There are some things you just don’t do in life. You don’t watch a Steven Seagal movie, you don’t buy pills with an ‘X’ in the name, and you don’t bet that the Clippers will have a winning season. They picked up Mobley and Cassell, so will this year be any different for the Clippers?
They traded Marko Jaric for Sam Cassell to try to build veteran leadership on a team that clearly has none. Besides him, the most experienced player in the league is Cuttino Mobley, who has played for 6 years. On paper, the starting lineup looks good for Los Angeles: Cassell, Mobley, Maggette, Brand and Chris Kaman. However, all of their scorers are one-on-one players, who will forever stand on the perimeter trying to find a shot. Hopefully, Cassell can fix that, though Cassell isn’t exactly a past first-shot-last point guard.
His bench with Wilcox and Shaun Livingston is shallow, to say the least. Cassell is older than the entire Clippers bench. The Clippers have always had a pretty decent roster, but lack of experience has always been his weakness. The year they had Brand, Odom, Maggette, Richardson and Andre Miller was the year we all thought they would make the playoffs. Honestly, trading for Cassell may be the first time the Clippers have traded for a star in their 10th or more seasons.
Since becoming the Clippers in 1978, LA has made the playoffs 3 times in 27 years. I know it’s hard being the second worst team in your own city, but Donald Sterling needs to get up and run the team. An outsider would think Elgin Baylor owns the team, as often as they see it. This season seems to be no different. Thanks to their owner’s complete lack of atmosphere and enthusiasm, and the fact that there’s a more interesting NBA team in their own city, the Clippers should be booked for another losing season. As a company in Tahiti, the Clippers are not going anywhere.