L.A. Clippers Media Day Notebook
The Los Angeles Clippers opened camp with Media Day Monday afternoon at STAPLES Center. After a dismal 2008/9 campaign, the Clippers are hoping to be more competitive this year, vying for a playoff spot in the difficult Western Conference.
- First of all, the gossip portion of our coverage. Baron Davis did indeed go to the Lamar Odom/Khloe Kardashian wedding but he declined to go into any detail on it. Also, Davis is sporting a shaggy beard that he has no intention to trim.
- Baron said he's looking forward to the year, "new energy; a new team - some new guys. We have a lot of talent on this team."
- Davis refused to set any specific individual goals for the season. "[Winning] should take care of itself. If you work hard and you have fun and you form that chemistry and then winning is the end result. We're going to work as hard as we possibly can to put ourselves in a position to be successful. You can't think win and then work backwards. You have to put the work in first and then the winning will come."
- Baron said the Clippers are going to play fast - but to do so they're going to need to play defense. He admitted that last year the team as a whole didn't put in enough effort on the defensive end. "We have the talent, we have the personalities and we have the coaching to do it. We just have to put it together."
- "The only goal that I envision is being the best leader I can possibly be for this team, for this organization and for these fans," said Baron. "I think last year was just one of those things where one guy gets injured - then the next guy gets injured - and you try to rush back to play.
"We started off with a really good training camp - we started off looking like we were going to have some promise - before the first game even started we had three or four guys hurt. That was the story of our season. This year the only thing I hope and pray is that our team stays 110% healthy."
- Coach Dunleavy agrees with the assessment that injuries were huge last year. "As far as I'm concerned, the indictment on me is that I may not be a very good coach when my players are injured. Give me a healthy team and fundamentally our team is going to be very sound. We'll play very good defense and we'll be very competitive."
- Coach Mike Dunleavy said that going into camp he'll stick with the same starting lineup of Baron, Eric Gordon, Al Thornton, Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman. He wouldn't commit to that group as the opening night lineup - leaving the door open for competition throughout training camp. Ultimately the team will go with the most productive combination of players.
- Griffin was very humble at the prospect of coming off the bench, deferring completely to his coach. Were Thornton asked to come in as a reserve, naturally he'd comply but it might not sit as well with him. Kaman expects there to be competition at the four, essentially inking himself in as the starting five.
- Blake said he loves the L.A. weather. While he's enjoying the big city, he's still getting used to its size and traffic.
- Griffin is past the offseason shoulder injury and spent much of the summer working out (and palling around) with DeAndre Jordan. The Clippers are very pleased with Griffin's work ethic (which may be rubbing off on Jordan and some of Blake's teammates).
- I heard good things about how both Jordan and Craig Smith looked over the summer. It may be difficult for veteran Brian Skinner to get much floor time this year.
- For the first time in a number of years, the tendinitis in Ricky Davis is under control. He underwent a special "plasma therapy" treatment that moved his own active white blood cells to the affected area. Midseason his inflamed tendon was three times the size of the healthy one. He's in good spirits and hopes to be a contributor. Both Kaman and Mardy Collins underwent the same treatment for their foot issues and are said to be healthy as well.
- Kaman wasn't sure if the Clippers would keep him over the summer but once they dealt Zach Randolph, he figured they would. Last year was a physical and mental struggle for Chris as he tried to recover from a lingering foot injury. When he finally returned, he wasn't in shape and the year was all but a complete loss (although now that the team has Griffin as a consolation prize, maybe not).
- Kaman: "I was overweight when I came back by 10-12 pounds, which was on me. I had never been injured like that or sat out that long. It was frustrating to sit out and to have to deal with that - but I didn't deal with it the right way like a professional should. I just wasn't eating the right things. I wasn't taking care of the right things. It reflected on me when I came back, I didn't play that well. I mean I was OK but not what I was capable of playing."
- Chris says now he's a good weight and healthy - his foot feels good.
- Thornton got a personal chef in order to take care of his body. He spent much of the summer nursing his shoulder back to health and was just tested at 100% in past week to 10 days.
- Dunleavy set conditioning goals for his players coming into camp (last year he didn't think all of his players arrived ready to go) and so far they've all passed the running portion of their tests. Some are in great shape - some good - but across the board better than a year ago.
- Dunleavy on Baron: "I need him to be aggressive (that's the conditioning part of it). We've talked about running. I think he's in his best mode when he's in attack mode - being able to push the ball up the floor - advancing the ball when we can attack - use his size as a point guard to post up more.
"His greatness as a point guard is that he has great vision to make plays. He has great size to overpower certain guards. He's got that explosion. At times last year I thought because of conditioning that maybe he got tired and settled for too many three-point shots. He also had that early hand injury last year where his shooting numbers were just not very good."
- Dunleavy has seen Baron work and improve his shooting this summer. He'll give Davis the system and latitude to run, attack the rim and/or draw and kick to his teammates.
The Clippers will begin camp in earnest on Tuesday. Their first preseason game is against the Golden State Warriors on October 4th.
