5 Things the Los Angeles Clippers Need To Do To Make the Postseason

The Los Angeles Clippers might be the most exciting young team in the NBA. With Eric Gordon and Blake Griffin, they have two exciting players to build around.

This is a team that is built for the future with a number of draft choices and young players in development, but if it makes the right moves, it could also be a team of the present.

Here are five things that would put the Clippers in the postseason right now.

Start Eric Bledsoe

The Clippers traded to get Eric Bledsoe. It was an understandable move to have him on the bench behind Baron Davis. However, to have him sitting behind Mo Williams is bewildering.

There are only two logical reasons to start Williams: Either they are starting him for the present or they are starting him for the future. If they are starting him for the present, that means they are playing him to win. But since they aren't winning with him as a starter, that makes no sense.

It makes no sense to start him for the future either. If anyone presently on the roster is the future, it's Bledsoe. He's a talented young player who now has a season under his belt. It's time to let him start.

The Clippers won't be any worse on offense (they can't get any worse), and they will be a whole lot better overall as a team.

Start DeAndre Jordan

Chris "The Injury Machine" Kaman might actually be a better player right now, but as Jordan grows he'll surpass Kaman anyway. He's certainly the more athletic of the two, and a frontcourt with him and Blake Griffin would be beyond exciting.

Not only that, since Kaman is so injury prone, putting Jordan in the starting lineup would give the Clippers some more explosiveness. As well, it gives them Kaman down the stretch.

Jordan's downside is he makes Dwight Howard and Shaquille O'Neal look like Steve Nash at the free-throw line. Last year, Jordan raised his free-throw percentage 75 points all the way to .455. Shudder! His career free-throw percentage of .414 is the lowest in NBA history of anyone with at least 400 attempts.

With that in mind, putting in Kaman in the last five minutes makes sense, and it also makes sense that if Jordan is playing more minutes, Kaman is less likely to get injured.

Lean More on Assistant Coaches

Vinny Del Negro got the job as head coach because of his ability to develop players. Truthfully, I don't know that he really developed anyone in Chicago. Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah developed themselves as much as anything, and when a real coach came to Chicago, they really started to blossom.

Del Negro has the imagination of a jaded brick. It is doubtful he's ever even drawn up an original play in his life. Last year the Clippers were 18th in defensive rating and 22nd in offensive rating.

I understand that the Clippers aren't ready to let go of Del Negro after all he hasn't done for them in one season, but at least encourage him to defer to his assistants. He's done nothing to establish that he merits being a head coach or even has a clue of what he's doing. At least give the good folks around him a little more voice.

With the amount of offensive ability on this team, there's simply no reason the Clippers shouldn't have a top-10 offense, and that's being conservative.

Spend Money

If the cap comes out to the $64 million some people expect, that would give the Clippers $20 million to spend. Regardless of how much the cap is, the Clippers have a lot of money to spread around.

The only real hole they have is at small forward. They can have any small forward they want, as they have the money to spend.

One option would be Caron Butler, provided that he is healthy. Butler and his versatility would be a fascinating fit with the team.

Bledsoe primarily played shooting guard at Kentucky, so he has experience playing off the ball. With Butler on the team he could also run point-forward, and the team would have a tremendous amount of flexibility with two proven scorers underneath and three perimeter players who can both create and pass.

Bind and Gag Donald Sterling

The one thing the Clippers have that is going to be a constant binding factor is the worst, most racist, most idiotic owner in all of professional sports. Sterling needs to realize that his biggest problem is himself.

The Clippers, apart from being owned by Sterling, should be one of the biggest free-agent attractions in the NBA with their huge market, tremendously young talent, litany of draft picks and money to burn. They have everything that a megastar like Deron Williams, Chris Paul or Dwight Howard could possibly want.

Sterling should put in writing that he is going to leave all basketball operations in the hands of Neil Olshey and stay as far away as possible. If he violates that order in any way, shape or form, Blake Griffin gets to punch him in the head. I mean this literally. A few Griffin punches to the head might knock some sense into him.

Sterling needs to give assurance to everyone involved with the team that he is not running it. It's the only way the Clippers will ever become a winner. He is the anti-Mark Cuban.