what are you trying to achieve by having us read this? The guy who wrote this is an idiot. We know the past, but we also know the present, and we know that things have changed. This guy doesn't know Donald Sterling and his intentions and motives, maybe it was easy to spot things before about his penny-pinching ways, but I can't say the same about now.

I like how the article states that we overpaid Kaman, look at other centers in the league and their salaries, and then tell me we overpaid them. Also, Tim Thomas at the MLE wasn't a bad move at the time. It's easy to say guys like him and Mobley are overpaid years after, but at the time, that's what the market was for these guys (and Mobley helped us get to the second round and the signing was cited as a reason that Elgin got his GM of the Year award). It's like saying guys like Jason Kidd are overpaid, yeah he might be making more than he is worth now but at the time of his signing in order to get him it was worth it. When you sign a player to a contract, you give him those extra number of years and money down the line (even when they aren't going to contribute as much) as incentive to sign them now! In a couple of years they're going to say KG is overpaid, because his production is going to go down, yet his salary will remain high. But if you ask anyone was it worth it when KG inked that deal, they will say yes.

The article also fails to mention drafting Al Thornton and takes a cheap shot at the Livingston draft pick (who knew the kid was going to get injured, he was showing signs of greatness and everyone expected him to be good). Also I don't think Odom's gigantic salary was fair value. Andre Miller didn't fit with our team and style of play (can't wait till him and Brand suck again!). I do blame the Clippers for the Wilcox/Korolev picks, but so many other teams passed on better guys too.

Fans like this need to take a class or two on economics.

Lesson #1: Supply and Demand.
Often times there are a limited supply of certain type of players, therefore there is a high demand to acquire them. When demand increases, so does price. In order to compete, once must pay the price.
Example: The Mavs just signed DeSagana Diop for $30m. Last year, he averaged 3 points and 5 rebs, would you say he's worth as much as Posey who's expected to get about the same salary. Probably not. But, there is a low supply of big men, and therefore, high demand. Which leads to an inflated salary. Another example: check out the offer Golden State gave Turiaf.

Lesson #2: Budget Constraint (aka Maximum Salary Contracts)
With a maximum salary contract, teams can pay players only a certain amount. Everyone wants the Kobe's, Tim Duncan's, KG's who all have max salaries, but they can't get them because there is only a limited amount of them. Therefore, they end up giving similar deals to players who aren't as good. Meanwhile, the teams with these superstars are in better position to win titles because their teams end up spending the same amount on these guys (who give greater output for their input) as others do on mediocre/above average players.
Example: Magic gave Rashard Lewis the max last year. He is not a superstar, but he's getting superstar money. Because of the budget constraint, the Magic have to limit themselves to how much they can spend on others and are now in a position where they are spending as much as championship teams, but without championship caliber players.

*Players they Clippers let go in Free Agency*
- Manute Bol (traded their pick)
- Michael Cage (drafted, allowed to go after 4 years)
- Benoit Benajamin, allowed to go after 5 years at age 25 (still holds the teams blocked shot record)
- Danny Manning (see above)
- L.Wright after 3 years (drafted him)

THAT IS A BUnCH OF buLL CRAP.

all the draft reasoning is stupid because we don't know if one is "vastly better" prior to the draft. all the trading going on had reasoning.


"forcingly" re-signed brand and maggette? that just doesn't make sense.


some of it is true, but stretching it out to this extent is absurd. Yes, in the public eye, we are perceived negatively, but everything in the post isn't true. If it is, we can say something about EVERYTHING team(such as the BULLS trading the "vastly better" elton brand to the clippers for a "MUCH LESS TALENTED" tyson chanlder". or a "vastly better" kobe bryant for the "MUCH LESS TALENTED" Vlade divac.

i'm sorry, but that's a bunch of bull crap.

Lakers Draft Blunders just to name a few (Everyone makes mistakes)


1999
Devean George over Andrei Kirilenko

2000
Mark Madsen over Michael Redd

2002
Chris Jeffries over Carlos Boozer

2003
Brian Cook over Leandrinho Barbosa

Listing Carlos Boozer as a blunder could be applied to almost every team in the league. Very few teams got someone better than Boozer and everyone had a chance to pick him in the first round.

