2010-2011 NBA Team Preview: Los Angeles Clippers Won't Be a Laughingstock

This is the time of year when it's fun to be a Clipper fan.

No one laughs when you wax eloquently about the Clips chances to make the playoffs or detail how this is the year Baron Davis earns his money or Blake Griffin breaks out.

Well, OK, so they still laugh, but not with as much gusto.

An old Dennis the Menace cartoon showed Dennis up in the early morning admiring the sunrise. The caption said simply, "I love the day before it's been used."

The season is fresh, it's new, it's unused and everything seems possible. Sure, even the Clippers winning.

It's possible.

In fact, it's actually pretty probable for a few reasons.

Top among them is that the West is finally experiencing a downturn. After years of clearly dominating the Association, the West has been diluted. Commissioner David Stern kept telling everyone that the competitive disparity between the East and West would balance out. Turns out he was right.

Stoudemire went East, so did Boozer, The Spurs are older, and Denver just seems to be confused. On the other coast, Boston added a future hall of fame center, Atlanta kept their team together, Dwight Howard was tutored by Hakeem Olajuwon and the Heat signed a few players.

I wouldn't call it weak, but the West is no longer best. The Clippers have a shot.

Another reason the hope emanating from Clipper Nation isn't completely fabricated is because this Griffin kid looks really good. No, really, he looks freakishly good.

It's one thing to put up numbers; it's another to do it with flair. It's the difference between Zack Randolph and Pistol Pete Maravich.

Randolph is a 20-10 machine. He is a stud who knows how to score; he just does it with the flair of a librarian after taking Ambien.

Yawn.

Pistol Pete, on the other hand, used to do things with the basketball that made you gasp. If you have never seen him in action, click play on the video to the right. Maravich was exciting; he scored with flair.

Urban legend here in Los Angeles tells us that Paul Westhead was fired as Laker coach after leading them to the championship in his first year, not for not winning, but for not winning with, you guessed it—flair. This is Los Angeles for goodness sake. If you are going to win, do it right.

If you are going to score, do it right. Do it with flair.

Blake Griffin does it with flair.

Griffin is no Maravich; there hasn't been one like him since him, but he definitely leans more towards Maravich than Randolph. Griffin is exciting, and if you look hard enough, you can see the potential in this kid to be the best power forward in the game.

Have the Clippers ever had a player that was considered the best at anything?

Swen Nater had the best mustache, but that doesn’t count. 

Every great player who ever wore a Clipper jersey did so at the end of his career, not the start. Seriously, this kid is that good.

Unlike years past, I like this year’s bench. The closest the Clippers ever came to actually taking over Los Angeles was 2006. That was the year they made it within one game of the Western Conference finals only to lose to the Suns in large part because of the play of a reserve player.

Sorry, Daniel Ewing.

There is no doubt that the NBA is a star-driven league. It's also clear, however, that when you get to the playoffs, its defense and good roll players that win games.

The Clippers bench is stocked with good roll players. Who cares if Donald Sterling knows who they are or not? Randy Foye, Ryan Gomes, Rasual Butler and Craig Smith are hard-nosed players who can be trusted to play defense with 0.5 seconds left in a tight game.

Um, sorry again, Daniel Ewing.

Finally, this is an Eric Gordon break out year. This third year guard is poised to move to the next level. Did you see the FIBA World Championship games?

Playing along side the likes of Chauncey Billups has to do some good for a young player. Playing well along side the likes of Billups is even better. EG played well.

2007's Indiana Mr. Basketball looked confident this summer and his shot was automatic. It helped his team won the whole thing too.

I'm still not sold on Del Negro to lead and mentor this young team. There is still a gap at small forward, and Baron Davis can either be a positive or a negative. So, the team is far from perfect, but what team is?

For the Clippers, this is as close to perfect as they have been to start a season in a long time. The 2010-2011 season starts this week, and as the self-appointed official fan spokesman for the real basketball team in Los Angeles, I can tell you this team is ready!

Don't laugh.