Sħãlïq™ Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 (edited) I just found this article and it got me thinking: The Lost Season: Bobby Simmons, '04-'05 The first sign that the Clippers core wasn't staying together. 2003 offseason Miles gets traded to the Cavs, immediately breaking up the most exciting team in the NBA. There wasn't a more electrifying duo in the NBA than Q Richardson and Darius Miles. Miles was a great 6th man and had a superb chemistry with his teammates, specifically Quentin Richardson: The Clippers were supposed to be getting the good end of the deal with the Cavs sending Andre Miller to the Clippers for Darius Miles. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Andre Miller never wanted to be a Clipper from day 1 and it showed. He had a terrible year and nobody on the team liked him. Guy had the worst attitude and work ethic ever. The Clippers were close to signing Kobe in 2004 offseason (Kobe said himself he was very close to jumping ship) and if the Magic picked Okafor as expected, Dwight Howard would have been a Clipper. Instead of keeping the 2nd pick the Clippers traded down once they had no shot at Howard. The Clippers offered max deals to Kobe Bryant as well as Gilbert Arenas in this stretch. The sad thing about it is that they put all of their eggs in one basket and lost the young core. Quentin Richardson's offer wasn't matched because we thought we had Kobe and couldn't afford both (Kobe jerked Lakers and Clippers around till very last day of free agency pretty much). Bobby Simmons put up a big season of 16 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg and 1.5 spg on efficient numbers. Q Rich put up 17, 6.5 and 2. We also let Keyon Dooling a promising bench player go the same offseason. My point of this all is to discuss and ask the following questions: How good could the Run N Gun Clips have been if they kept the core together and didn't go chasing Kobe? Would Q-Rich, Simmons and Dooling all had a much better career if they stayed? I mean they had career years for the Clips. Do you remember the 'Run N Gun Clips'? Darius Miles: Darius was one of the best prospects in NBA history. 6'9..... guard ballhandling skills, great court vision. Imagine a KG/Odom hybrid but much more athletic. He had absolutely no shot though. Quentin Richardson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XVajmIEJiw Best 3 point shooter in the NBA, incredible strength and post up game for his size. I have never seen another 6'6 220 pound player post up PF's with ease like this guy used to. He used to bang with bigs in the post. He won the NBA 3 point shooting contest his first year with the Suns and set records for both the Clippers and Suns for 3 pointers made in a season. For the Clippers he had a crazy stretch of like 17 straight 3's made over 2 or 3 games. NOTE: No Odom/Maggette/Brand in this article because they all stayed with us few more years. I just wanted to highlight the lost players. Edited August 25, 2011 by Shãlïq Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
?QuestionMark? Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 This lockout needs to end soon. Someone resorted to writing an article about Bobby freakin' Simmons! For historical accuracy, the Clippers traded that 2nd pick BEFORE the NBA draft and in return the Bobcats would trade the 4th pick and select Peja Drobniak in the expansion draft. The Clippers didn't give up Q-Rich for Kobe either. Kobe re-signed with the Lakers before Richardson signed with the Suns. The Clippers could have kept him. So either Sterling didn't want to pay him or Q just didn't want to be a Clipper. So to answer the question of how special that Clipper team could have been: not very special at all. Sterling wasn't going to spend money on role players. Lamar Odom left in 2003 after Sterling didn't match Miami's offer. That was the beginning of the end of that young nucleus. Sterling runs the Clippers are a business for profit. He wants to spend as little as possible to maximize profits. Great for his wallet, not so much for winning on the court. So if Clippers fans want to root for a winning team, hope Sterling eithers sells the team, dies, or start cheering for another team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sħãlïq™ Posted August 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 (edited) Sterling runs the Clippers are a business for profit. He wants to spend as little as possible to maximize profits. Great for his wallet, not so much for winning on the court. So if Clippers fans want to root for a winning team, hope Sterling eithers sells the team, dies, or start cheering for another team.So true. DTS = complete moron! All-time worst owner of all pro leagues in all sports worldwide. <_< Edited August 26, 2011 by Shãlïq Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitro Posted August 29, 2011 Report Share Posted August 29, 2011 Quentin Richardson was never, ever the best 3pt shooter in the league. He shot 35-38% from 3 with the Clippers, and never led the league in 3pt FG's with them either. The only reason he led the league with the Suns was because he was taking over 8 attempts every game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sħãlïq™ Posted August 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 (edited) ^ I liked Q-Rich's game but I really thought he shot too much. The offense needed to run through EB and Corey more. I was mad as hell when we traded down and picked another unproven point guard twig who couldn't shoot. <_< Anyway, I do believe that these players careers would have been different had the Clippers not trade for Andre Miller. If the Clippers stuck with J-Mac (Jeff McInnis) as their starting PG (who was not that bad in '02), and kept Miles on the roster, the Clippers would have made the playoffs. I remember, that was the same summer that the Clippers were offerred a much younger Baron Davis for Lamar Odom. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that, though. Had that trade went down, this is what our roster would have looked like in 02-03: C- Kandi PF- Elton Brand / Chris Wilcox SF- Corey Maggette / Darius Miles SG- Quentin Richardson / Eric Piatkowski PG- Baron Davis That would have been beasty! Edited August 31, 2011 by Shãlïq Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sħãlïq™ Posted August 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 I remember, that was the same summer that the Clippers were offerred a much younger Baron Davis for Lamar Odom. Had that trade went down, this is what our roster would have looked like in 02-03: C- Kandi PF- Elton Brand / Chris Wilcox SF- Corey Maggette / Darius Miles SG- Quentin Richardson / Eric Piatkowski PG- Baron Davis That would have been beasty! BD wanted to play for the Clippers back in '99. The Clippers also wanted BD but had to settle for Lamar since Charlotte nabbed him for the 3rd pick. BD was actually pretty vocal about staying local before the draft but Charlotte took him anyway. Here is the video after he was picked. He talks about how he thought he was a lock with the Clippers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6kCK-Yccro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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