The Clippers have officially released Jason “White Chocolate” Williams who essentially quit before the season started last year. Williams didn’t play a minute for the Clippers last season. Williams has played in 679 games (649 starts) in his NBA career averaging 31.2 minutes, 11.4 points, 2.4 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game. This is no loss to the Clippers even though Williams is thinking about making a comeback.

The Clippers have traded 29-year old SG/SF Quentin Richardson to the Timberwolves for 24-year old point guard Sebastian Telfair, 25-year old power forward Craig Smith and 33-year old power forward Mark Madsen. The Clippers only had Richardson for a couple of weeks and this was the third time he has been traded this off-season! The Clippers really helped out the bench with this trade as Telfair and Smith both have nice upsides. Telfair played in 75 games (43 starts) for the Timberwolves last season and he averaged 27.9 minutes, 9.8 points, 1.7 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.0 steal per game. He has now played in 349 games (180 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 8.2 points, 1.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. He will give Baron Davis a break when he needs one. Craig Smith will back up Blake Griffin at power forward and he has a nice upside. Smith played in 74 games (31 starts) for the Timberwolves last season and he averaged 19.7 minutes, 10.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. He has now played in 233 games (47 starts) in his 3-year NBA career and he has averaged 19.5 minutes, 8.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. If Smith were a baseball player he would be the kind of player portrayed in “Moneyball” as a bargain as he has solid stats per minute. Smith has the most upside of any player involved in this trade. Mark Madsen is nothing more than a “12th man” as he belongs at the end of the bench. Madsen played in 19 games (1 start) for the T-Wolves last season and he averaged 6.1 minutes, 0.3 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game. He has now played in 453 games (70 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 11.8 minutes, 2.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game. The bench has been improved by adding some young players with an upside so Clippers’ fans should be happy with this trade.

The Clippers have traded 28-year old power forward Zach Randolph to the Grizzlies in return for 29-year old SG/SF Quentin Richardson. Randolph played in 39 games (34 starts) for the Clippers last season and he averaged 35.1 minutes, 20.9 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. The main reason for making this trade was because Randolph wouldn’t be happy backing up Blake Griffin at power forward. Quentin Richardson played in 72 games (51 starts) for the Knicks last season and he averaged 26.3 minutes, 10.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Richardson has now played in 601 games (389 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 28.0 minutes, 11.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Richardson still has some game left so this trade made perfect sense for the Clippers to make even though Randolph will likely excel for the Grizzlies in 2009-2010.