FanHouse ChrisKaman

Moments after learning that his team had won the 2009 NBA Draft lottery, Clippers president Andy Roeser had a look of euphoria. Within an hour later, he was already back to work taking questions from reporters in a post-lottery conference call.

Roeser didn't come right out and say the Clippers were going to draft Blake Griffin, but he certainly didn't hold back any compliments when talking about him, either.

For a full transcript of his comments, from his thoughts on Mike Dunleavy's job security ("We have every intention of opening camp with Coach Dunleavy this year -- although I think that we have every intention of approaching some things differently, too.") to his not-so-vague comments about which veterans need to improve ("Baron Davis did not have a particularly good season. He knows that; we know that."), keep reading.

As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

No team has been as disappointing in 2008-09 as the L.A. Clippers. At least one or two teams have been worse in quality, but the phenomenal ability to fail with this much talent seems unprecedented. An All-Star level point guard, a D.P.O.Y. level center, two strong big men, a R.O.Y. candidate, an experienced coach ... what happened to the playoff hopes? What happened to 2008-09?

You could listen to me toss out some jokes, or you could read a completely sober(ing) dispatch from a guy who has watched it all, ClipperSteve of Clips Nation. I think you'd prefer the latter. ClipperSteve's words, after the jump.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.

* "Time is not running backwards per se - rather the passage of time is simply displaying a heretofore unknown behavior as regards Chris Kaman's foot. It is not yet known whether other portions of Kaman's anatomy exhibit the same phenomenon." -- ClipsNation.

* "Fans and bloggers flock to the site in search of enlightenment. It is bookmarked on every beat reporter's laptop. In the modern N.B.A., [Larry] Coon is cited more frequently than Naismith." -- New York Times, via BDL.

* "It's always been surprising to me that Tim Duncan wears number 21. 21 is sort of a flashy number, for guys like Kevin Garnett, Darius Miles and Zaid Abdul-Aziz. Duncan seems like he'd wear something in the 40s. This has been bothering me for at least three weeks." -- The Blowtorch.

* "If another 'diss' scenario boils over this postseason, LeBron can just have Buckethead nail one of the Wizards over the head with his guitar, then stuff a KFC hat on them for good measure." -- FirstCuts.

* Revisiting Derrick Rose's apple craving, defending the Lakers defense, and sportscasters associations rates Marv Albert tops in the NBA.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Blog-a-Bull. Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas are not making the most of their opportunities.

2. Ball Don't Lie. Video of the next president's election day pick-up game.

3. Sports Illustrated. Steve Nash is upset the Suns don't run when Shaquille O'Neal is on the bench.

4. Washington Times, via BallHype. More JaVale "Epic Vale" McGee: "A strip on the size-18 Nikes of Washington Wizards rookie JaVale McGee bears a peculiar phrase, written neatly in black Sharpie. 'Kill + Mode = Cheese.'"

5. Boston Globe, via TrueHoop. Carmelo Anthony might lose his personal chef ... to the White House.

6. Los Angeles Daily News. Why doesn't Chris Kaman surf the internet? "I'm into other stuff, shooting my bow and arrow around in my backyard, flying helicopters around. I just do stupid stuff you wouldn't think I'd be doing, but I'm the one doing it."

During the publication of my conceited effort to rate the NBA's Top 50, I saw a lot of comments and emails about those left out. A big slice of feedback also came in the form of criticizing the relative placement of various players, but that has been addressed within the posts themselves. The snubs need their due, though, so here's an attempt at explaining why certain players didn't make my cut.

Joe Johnson: J.J. was a hard omission, and on any given day I might have included him in the late 40s. Johnson is a great offensive player, a truly multifaceted weapon who can explode into blue-hot flames like few others. Some nights, he looks like one of the best in the world.

But "some nights" isn't good enough. Obviously, J.J. is a scorer by trade, Atlanta's top option every night. He failed to hit 10 points seven times last season. He shot worse than 40% in 30 of his 82 games -- more than a third of the season's worth of play. In those games, Atlanta went 9-21.

When you're the top dog, your team can't survive terrible shooting nights ... unless you find another way to score. Among all top-flight guards, J.J. was one of the worst at drawing fouls. Kevin Martin (who played four fewer minutes per game than Johnson) averaged 9.5 free throws a night. Johnson averaged 4.5 and shot at least nine free throw attempts in a game only 10 times. What good is J.J.'s slashing skill if it doesn't help his efficiency or his team's offense?

