With Sam Cassell starting to look his age and Shaun Livingston coming off of his gruesome knee injury the Clippers felt it necessary to draft a point guard last night. So with that in mind the Clippers selected Jared Jordan with the #45 pick in the NBA Draft. Jordan is 6’2″, 187 pounds so he has nice size but he played his basketball at Marist so this will be a pretty good jump in competition for him. He played in 117 games at Marist and he averaged 13.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Jordan is an average shooter for a point guard as he hit 44.6% from the floor, 32.6% from three point range and 70.2% from the free throw line.

Al Thornton will likely be the starting small forward for the Clippers this season. Thornton has got nice size at 6’8″, 220 pounds and he has starting experience at a big-time school at Florida State. Thornton played in 124 games at Florida State and he averaged 11.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. He also is an outstanding shooter as he hit 52.8% from the floor, 45.1% from three point range and 70.1% from the free throw line. Thornton was a good pick for the Clippers.

Much of the team that made a long playoff run two years ago should almost all be back to try to rebound from a disappointing 2006 season. Look for the Clippers to think point guard with their first pick in the draft and Sam Cassell started to act his age last season and Shaun Livingston had a horrific knee injury last season and they are not sure how or when he will be able to play. The Clippers own the #14 and #45 pick in tonight’s draft. Also, look for the Clippers to pick up their team option on Quinton Ross who played pretty well for them last season. The Clippers will likely let both of their free agents (James Singleton and Daniel Ewing) walk away.