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.

We're well past 'Plan B' for Danny Ferry and the Cleveland Cavaliers' attempts at giving LeBron James some scoring help. We've now moved on to 'Plan Z7652Y, Codename: J.R. Smith.'

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer's Terry Pluto is reporting that the Cavs have decided to pursue Denver's feisty combo guard, since their attempts at Michael Redd and every other valued scorer available on the market have failed.

Smith's a bit of a gamble, with excellent scoring instincts as well as transition skills. The drawback, of course, is a shaky history both with vehicle accidents and coaching disputes. He's a fiery personality, but a huge talent. Your typical NBA conundrum.

The Cavs have been desperate to find a suitable upgrade in the scoring department since last season's mediocre/borderline miserable offensive performance, but have been either unable or unwilling to pull the trigger on anything meaningful. Meanwhile, with the Delonte West saga dragging on, the Cavs' pursuit of Smith has to be seen as at least an indication that the Cavs don't feel particularly hamstrung by West's demands.

I spoke with Smith at Summer League while he was there hanging out with teammates, and while he did say he was focused on returning to Denver this year, he also didn't seem too enthused about the Marcus Camby trade, saying only "That's how things go in this business."

I am not going to share the lowest point of my life with you, dear reader, but I can promise you that it is vastly worse than being traded to Los Angeles to get paid millions of dollars to play basketball.

Which is what happened to Marcus Camby recently. It is also what he recently described to the Boston Globe as being the single worst thing that has ever happened to him.

A year ago, Camby dealt with the birth of daughter Maya three months premature. Camby then played well for a disappointing and highly compensated Nuggets team that was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth straight season. The Hartford native recently learned about a "real-life family issue" back home that has caused great stress. And after playing the past six seasons in a city he had grown to love, he was surprisingly dealt.

"With everything I've been dealing with off the court, this is the lowest point of my life," said Camby.

I understand that professional basketball players are people too. And I understand that getting forced to move to another state is not the greatest thing in the entire world.

However, those are the breaks of getting paid millions to play a game you love. Sometimes, you are required to do things that you might not otherwise choose to do. And this is a Los Angeles Clipper team that, despite it's inability to keep Elton Brand on the team, is actively in pursuit of a roster that can be competitive next season.

So, Marcus: not "thrilled to get traded?" Sure. "Lowest point of your life?" That seems a bit of a stretch.

Via SBB

Every Friday, FanHouse's NBA Frankenstein explains how various ballers were created. Introducing: the guy who isn't even worth a bag of maple bats, Marcus Camby.



Liner notes: The University of Massachusetts Dean's List, circa spring 1943; half-a New York style pizza, reheated in the microwave just enough to get a little cheese sweat going, but not enough to make the sauce too hot; a disgruntled but amazing survey of The Camby Man's defensive truth; Antonio McDyess's diary, circa 2002.

Photos by Getty Images. Assemblage by Ziller.

With the Clippers' acquisition of Marcus Camby, and the Sixers' signing of Elton Brand, the market has dried up very quickly for the services of Josh Smith. There aren't really any teams left that can pay Smith what he wants (except for Memphis, who doesn't seem interested in competing anymore), and with the Hawks being able to match any offer, it appears likely that Smith will return to the team next season. But for how long?

SI's Chris Mannix reports that the relationship between Smith and Hawks' coach Mike Woodson is in bad shape, meaning that Smith may be hesitant to sign a long term deal with Atlanta.

... league sources said Smith would not be interested in returning to the Hawks if the team retained coach Mike Woodson, who recently signed a two-year extension. The two have butted heads frequently in Smith's four seasons, and sources said the relationship is beyond repair. With a dearth of offers, Smith may change his tune, but having a volatile relationship on such a young team may not be in the Hawks' best interests.

A more appealing, but less plausible scenario could be for Smith to sign the one-year qualifying offer with Atlanta and try his luck in free agency next season.

Since there aren't any teams that can afford to sign Smith to an offer sheet and force the Hawks to match, the proverbial ball is in Josh's court. Does he go for the money and long term deal, and try to force his coach out Magic Johnson-style? Or does he sign the qualifying offer, play with a chip on his shoulder next season, and go into the unrestricted free agent market in 2009? The latter option seems like the better one to me, but players tend to want to lock up the guaranteed dollars as soon as humanly possible.

