7/21 ESPN INSIDER - Brief look at theClips and the West

[OutletPass]

Clippers are still long shots
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Monday, July 21
Updated: July 21
11:06 AM ET




The Los Angeles Clippers have always been a day late and a dollar short.

But having already matched the Miami Heat's offer of $82 million over six years for Elton Brand and showing signs that they will do the same for Corey Maggette (six years at $42 million) and sign Lamar Odom (believed to be about $60 million over six years) while actively pursuing point guard Gilbert Arenas at another $60 million over six years as the free agent's favorite, according to the Orange County Register, they may end up being only a day late.

They may have spent the right amount of money on the right type of players, but with the Western Conference perhaps better than it has ever been, done it at the wrong time.

"This is the first time they haven't looked at their talent and said, 'Oh, well. Someone else will have to pay you now,' " a league source said in the Washington Times.

But here is how the Western Conference looks to stack up once the league gets over the Clipper shock.

The defending champions, swapping David Robinson for Rasho Nesterovic to caddie for two-time MVP Tim Duncan, are in the playoffs. The Los Angeles Lakers, with or without Kobe Bryant, are locks to make the postseason with Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton and Karl Malone. The Sacramento Kings remain deeper than either team and the Dallas Mavericks are right behind them. Add Sam Cassell and Michael Olowokandi to a Minnesota lineup that already features Kevin Garnett and Wally Szczerbiak and that's five of the eight available playoff spots.

Too bad for the Clippers, who went 27-55 last year when the eight-seeded Suns won 44, there's at least five legitimate contenders for those three remaining berths.

Here they are in no particular order:

Portland Trail Blazers: Say what you want about Scottie Pippen leaving and Damon Stoudamire being shown the door, these guys won 50 games last year amid the turmoil, 49 before that and 50 the season before that one. In all, that's an NBA-record 20 consecutive playoff seasons.

Phoenix Suns: Stephon Marbury had, perhaps, his best season ever last year and it had nothing to do with statistics. Shawn Marion was, again, an all-star and Amare Stoudemire, the Rookie of the Year, will soon be one. They won 44 games last year and pushed the Spurs as hard as anyone else in the playoffs not knowing what they had. Now they do.

Houston Rockets: Steve Francis is still Steve Francis. And after all the talk that Yao Ming had become the second-best center in the league last year, it still came down to Steve Francis averaging 21 points, six rebounds and six assists for them to win 43 games. The scary thing is that this year it could come down to Ming and they've still got Francis.

Seattle SuperSonics: They may have lost one NBA star in Payton but gained another one in Ray Allen. Put him on the court against a lot of NBA teams and he's the best player on the floor, finishing the season at 24.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game while drilling his usual 2.7 3-pointers a night. Don't forget about Rashard Lewis and a motivated Brent Barry. Payton may have owned the team, franchise and city. But as soon as he was shipped away, the team went from 22-30 to 18-12.

Which brings us to:

Los Angeles Clippers: With a possible starting lineup of Arenas, Maggette, Odom, Elton and Melvin Ely, the Clipper should become legitimate contenders to make the playoffs. In fact, they might have even been looking at home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference. But that doesn't change the fact that they will be starting their third point guard in three years while their starting center will have had, at most, 18 starts last year in a conference that has only been getter better year after year.

Clipper owner Donald Sterling may have decided to spend a lot of money on some awfully talented players. But so have nine other teams with the Jazz still having some $20 million in cap space and a 19-year playoff run at stake.

Expect to see a few more stars in the Staples Center next season whether the Lakers are playing or not. But until Arenas and Ely prove that they're that much better than Andre Miller and Michael Olowokandi, the Clippers are still the Clippers and, the last time we checked, they still play in the Western Conference.

[jayC]

Exactly. The clippers suck if they resign odom and maggette they are still a lottery team and last time I checked they lost miller and Kandiman and replacing him with chris marcus, please. The smart thing to do would have been to sign brand and odom waited till next year when t-mac, kg, nash, etc are all on the market.