I agree, that's why I wrote everyone makes mistake. I was trying to make the point that you can't blame the Clippers for all of their draft mistakes because, like you said, you can say that about every team. My point was made in reference to the article that wrote that we should've picked Scottie Pippen. How were we supposed to know how good he was going to be. This is why I brought up the Lakers blunder to show that if you're going to blame the Clippers for their moves, the Lakers have done the same thing. In essence, you can't blame either of the teams.

@Lakersfan -

Their have been players that were good but the team felt was too over-priced. For instance, while we were trying to get FA Kobe Bryant, Q-rich wanted 5yrs at $65M. Instead, we let him walk because we traded for Kerry Kittles ($10M, expiriing). Kittles was plagued with injuries and missed most of the season (he had been healthy the previous season), but Qrich is currently overpaid deadweight on the Knicks roster. Kittles' cap space resulted in Cuttino Mobely.

I miss Eddie House, currently of the Championship Celtics. We had him, but got rid of him to free cap space to try to after Kobe. Oh well.

We extended Sam Cassell (also of the Celtics), but injuries to Brand and Livingston devasted the season. We bought him out to get bonus points with his agent (and Brand's agent) David Falk. Thanks a lot, Falk-head.

Mo Taylor demanded the max. Sterling died from laughter (quickly revived at a nearby hospital). Taylor got the max from Houston. No regrets on that one.

We traded for Andre Miller. Unfortunatley, the starting lineup and the bench were all free-agents at the end of the season. With no previous record of keeping their players, the team imploded from selfishness. That was a legitamte screw up by the organization, though Andre Miller was the perfect fit on paper.

We kept Brand and Maggette, though it took matching contracts to keep them. At least Sterling finally started spending, and as Brand proved, money talks and BS walks

We wanted to keep Lamar Odom. Sterling genuinely liked him. We offered a lowball offer because no other teams cap space. But then Anthony Carter's agent screwed up and forgot to excercise his player option. This gave the Heat the money to go after Brand and then Odom. Odom torched the organization so they wouldn't match. We let him go, citing character issues and other risks. Both sides probably petty in retrospect.

We drafted Olowakandi. I'm shaking my head. We drafted Olowakandi.

We wouldn't give Olowakandi the max. No one would. The T-Wolves gave him a short, fat contract. He was never seen again.

We extended Kaman. He regressed badly the first year of his new contract, but blew up the second year (with no Elton around). He should come back strong this season as well (knock on wood).

We drafted Shaun Livingston. Super, super talented. We've all seen the injury. To blame that on the team (even jokingly) is just cruel. We we'ren't going to draft Okafor. We had Brand/Kaman/Wilcox. In fact, Wilcox couldn't find minutes, which is why he was traded. Could use him now, but you know what they say about hindsight.

Piatkowski wanted to move on. We didn't like it, but we understood, and wished him well.

Brand and the steroids accusation: that was dumb at the time. But now I wonder...

We "almost" didn't trade for A. Miller? Not sure how how to respond to that since we did get him after all. Raja's miracle three "almost" didn't go in. We "almost" landed Gilbert Arenas. Who cares about almost?

Korolev: stupid draft pick No excuse for it. The good thing is it somewhat led to Al Thornton (who we hope will turn into Danny Granger).

Anyway, that's just some off the context for some of the past moves the Clippers have made. You might notice there are no players that went on to become superstars. Odom comes the close, but I honestly don't miss him. I've only been following this team the last decade, so I can't say about their other moves like Terry Cummings because that was before my time. Any citizens care to add or elaborate? any other almost-superstars that got paid after they left but never found success? I know I'm leaving out a lot of bad breaks. Manning's Knee. Ferry turns into Ron Harper turns into career-alter injury? Let's keep them coming.

Ron Harper turns into career-alter injury?