Give Me The Rock

How does a team ruin its season before it starts? One of the best ways is to have your all-star rupture his Achilles during the off season. That’ll do. We’ve broken down the Brand injury and what he can expect this season, but what about the rest of the team? For starters, they’re banged up too. ClipperSteve of Clips Nation discusses the various injuries affecting the Clippers entering training camp. If everyone can remain healthy, here is the Clips starting lineup come November:

Starters:
PG: Sam Cassell (150, 160)
SG: Cuttino Mobley (81, 78)
SF: Corey Maggette (78, 115)
PF: Tim Thomas (127, 117)
C: Chris Kaman (120, 143)

Bench:
Ruben Patterson (79, 106)
Brevin Knight (104, 119)
Al Thornton (R)
Quinton Ross (228, 184)
Aaron Williams (346, 333)
Paul Davis (397, 375)
Yaroslav Korolev (445, 433)
Dan Dickau (366, 356)
Josh Powell (363, 378)

In street clothes:
Elton Brand (10, 10)
Shaun Livingston (119, 140)

Brand, as you’ll see him to start the year

Thanks to both Clips Nation and ClipperBlog for their amazing coherent and persuasive writing about the Clippers. They almost made me want to become a fan.

PG
Sam Cassell will be 38 this November and is closely following Gary Payton down the aging point guard career path. Last stop? A 10-day contract with Denver in 2009. He missed 24 games last year with some foot, back, and groin problems, which sounds more like my father’s last doctors visit than a professional athlete. On the floor, Cassell’s assists per game dropped to 4.7 last season, his lowest rate since 1996. His points, threes, field goal percentage, and steals were also down (as were his minutes). With the Clips adding both Brevin Knight, and more recently, Dan Dickau this off season, this might be the end of the road for Cassell. He’s a clear “avoid” come draft day.

SG
If you need a good shooting guard in the 10th round of your draft, then draft Cuttino Mobley. If not, then don’t. Why do people who write about fantasy sports always have to make things so complicated?

SF
Back in 2004, Corey Maggette’s game was similar to that of Luol Deng’s. He was a good scorer who didn’t take a lot of threes but rebounded well and had above average percentages. Like Deng, all that goodness added up to a top 50 fantasy player at the time. But then Maggette got hurt, missed a lot of the 2005-06 season, and started slowly coming off the bench last season. But here’s something to be excited about: looking at his March and April, Maggette averaged 20/6/4, which is almost right in line with his 2004 numbers. Kevin Arnovitz of ClipperBlog discusses the hows and whys of Maggette turning his season around.

Is Maggette back? It’ll be out secret, but yes. He could be a top fifty player this season with or without Brand in the lineup.

Corey Maggette: Coming to a rim near you

PF
If Elton Brand is a nice refreshing Dr. Pepper, then Tim Thomas is a Mr. Pibb. Both supposedly do the same thing, but one goes down smooth and the other tastes like a carbonated barbershop lollipop… or something like that. Moving on, let’s break down the numbers and throw out a rock solid prediction. In his starts last season, Thomas averaged a 12.4/6.3/2.4 with 1.8 threes a game. Solidly solid, for sure, especially for a backup power forward. Plugging that line into the player rater and Thomas would be a 8th round pick.

Unfortunately, Thomas’ hold on the starting spot is tenuous. Al Thornton is ready to play and if Thomas falters even briefly, Thornton will be given a shot at the starting spot. In fact, Thornton is going about 40 spots before Thomas in the GMTR mock draft round-up, which tells you all you need to know about how people feel about Tim Thomas.

Oh yeah, then there’s the fact that Brand will likely be back this year, most likely in February. Can you wait that long for relief?

