Crawford, Billups Agree With New Look Clippers

The new look Clippers have added a lot more names this week, and I’m not just talking about new Clippers’ wives and their TV shows. The Clippers roster has gotten a major revamp since free agency began five days ago.

Strangely though the team does not have a General Manager pulling the strings. Former Vice President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey left for Portland—so who is going to get the credit or the blame for the 2012-13 season?

CP3 for GM sounds like a decent campaign slogan, not that anyone runs for the position of GM though.

The Clippers pulled off a four team trade for Lamar Odom last week. The Clippers sent 6th man Mo Williams to Utah, and this season’s 2nd round draft pick Furkan Aldemir to Houston. Today the Clippers have agreed to terms with Jamal Crawford for a reported 3 years $15 million, and they reportedly closed a deal with Chauncey Billups for as much as $4.3 million

Even though free agency is not over (players can’t even sign until the 11th), but what does the lineup look like though today.

Starting lineup:
Chris Paul——Point Guard
Chauncey Billups——-Shooting Guard
Caron Butler——-Shooting guard
Blake Griffin——–Power Forward
DeAndre Jordan——–Center

Second Unit Notables
Eric Bledsoe
Jamal Crawford
Lamar Odom

The 2011-2012 Clippers lost Mo Williams in the trade, and also lost Reggie Evans to Brooklyn via free agency. Williams signed a three year deal worth about $5 million.

Crawford was a starting guard in the league, but he has been coming off the bench of late. He has been known to be a last shot taker, but thats not going to be necessary on a team with CP3 and Mr. Big Shot himself, Chauncey Billups.

So that doesn’t look like that strange of a team compared to last year’s team. But there is a long list of free agents from last year’s roster that the Clippers could look to sign.

Kenyon Martin, Nick Young, Randy Foye and Bobby Simmons are all free agents. With only second year player Trey Thompkins coming back in the frontcourt, the Clippers need to resign Kenyon Martin, and probably Nick Young. Martin is not a premier power forward any longer, but he is a reliable back up in the front court. And Young last season proved a lot of his doubters wring that he couldn’t contribute positively to a winning team.

Randy Foye however is another undersized guard on a team with only undersized guards. CP3 and Billups would be he smallest starting backcourt in the league, and while he plays at the rim, Eric Bledsoe doesn’t get the lineup any bigger .

Ultimately this is a talented team on the floor, but until the Clippers sign a few more players to fill in the holes, there are a lot of question marks about how this team will actually get the job done on the court. Unless college teammates Travis Leslie and Trey Thompkins made huge strides while riding the bench last season, this team is not done signing players.