Power forward Loy Vaught wasn’t flashy but he was a hard worker and a solid player.  Vaught played in 558 games (343 starts) in his 8 years with the Clippers and he averaged 28.1 minutes, 11.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.  Vaught is #3 in Clippers’ history in games played with 558.  He is also #2 in rebounds (4,471), #5 in steals (468) and #6 in points (6,614) in Clippers’ history.  Vaught was never “the man” with the Clippers but he was still a pretty good player for them.

28-year old point guard Mo Williams came to the Clippers in the big deal with the Cavs at the trade deadline.  The pick the Clippers traded for Williams turned out to be the #1 overall pick in the NBA Draft.  Hindsight being always 20/20, the Clippers may not have made that deal if they thought they would have gotten the #1 pick, but the deal did allow them to ship Baron Davis and his big contract out of town.  Williams played in 22 games (all starts) for the Clippers last year and he averaged 32.9 minutes, 15.2 points, 2.5 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game.  He played in 58 games (all starts) overall last year with the Clippers and Cavs and he averaged 30.8 minutes, 14.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game.  Williams has now played in 537 games (431 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 30.6 minutes, 13.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.  The Clippers think that Williams will be a good fit for the team going forward.

Sure, the Clippers were only 32-50 (39%) in 44-year old Vinny Del Negro’s first season as the head coach.  Injuries to starting shooting guard Eric Gordon and starting center Chris Kaman really hurt the Clippers last year.  I think the Clippers are a team on the rise and I also think that Vinny Del Begro is the right coach to lead them back to the playoffs.  Del Negro is now 114-132 (46.3%) in his first three years during the regular season as a NBA head coach.  He is also 4-8 (33.3%) during the playoffs in his NBA career.

22-year old shooting guard Eric Gordon really improved in 2010-11 for the Clippers.  He played in 56 games (all starts) for the Clippers last year and he averaged 37.7 minutes, 22.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game.  If Gordon wouldn’t have missed so many games due to injury, the Clippers might have finished pretty close to .500 last year.  Gordon has now played in 196 games (181 starts) in his first three years with the Clippers and he is averaging 35.8 minutes, 18.1 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game.  Gordon is going to be a key part to the rising team called the Clippers.

22-year old power forward sat out his first season due to injury, so he was still considered a rookie in 2010-11.  He went out and made up for lost time which resulted in him winning the 2010-11 NBA Rookie of the Year Award.  Griffin played in 82 games (all starts) for the Clippers last season and he averaged 38.0 minutes, 22.5 points, 12.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.  He also shot 50.6% from the floor last year which is pretty darn impressive for a rookie.  A lot of the reason for his high FG% was the fact that he is one of the best dunkers in the entire NBA, due to the power he attacks the basket with.  He also won the Slam Dunk Championship at the All-Star Game.  Griffin’s only weakness is his free-throw shooting (64.2%) which he might be able to improve with practice.  I could see Griffin someday adding an MVP or three in his trophy case in the future to go along with his ROY Award.