The Clippers acquired point guard Mike Taylor from the Trailblazers during the draft for a 2nd round pick in the 2009 Draft. Taylor is a skinny guy at 6′2″, 165 pounds but he’s a mature player as he’s 22 years old. Taylor played in 39 games (6 starts) for the Idaho Stampede last season and he averaged 14.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists. Taylor is the first player ever drafted from the D-League in NBA history. It will be interesting to see if Taylor will pan out down the road for the Clippers but he might get a chance to earn backup minutes at point guard behind fellow rookie Eric Gordon this season.

The Clippers selected center DeAndre Jordan in the 2nd round and he will likely back up Chris Kaman as a rookie. Jordan is a little raw as he’s only 19 years old but you can’t teach size as he is 7′0″, 260 pounds. Jordan played in 35 games (21 starts) at Texas A&M and he averaged 7.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, 0.4 assists and 1.3 blocked shots per game. Jordan also shot 61.7% from the floor last season for Texas A&M but most of his shots were coming from close range. This will likely turn out to be a decent pick for the Clippers down the road.

The Clippers selected Eric Gordon with the idea of starting him at point guard as a rookie. Gordon will likely be able to handle the starting job for the Clippers but he will likely be a shoot first point guard like he was at Indiana. He has great size at 6′4″, 215 pounds which could cause other teams problems and he likes to get to the basket on the drive. Gordon should be able to post up smaller defenders which will benefit the Clippers big time. Gordon played in 32 games (all starts) for Indiana last season and he averaged 20.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game. This was a very solid pick for the Clippers as Gordon will likely be a solid player as a rookie for them.

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.