Interesting times in Clipper-land, these days. The team's newest star is on the Jenny Craig diet plan (no, I won't let it go, but thanks for asking). The team's other new star worked out with them for the first time today after fighting "flu-like symptoms." First round draft pick Eric Gordon is sidelined for a couple weeks with an ankle injury. And oh yeah, Elgin Baylor appears to no longer be performing his duties as the team's General Manager. Wait, what?

According to the OC Register (via Baller Blogger), Elgin Baylor is out as GM, and the only details we have is that there is a dispute between Baylor and and the Clippers, which Baylor won't speak about because his attorney advised him not to. What we do know is, this has been going on for at least a few weeks, because Baylor wasn't present at the team's practice facility when training camp began, and he was conveniently left out of the club's pre-season media guide -- entirely. No mention or picture of him anywhere.

Baylor has been the Clippers' GM since 1986, and besides being a fixture at the NBA's Draft Lottery proceedings, has done a mostly thankless job over the last 22 years. He did have a few achievements though, including winning the Executive of the Year award in 2006, drafting Chris Kaman, and pulling the trigger on the trade that brought Elton Brand to town. During the offseason though, it was coach Mike Dunleavy who seemed to be the spokesperson for the team's dealings, and sure sounded an awful lot like the real GM while doing so.

It'll be interesting to see what the dispute is all about; hopefully Donald Sterling isn't trying to go all Al Davis on Baylor after 22 years of service.

[Image credit: AP Photo/Gus Ruelas]

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A season ago, the Pacific Division was able to send just two of its teams to the playoffs, but one of them went all the way to the Finals. And while that's not likely to change this season -- at least the part about the two playoff teams -- each club definitely has its share of intriguing story lines.

Let's start off in Los Angeles, where the Lakers' playoff run last season took place with one of the team's key components on the sidelines. There are always many stories in Laker-land, but a lot of the team's fans seem to be most interested in this one: With the return of Andrew Bynum, do the Lakers have a shot to win 70 games?

Despite the recent flood of positive Andrew Bynum stories hitting the L.A. papers lately (seriously, his P.R. machine is working overtime), I'm not convinced that his addition to the lineup automatically makes the Lakers unstoppable. There's the whole thing about figuring out how to co-exist with Pau Gasol, and how Lamar Odom will perform (likely) playing further away from the basket. When you add in the fact that even if the team was capable of winning 70 games, there's really no motivation to do so, unless someone else is on the same ridiculous pace and it would mean home court advantage.

Chris Kaman was invited to participate with the USA Select team, the squad of youngsters which serves as both a scrimmage opponent for Team USA proper and a pipeline for potential future Team USA players. Guys like Kevin Durant, Kevin Martin and Al Jefferson participated this year. Kaman declined, for this reason, as told to USA Today's Kelly Whiteside:

Kaman was asked by USA Basketball about playing on a select team of NBA players who practiced against Team USA last month, but Kaman wasn't interested.

"I want to be the beat-up dummy for the U.S. basketball team?" Kaman said. "No offense to those guys, I appreciate everything. But I want to win a medal. I wanted a chance to play in the Olympics with Dirk."

Chris Kaman, who agreed to play for Germany because he wanted to be involved in the Olympics but did not want the beat-up dummy for the U.S. basketball team, sees his team trailing the U.S. by 41 points in the third quarter. Something's not adding up.

Yao Ming couldn't take out the elite Team USA, and couldn't finish the job against reigning world champ Spain. I have a feeling none of that matters right now.

With a win over Germany this morning, China has clinched a berth in the next round of the Olympic men's basketball tournament. Yao went for 25 points and 11 rebounds, negating a monstrous effort from Dirk Nowitzki to push his country to a four-point victory. The last moments weren't without drama: with China up by one with after a Dirk three with two minutes left, Germany got a stop ... but Nowitzki got called for the offensive foul against Yao. Ming missed a shot but got his own rebound, and Yi Jianlian (!) got a bucket with 30 seconds left to strengthen the lead.

Dirk misses a three, Yao hits some free throws, and ballgame. The addition of Chris Kaman helped Germany get to the Olympics, no doubt, but couldn't get Dirk any further than that. But that can be discussed another time: Yao's accomplishment, while not unique (China made the final eight in Athens and in the '06 Worlds), is huge considering the locale and quality of Group B. After starting 0-2, with Germany and Greece looking strong, no one expected China to get this far. It has to be a marvelously proud moment for the Chinese team.