ClipsNation seems to be ecstatic (shock!) over the Marcus Camby coup. One of the fans there pulls out this quote from Camby's agent Rick Kaplan, as recorded by the Rocky Mountain News.

[T]he Nets, without room under the salary cap, were not able to bid low enough to get him in a salary-cap dump.

"Kiki really wanted Marcus," said Camby's agent, Rick Kaplan, referring to New Jersey general manager Kiki Vandeweghe, the general manager in Denver when the Nuggets traded for Camby in June 2002. "But he didn't have enough of nothing to give."

When we joke about all these teams angling for cap space in 2010, even though they have no shot at LeBron, Wade, Bosh or Amare, keep in mind how valuable nothing can be. Nothing can allow to get something for nothing, while something just prevents you from easily getting something else.

It's the new NBA, people, where cap space has tremendous upside potential and on-court performance is a deep, deep second to fiscal impact in importance. (And let not this fine occasion pass without noting the Wizards got more for the rights to pay Juan Carlos Navarro last summer than Denver got for Marcus Flippin' Camby.)

ESPN is reporting that the Los Angeles Clippers have acquired center Marcus Camby from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for a second round pick.

Yeah, that's it.

Even at 34, Camby is a solid pick up for the Clippers, who of course are feeling a little short in the frontcourt after the Big Guy took off. Camby still averaged 9 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks last season, and was probably the only bright spot on one of the league's worst defenses. This gives the Clippers a scoring heavy backcourt with Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, and Al Thornton, and physical play up front, with Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby. Best of all, Camby's contract expires in the summer of... 2010. Which, as you may have heard, is kind of a big deal.

When Nuggets fans hoped for a roster move to shake up a team that was woefully deficient at defense, and downright catastrophic at points in terms of chemistry, this is is probably not what they hoped for. This has to be considered nothing more than a cost cutting measure by the Nuggets, who are scheduled to pay over $13 million in luxury tax for last season.

Both teams needed to do something with their rosters. They did something, but it says something very different about the future for both squads.

Allen Iverson had until today to opt out of the final year of his contract with the Denver Nuggets, and his agent Leon Rose just confirmed to the Rocky Mountain News that his client will play out his current deal, which will pay him more than $20 million in 2008-09. This was certainly expected -- Iverson has said he wanted to remain all season, and Marcus Camby predicted his teammate would return earlier this week -- but you can never take anything for granted.

Just because Iverson decided against opting out doesn't mean he'll necessarily be playing in Denver next year: his hefty expiring deal is an interesting bargaining chip for teams looking to make a move, and guys like Carmelo Anthony and Camby have also been mentioned in their share of rumors. Plus J.R. Smith, whom AI is essentially blocking from the starting lineup, is a restricted free agent -- while Denver's up-and-down style of play fits his game, he may be able to find a starting gig elsewhere.

Even if the Nuggets can't find a blockbuster to their liking, expect at least a small deal: ESPN's Chad Ford reported a rumor yesterday involving the Grizzlies sending Kyle Lowry and the 28th overall pick to Denver for Linas Kleiza. That deal coud. make sense for both teams, considering Grizzlies' glut of point guards and the fact that Anthony Carter, the Nuggets' starter last year, is now a free agent. Whatever happens, expect the Nuggets to be one of this summer's most active teams.

From the pages of this year's edition of "Trade Rumors That Seem To Spring From The Ether And Return As Quickly" comes a lovely bit of speculation regarding Carmelo Anthony. There have been whispers and insinuations for a few days about Melo potentially being traded to Detroit for some set of pieces.

Combine that with Woody Paige and his WACKY ANTICS(!) and you've got yourself a legitimate piece of buzz. Except Paige's proposal, involving, among others, Anthony, Marcus Camby, Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince (yes, all of them) doesn't work according to the cap rules. Nor according to logical thought (a far fetched concept in NBA GMs, I know, but we're talking Dumars, here). Not according to Melo's agent. It does not work on a train, it does not work on a plane. It does not work with the freight, it does not work with BAC of .148. It will not work, Woody You Are, it does not work, not by far.

It seems that more and more the trades that involve two teams talking to each other repeatedly almost never fall through. Conversely, big trades that just "spring up" like the Shaquille O'Neal trade or even the Pau Gasol heist are much more effective. But if you're a fan of the "where there's smoke, there's Carmelo Anthony" approach, throw this one on the pile, see if it lights.