JamFan's Fast Break - Free Agency Begins

1st off you can make a trade. There are fewer trade rumors this off season involving the Clippers than just about any other team. We haven't even heard Corey Maggette's name until draft night and then it was commentators purely speculating what might happen now that the Clippers have drafted Al Thorton. The only other speculation I have heard is that with Thorton on board, the player that brings the most back to the Clippers is Elton Brand. But you can be rest assured that did not come from the Clippers and I am quite sure EB will be here next fall.

Your second opportunity is the draft. It certainly seems that the Clippers made the most of their lottery opportunity in selecting Al Thorton who was rated as high as the 7th pick by some Mock Drafts. We actually improved here. Drafting Jared Jordan in the second round brought in a PG with promise but probably will not help us to much this upcoming season.

Well, for the Clippers, trades are not that likely, the draft is over, so that leaves us with Free Agency. We are already very close to the cap and that leaves us only enough money to sign Guillermo Diaz and fill out our roster with role players. We will need to sign Thorton and presumably Jordan. So that leaves us with only our MLE of about 6 Mil to go out and make a free agent splash.

Oddly enough, the Clippers have the same problem the Lakers have. They need a point guard. And the targets that the Clippers will be going after could be the same guys the Lakers want since they only have their MLE to offer as well. So who are the best free agent PG's. The #1 rated PG is Chauncey Billups. The Lakers or the Clippers can forget him unless there is someway they could trade for him. He is not signing for the MLE. The #2 and #3 rated PG's appears to be Mo Williams and Steve Blake. It is unclear as of right now exactly how much these two guys will ask for, but it is conceivable one of the could be had for 6 Mil. The next tier is comprised of Jannero Pargo, Gary Payton, Chucky Atkins, Kenyon Dooling, and Jason Hart. They are all good PG's, but they do not help in getting you to the next level. All of them could be had for less that MLE money.

So that brings us to Theo Papaloukas. He is rated the best PG in Europe and brings the history of a game in the World Championships where he humbled the best PG's that the NBA and the Team USA had to offer. Nobody could stop him. He went for 25 and dished a bunch of assists. He played with the court sense of a Steve Nash. I went a studied tape of Theo and he reminds you of the way that Steve Nash dishes the ball off. He seems more athletic that Nash. He might be the best PG available at the MLE. One problem is the buy our of his Euro contract which is reported to be 400K. If you want him and you think he is the best, that is mere chump change.

There isn't a lot more that the Clippers can do. They have to make good use of their MLE during free agency. The urgency is thrust upon us because of Shaun's injury and the thought that he may never ever come back as good as he was.