Net Gamblings

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 on the Clippers to 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 player with the most experience in the league is Cuttino Mobley, who has played 6 years. On paper, the starting lineup looks good for LA: Cassell, Mobley, Maggette, Brand and Chris Kaman. All their scorers are one-on-one players though, who’ll stand forever on the perimeter trying to find a shot. Hopefully Cassell can fix that, although Cassell isn’t exactly a past-first-shoot-last Point Guard.



Their bench with Wilcox and Shaun Livingston is shallow to say the least. Cassell has more years on him than the entire Clippers bench. The Clippers have always had a pretty decent roster, but lack of experience has always been their weakness. The year they had Brand, Odom, Maggette, Richardson and Andre Miller was the year we all thought they’d make the playoffs. Trading for Cassell may honestly be the first time the Clippers have traded for an all-star in his 10th or more seasons.



Since becoming the Clippers in 1978, LA has made the playoffs 3 times in 27 years. I know it’s tough being the 2nd 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 him. This season seems to be no different. Thanks to a complete lack of atmosphere and enthusiasm by their owner, and the fact that there’s a more interesting NBA team in their own city, the Clippers should be booked for another losing season. Like a company in Tahiti, the Clippers aren’t going anywhere.

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