Jayne Kamin – Oncea USA TODAY Sports
It’s September and its cricket around the Los Angeles Clipper camp. Players around the NBA are still working on their golf games, six packs abs, and setting their fantasy football rosters, but there’s an uncomfortable silence in Clipper Nation. One could speculate that former Clipper, Lamar Odom‘s, drama sank the spirits of the organization and its fans. But the troubled forward has checked himself back into rehab, again, leaving him in a better place now than he has been in months – geographically at least.
No, the overcast sky above Staple Center is due to an anti-climatic late summer signing period. The Clippers started the offseason bringing in several players that will give the bench a much needed Hollywood makeover. As exciting as it was to see the organization finally participate in basketball operations, the starting lineup resembles the sequel of a movie most waited to catch on cable.
We still don’t know if forward Blake Griffin added a shot to his humble arsenal, or if center DeAndre Jordan learn to play over the summer. Both men seemed committed to developing their games, but hard work is the fragrance that results in talent smelling like roses; it can’t create it.
Point guard, Chris Paul, didn’t have an offseason growth spurt or add inches to his vertical. He’s feeding his family, well, with his new deal, but his signing was a foregone conclusion that lacked drama or whispers of a Plan B. Paul is as great as he’s going to be. Expect nothing less than All-Star numbers from him for the seventh time this upcoming season, numbers that weren’t good enough in the playoffs for the fifth time.
The Clippers made so many moves early that the lack of a major acquisition went unnoticed, although the team that walked off their home-court Bahama bound and out of the playoffs was in need of major changes. It’s September, and we’re still asking have the Clippers gotten better, or have they simply gotten more complete?
ChristopherBrown is an NBA writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @whatrockschris. Like him on facebook.
