but seemed to quiet down as the winning continued. However, Maggette is still seen by most teams as readily available if the price is right and could be used to nab some help to bolster their good, but not amazing, bench. All in all, the Clippers have a lot to look forward to, especially since they have got Cassell locked up for two more years as they groom Shaun Livingston for the starters' spot. While the two have little in common in terms of their style of play, Livingston has one of the smartest players of his generation at his disposal as a mentor, which might be the best thing for young Livingston going forward. The rest of the team is young and primed for a long run together. PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP PG - Sam Cassell He may be getting up there in years, but his game is still effective and his pull-up jumper is still the best in the business. There are so many point guards in the league who, intentionally or otherwise, try to emulate his mix of offense and playmaking, and it's a testament to Cassell how few get that mix right. He could probably average far more points than he does if he chose to dominate the ball like the Stephon Marbury's and Mike James' of he world, but instead he has an innate ability to know when to use his offensive game and when not to for the sake of the team. You don't have to like him, but you probably should respect him. SG - Cuttino Mobley After being traded to the Magic in the Tracy McGrady deal alongside Steve Francis, it looked like Mobley's career had been seriously derailed. He was playing ten fewer minutes per game, and his role on the team bordered on irrelevant, despite maintaining his career scoring averages. A mid-season trade to Sacramento at least got him back onto a playoff-caliber team, but he still seemed to lack the presence he had in Houston. Last year in LA, though, he seemed to find a happy medium between the life he had and the life he was coming to know. He's not as integral to the Clippers' fortunes as he was to the Rockets, as his lowest per-game scoring average since his rookie year bears out, but he's also not as irrelevant as he was playing for a lottery-bound Magic team, either. Instead, Mobley is a contributor on a team with serious expectations going into the season, and he should be glad he's been given that chance, because the way his career was going he was lining up to be the next Steve Smtih/Derek Anderson-type of one-time contributor who takes on the veterans minimum just to stay afloat. He still young but he doesn't really have a unique game that commands respect. He shoots a poor percentage and he rarely contributes in any other area of the game, but in LA he's found a team that can use him and that should make him pretty happy now that he knows what his alternatives are. SF - Tim Thomas One of the larger factors to Thomas bolting from Phoenix to LA this summer was (aside from more money) presumably a guaranteed starting role. While this team neglected to play Corey Maggette as a starter because of his lack of defense, I can only imagine what they expect to get out of Thomas. He's in a special situation this year since he had been all but written off as a player until the Suns revived his career, and it's now up to Thomas to prove that he can be a consistent weapon for this Clipper team, a trait he has yet to demonstrate in his nine years in the league. He can be deadly when he wants to be, it's just up to coach Dunleavy to make him want to be on a consistent basis. PF - Elton Brand He finally broke through last year and proved Jerry Krause wrong in his assertion that he would never be the kind of player who could lead a team to success. While I have said it was Cassell who put them over the top, Brand was the guy who put them in that position. He elevated his game to an elite level, and the fun part now is to watch him dominate as he enters his prime. While all the Bulls have to show for drafting Elton Brand is P.J. Brown (after they traded Tyson Chandler to New Orleans), the Clippers now have legit title hopes for putting their faith into the 6'8" forward that could. C - Chris Kaman One of the league's quirkiest cult figures, Kaman came on strong last year as a legit force at the centre position, going nearly 12 and 10 on the year and providing a nice compliment to Brand in the post. Kaman is one of the forgotten men from the spectacular 2003 Draft since there was little-to-no fanfare about his selection and the fact that until this year few outside of LA really paid much attention to his game. Last year, he had his coming out party along with the Clippers franchise, and now it's time to see what he's going to do now that the whole league is watching. You'd think the Clips would want to lock this guy up to an extension before other teams get a chance to try and pry him away with the promise of millions. It's not to say he'd leave, but why take the chance at losing an ambidextrous 7'0" centre? http://tsn.ca/nba/news_story/?ID=178407&hubname=nba -- 你们认为海南高高在上，位於云端吗？他们真的就这麽高不可攀吗？ 他们的成绩的确是有目共睹的。以他们过去的战绩来看，我们和海南的确有天壤之别。 但是---- 我在睡前，都会想像着有一天...... 我每晚都在脑里描绘我们和海南大学附属高中参加IH的战况。 从那一年前起，每晚都如此！ --

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