With the clippers 2-0 and various warnings throughout the negasphere to temper sudden expectations due to the quality (especially on the defensive end) of the first two opponents (Golden State & Seattle), it’s easy to just say “well, those teams suck, so you can’t read anything from two scoring sprees in a row.” But, well, I think you can read something, at least a tiny bit of Braille amid the rubble. I think we have discovered that Chris Kaman is going to have much better of a season this year than he did last. Just looking at his face, his demeanor, this is a different guy than showed up for the flight to Russia with tales of caravanning on moose hunts in the family trickster the previous off-season. Chris stayed in LA and worked on his game, and it shows.

You have to (well, I don’t have a gun to your head, but maybe a knife to your throat) love, if only from a visceral standpoint, the tempo that has been present in the first two games. The clippers of Mike Dunleavy actually running, not taking three hourse to contemplate Grecian urns before kicking it out to a shooter for a quick shot. A couple things are contributing to this (ok, more than a couple.) the biggest one, obviously, is the absence of Brand. Without EB Dunleavy can’t just methodically pound it inside and slow down and hope to outlast the opponent. The Clips will lose much more nights than they win (which they very well still may do.) The funny thing about this is, I think EB would have no problem running back and forth at this pace, in fact, I have a feeling his game would thrive.

The 2nd thing is Sam is back reasonably healthy, after an offseason of “core” conditioning (the new zen body shakra) and relatively injury free summer ballin’. With Sam usually gone (and Shaun knocked out with that devastating injury), the Clips were pretty much forced into a last couple months of Jason Hart running the show. While Hart proved to be something of a spark plug and we got some nice runs here & there with him, he wasn’t a long term, or even high quality short term, solution. Jason Hart is no Brevin Knight. Brevin Knight, for all his faults (too short, can’t shoot) is 1) an excellent distributor and 2) a pretty good defender. We needed the first part of that in the EXTREME. I remember clipperblog at one point during last year’s long road to mediocrity opining that Tim Thomas was the best passer on the team aside from Sam (who barely played) and Shaun (sigh) and when TT, more of a three point gunner than anything else, is your best passer? Well, it’s no surprise that so many possessions fizzled out in a blaze of unglory.

I think that’s all I’ve got for the moment. I know there are more thoughts bubbling about a number of topics. I will spit my thoughts on watching Kevin Durant play in and NBA uniform for the first time (my first time, that is), and he was, if possible, much BETTER than I anticipated, and I was expecting quite a bit. I also have some thoughts on Seattle and Golden State (didn’t get to watch that game) as well as tonite’s matchup with the bulls, but being as I am not a paid reporter for clipper monthly news register (knock knock, oh nonexistent one) I’ll have to table it for another occasion, be it later today, tomorrow, in a week or a month. Salutations and prognostications. Aloha. Oh, and don’t even get me started on Corey Maggette.



Sigh, unlimited brainfarts, such limited time to emit them. Gratzi.