C:
With Brand’s injury, Chris Kaman’s stock takes a white man size jump. He goes from a decent back-up center, a Zaza if you will, to a Zaza teetering on C1 worthiness. Kaman is going to be pretty much all there is down in the post for the Clips until Brand returns. He’s dealing with a sore lower back right now which has kept him out of some pre-season action, but if he can stay healthy this season (no guarantee), expect him to bounce back to at least his 2005-06 level – 12 and 10 with a block and a half. I’d draft that before Eddy Curry and maybe Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Bench
The Brand injury permeates the entire Clippers team. While Tim Thomas will likely start at the 4 for now, Al Thornton comes NBA-ready and could see a great deal of time on this non-playoff team. Josh Powell had a great summer and could be one of the first guys off the bench. Believe it when you see it. GMTR favorite and fellow wife-beater Rubin Patterson can fill in at the 3 or 4 or 5, although his year will be nowhere as good as his 2006-07. Thornton aside, the guy with the most breakout potential on this team is… Brevin Knight? Yes, I do have a mild form of insanity, but Sam Cassell is old and won’t have much to play for on this team. I’d be more excited about Knight if he could actually stay healthy. And if both Cassell and Knight go down, there’s always Danny “D is definitely not for defense” Dickau. Finally. Shaun Livingston is practicing again and should be back on the court by mid-year. But I’m just talking about him as an excuse to show this picture again.

GMTR Draft Prediction
Corey Maggette: 7th Round
Chris Kaman: 10th
Elton Brand: 10+ (depending on your level of patience)
Cuttino Mobley: 10/11
Al Thornton: 11+
Tim Thomas: 11+
Brevin Knight: 12+
Sam Cassell: Don’t draft

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Email your favorite Dallas Maverick player.

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Write to your favorite Nuggets Dancer, c/o Pepsi Center, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver, CO 80204

IF YOU LIKE JUMPING OFF TRAMPOLINES
Join the Detroit Pistons’ Flight Crew.

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Play in NBA 3ON3 (sponsored by the Raptors)

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Sign-up for Get Fit with the Golden State Warriors.

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Play with Tyrus Thomas.

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Play softball with Tracy McGrady.

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Audition to sing the national anthem at a Cavaliers game.

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Go to a summer camp hosted by Sean May, Dell Curry, Brevin Knight, or the Carroll Brothers.

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Go to the Sonics Basketball Summer Camp.

IF YOU’RE OVER THE AGE OF 35 AND HAVE ACCESS TO $17,500.
Go to the Michael Jordan Flight School.

IF YOU’RE A PUPPETEER, VENTRILOQUIST, OR HAVE ANOTHER SKILL THAT PEOPLE PRETEND TO FIND ENTERTAINING:
Become an in-game entertainer for the Hawks or Bobcats.

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Make a fan video.

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Enter the “Are you Hibachi enough?” contest.

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Audition to become an NBA dancer, preferably for the Lakers, Mavs, Heat, Spurs, or Rockets

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Get a lesson from the Knicks Dance Team.

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Become the Director of Player Personnel for the Houston Rockets.

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Adjust your cheat sheets accordingly. ClipperBlog has a thorough rundown of the injury and Brand’s likely recovery process. To summarize, after likely having surgery, Brand will spend 6 to 12 weeks in a walking boot or cast. After that, he can expect to return to full strength after 4 to 6 months of rehab. According to ClipperBlog, that would put Brand’s likely return sometime in February, although it could take him longer than that to fully recover, if that is even possible. Players who have suffered the same injury include Dominique Wilkins (who missed half a season but came back with no problems), Voshon Lenard (who missed an entire season), and Isiah Thomas (who retired).

Fantasy Take: It’s time to forget about Brand, unless you’re prepared to wait it out until February, which is going to feel like an eternity during the fantasy season. According to the Clippers depth chart, Tim Thomas will potentially take over the starting PF spot for Brand. Or maybe the Clips throw out Al Thornton and see what he can do as a power forward. I’d be much more interested in the latter. The alternatives in free agency aren’t all that pretty… Anderson Varejao (restricted), Chris Webber, P.J. Brown, Marc Jackson, Andray Blatche (restricted). There’s still plenty of time to see how the Clippers handle this situation.

or: Don’t nobody want to see me and LaMarcus together, but it don’t matter, no, cause I got Garbajosa

Add: LaMarcus Aldridge (Por - SF,PF,C)
Drop: Anderson Varejao (Cle - SF,PF,C)

I’m not exactly sure what the impetus here was, but I guess you could say that LaMarcus is on his way up while Anderson is just sort of frustratingly inconsistent, and not living up to the double-double machine he could be. I’ve been eying (or eyeing - which Firefox actually says is wrong) Aldridge for a while and actually picked him up once or twice. He rewarded me with worst 3 game stretches of the season. I recently picked up Jorge Garbajosa as my SFPFC, and he was kind enough to pull a LaMarcus on me and pull out his worst 3 game stretch in 2 months. Not sure how you get 3 points and 4 rebounds in 33 minutes of basically garbage time against the “T-Mac is The Team” Rockets. He is 6-9, right?

