The Clippers have signed 26-year old shooting guard Randy Foye to a 2-year, $8.5 million dollar deal. Foye played in 70 games (38 starts) for the Wizards last season and he averaged 23.8 minutes, 10.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. He has now played in 261 games (142 starts) in his four years in the NBA and he has averaged 28.0 minutes, 12.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. This was a very solid signing for the Clippers as Foye will bring instant offense off the bench.

The Clippers have signed 29-year old small forward Brian Cook to a 2-year, $2.5 million dollar deal. Cook played in 15 games (0 starts) for the Rockets last season and he averaged 2.9 minutes, 1.4 points, 0.6 rebounds and 0.1 assists per game. Cook has now played in 349 games (74 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 14.1 minutes, 5.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game. He has also shot 39.1% from three point range in his career. His role will probably be limited to a long range gunner off the bench.

The Clippers didn’t waste any time after hearing that LeBron James wasn’t going to sign with them. They have signed 27-year old small forward Ryan Gomes to a 4-year, $12 million dollar deal. Gomes played in 76 games (64 starts) for the T-Wolves last season and he averaged 29.1 minutes, 10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Gomes has now played in 374 games (307 starts) in his 5 years in the NBA and he has averaged 29.2 minutes, 11.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Gomes will battle rookie first round pick Al Farouq Aminu for the starting job at small forward in 2010-11.

The Clippers have hired 43-year old Vinny Del Negro to be their new head coach. Del Negro got fired in Chicago after last season despite going 41-41 during the regular season and 1-4 in the playoffs against the Cavaliers. Del Negro has a career record (two years) of 82-82 (.500%) during the regular season and he is 4-8 (33.3%) in the post season. This was a good hire for the Clippers who have playoff aspirations for the 2010-11 season.

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 have 7 unrestricted free agents and 2 restricted free agents coming into this summer. First things first, the Clippers look to be players in the free agent market before deciding whether or not to bring back any of their owns guys. It makes perfect sense to do it that way because they have Larry Bird rights to their own free agents which would allow them to go over the cap to re-sign any of them. To me Drew Gooden seems like the only Clippers’ free agent that’s sure to leave because I don’t think he would accept a bench role behind Blake Griffin. Rasual Butler, Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw and Craig Smith are the main four free agents that the Clippers might want to bring back but they could each get a decent offer on the free agent market. Brian Skinner and Steve Novak will likely be allowed to leave L.A. Backup guards Mardy Collins and Bobby Brown are restricted free agents and I don’t think the Clippers will be bringing them back either.

The Clippers got involved in a huge trade today with the Wizards and Cavs. They Clippers have acquired 28-year old power forward Drew Gooden from the Wizards in the deal. Antwan Jamison goes to Cleveland along with Sebastian Telfair from the Clippers. The Wizards get Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Cleveland’s first round pick in 2010 from the Cavs and they get Al Thornton from the Clippers. Gooden might get a lot of minutes that were going to Marcus Camby before he was traded to the Blazers earlier this week. Gooden has played in 46 games (11 starts) for the Mavericks this season and he was averaging 22.4 minutes, 8.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. Gooden has now played in 556 games (407 starts) in his NBA career and he is averaging 27.6 minutes, 11.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. Gooden’s contract is up at the end of the season so this trade will clear a lot of cap space for the Clippers. Still, I don’t like the deal for them because Al Thornton is a solid young player that they might regret getting rid of. Thornton played in 51 games (30 starts) for the Clippers this season and he averaged 27.5 minutes, 10.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. In three years with the Clippers, Thornton played in 201 games (128 starts) in which he averaged 30.9 minutes, 13.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. The Clippers pretty much had to trade Thornton if they wanted to get rid of Sebastian Telfair’s contract so they did it. Sebastian Telfair played in 39 games (1 start) for the Clippers this season and he averaged 14.9 minutes, 4.3 points, 1.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. The Clippers didn’t need Telfair anymore after acquiring Steve Blake in the Marcus Camby trade.