The Clippers have a ton of cap space and only one hole in the starting lineup. With that in mind I look for the Clippers to go all out to try to sign LeBron James, Rudy Gay or Paul Pierce in that order. Mike Miller and John Salmons would likely be the fallback options for the Clippers at small forward. The Clippers also need to fill out the bench. Don’t be surprised to see the Clippers make a nice offer to Shaquille O’Neal in an effort to bring a name player to the Clippers. He would be nothing more than a backup to Chris Kaman but he would help the Clippers sell some tickets. Josh Howard would be a player worth possibly taking a risk on if his knee checks out healthy. The Clippers will improve the team this summer…..bank on it.

The Clippers have picked 21-year old shooting guard Willie Warren with the 54th overall pick of the NBA Draft. Warren played in 21 games (19 starts) at Oklahoma and he averaged 16.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.0 steal per game. He played in 57 games (53 starts) in college and he averaged 15.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game. Warren is a combo guard who can provide offense off the bench for the Clippers so I like this pick for them.

The Clippers have acquired 21-year old point guard Eric Bledsoe from the Thunder for a future first round pick. Bledsoe was the 18th overall pick in the first round out of Kentucky. Bledsoe played in 37 games (35 starts) last season for Kentucky and he averaged 11.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Bledsoe will likely do a lot of learning behind Baron Davis who he probably will replace down the road.

The Clippers have picked 19-year old power forward Al Farouq Aminu with the 8th overall pick of the NBA Draft. Aminu played in 31 games (30 starts) at Wake Forest last season and he averaged 15.8 points, 10.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocked shots per game. He played in two years in college playing in 62 games (60 starts) in which he averaged 14.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.3 blocked shots per game. Aminu can really stuff a stat sheet but he will likely be behind Blake Griffin unless he proves capable of handling the small forward spot.

The Clippers own the #8 and #54 picks in tomorrow night’s NBA Draft. The Clippers really should target a small forward or a power forward in the first round of the draft. They will likely still go hard after LeBron James even if they take a small forward. But if the Clippers don’t draft a small forward with the #8 pick look for them to offer the Sun and the Moon to LeBron James starting July 1st. Regardless of who the Clippers get in the first round it will likely be a quality player who will get his fair share of minutes in 2010-11.

21-year old center DeAndre Jordan has been a solid backup for the Clippers his first two years in the league. Jordan played in 70 games (12 starts) for the Clippers last year and he averaged 16.2 minutes, 4.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. He has now played in 123 games (25 starts) in which he is averaging 15.5 minutes, 4.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 1.0 blocked shot. Jordan could be a starter down the road for the Clippers when Kaman starts to get old.