Jorge Garbajosa drives for 2 of his 3 points against the Rockets
REUTERS/Tim Johnson

Add: Luther Head (Hou - PG,SG)
Drop: Shaun Livingston (INJ) (LAC - PG)

I’m taking the easy way out on this one. Obviously you want to be dropping Shaun Livingston. And also not drafting him next season. Or ever. Never ever. Never. Ever.

I won’t say the response has been overwhelming, but then it’s only been a week, and I didn’t exactly light it up with my first mailbag… but I did get some more emails with at least one question that I could answer. So, here you go!

I’m in need of a big man for a couple of my fantasy teams (I’m guessing you know what that’s like). Should I take a risk on Chris Kaman, Brad Miller, or Zydrunas Ilgauskas? Is there someone else that I should be on the lookout for?

Yeah, I’m always looking for a someone who’s large on size (you set em up, I’ll knock em down). I’d probably go with Kaman first, then Miller, and then Ilgauskas. Kaman’s got the most UPside, if you will. Miller is a good 2nd choice, since he’s got the assists to give you at center, but I don’t even know if he’s blocked a shot this year. No, I take it back, he’s blocked 1 shot. Good work, Brad.

I think Ilgauskas has not so much jumped the shark, but more like been eaten by the shark. He can still shake his groove thang every once in a while, but even with consistent minutes, he’s been the model of inconsistency. Of course, he’s the only one who’s been playing enough games to actually be able to gather that data… so maybe he’s the best choice.

No, I’m sticking with Kaman. He’s ugly, but looks don’t count when you’re sitting there refreshing your team’s stats page on Yahoo. And evidently they don’t count when you’re trying out for the Clippers “Spirit” team either.

Okay, guys (and gals), send me some more questions! If I get enough action, I’m willing to do this more than once a week. I mean, I’ll try to come up with something interesting more than once a week anyway, but it’s much easier when people are filling my box.

Official from CBS Sportline
You can leave a comment at SonicsCentral

KJR radio in Seattle is reporting that the Sonics have traded Vladimir Radmanovic to the LA Clippers for backup power forward Chris Wilcox, who was chosen 8th overall in the 2002 draft.

I’m not really seeing how anyone will be affected by this fantasy-wise. Radman will do his thing, but in a Clippers uni, and Wilcox will do his thing (whatever that may be) in the city of rain. All fine and dandy. No winners, no losers. Everyone is happy. Clippers make the playoffs, Seattle doesn’t. If anything, maybe Seattle will give more PT to Wilcox since they seem to like the thug-style power forwards. And maybe Vlad will stop faking the funk on nasty dunks. Probably not the latter. Dude saved my team once a few seasons ago. Once they do that, they never come back.

Wizards:

• Some CBS Sportsline fantasy stuff

So now he’ll be out for 6 more weeks. Which comes out to half of the remaining season. But you can’t just drop someone who was averaging 21 pts, 5 rebs and a 3 a game… especially when he makes almost 8 out of the 9 free throws he shoots each game (and the Writers League counts Free Throws Taken and Made as scoring categories!)

And then there’s the possibility that he’ll be out for the rest of the season…

I am doing a pretty good job of hanging on without him, though… so, if you’re like me and you can scrape together 12 (!) of the 15 categories in your matchups despite having Viktor Khryapa and Rasho Nesterovic on your team, it’s probably safe to keep Maggette around to see if he’s going to come back. If he doesn’t, you still have 6 weeks to try to find a suitable replacement and make a run at the playoffs.

If your team is struggling without Mr. Free Throw, the best strategy is to trade him to someone higher up in the rankings who can afford to take on some dead weight. Maggette is still too valuable to swap for someone buried in the free agent heap.

In Other News

I’ve try to clear out some of my dead weight. Khryapa and Nesterovic are out, and Sebastian Telfair and Dikembe Mutombo are in.

Let’s hope for more of this, and less Maggette in street clothes.

Bonus query: How did Lamar Odom, Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Quentin Richardson, and Andre Miller not win some games? Follow-up: How come they didn’t realize that was a championship-caliber startiny lineup and take whatever money was necessary to keep that team together??