[David]

<< Oh Miser David, are you EVER right???

&quot;Just when we were beginning to believe that Donald Sterling had changed his tune, the Los Angeles Clippers owner showed up on draft day last week sounding like Bob Dylan after a bout with laryngitis.

In other words, the times they really aren't a-changin'.


Cavs point guard Andre Miller was close to playing for his hometown Clippers.
After the Clippers finally assembled a very high-quality group of big and talented players last season, with the perfect coach for the young bunch in Alvin Gentry, everything pointed toward the final piece of the puzzle being one of the native-son point guards: Baron Davis of the New Orleans Hornets or Andre Miller of Cleveland.

Both players expressed their interest at being the leader of the new brat pack and a chance to unseat the Lakers as the kings of Los Angeles for the first time.

And in case you hadn't heard, the deal with Cleveland for Miller was done on draft day.

Agreed to, that is, until Sterling intervened. With the Clippers' eighth and 12th picks, the Cavs were pleased with the prospect of rebuilding. Their own choice turned out to be explosive young guard Dajuan Wagner, and they preferred one young small forward from the Clippers ... preferably Darius Miles as opposed to Lamar Odom or Corey Maggette. Initially, Sterling didn't want to part with either of the first two, then finally agreed to Odom.

But it didn't happen until the Clippers were on the clock for the eighth pick, and instead of taking Caron Butler for the Cavs, they selected Chris Wilcox, whom the Cavs didn't want. The Clippers then took Melvin Ely at 12, which was fine with the Cavs, but they still aren't certain the package works because they wanted Butler, not Wilcox.

And now the Clippers have two players who are expected to develop into power forwards, which wouldn't be such a drag were it not for the fact the Clippers' lone All-Star is 23-year-old power forward Elton Brand. Oh, and now Odom knows he was a foulup away from being shipped from the nirvana of L.A. to Cleveland, which is, uh, not his dream town.

Sound like a mess?

Sounds like the Clippers we had all grown to know and love to laugh at.

Unfortunately, it's not so amusing for Gentry, general manager Elgin Baylor and the rest of the players who were under the impression the franchise was one slick feed from turning the corner into a Western Conference contender.

Chances are the Cavs will still part with Miller for a comparable package, considering they don't want to pay him the max and that they want to retool with younger and more exciting players that are at least inexpensive for the next five seasons.

But even if the deal does come down, will Sterling alter his historically penny-pinching ways and pay Miller, Brand, Miles, Michael Olowokandi and the rest of the budding stars fair market value?

Nobody is counting on it.

The prevailing winds are already crying that the organization remains as vulnerable as ever to an intervention from The Donald West, and the subsequent relapse will leave them as nothing more than a co-tenant at the Staples Center and a muse for the world champion Lakers.

Again.&quot;


Ah, looks like they DID want to keep Odom, so one wrong mark for David.

Looks like their Miller trade WAS BOTCHED B/C OF STERLING, two wrong marks for Davind.

Would you like me to continue? >>



It looks like you found someone's INTERPRETATION of a possible trade for Odom. Were they the facts? Who knows? Judging from the two Clipper's draft picks, SOMETHING was going on. It's still a wait-and-see situation to me. My guess is, Sterling is smart enough to get top dollar for Odom. Perhaps you should give someone the proper credit for the article you just reprinted and then the rest of us can know who's opinion you are parroting.

Link to ANOTHER interpretation of the Clippers/Cavs deal

PS: dirk77's article was by Mike Kahn at Sportsline.com