Garrett Chorpenning (@gchorp50)
My favorite current Clipper has got to be DeAndre Jordan, although it seems like it changes every year. He’s evolved into the prototypical center, and he does everything a great one should (besides knock down his free throws). When that whole DJ-to-Dallas fiasco happened a few years back, I was worried that we were going to lose him. Then the emoji battle with Chandler Parsons took place, with the banana boat and Paul Pierce’s rocket ship. That’s actually the moment I joined Twitter. It was comedic gold.
My favorite current non-Clipper has been Kenneth Faried for a while now. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the man stop running, and he never seems to play a game without giving it his all. True definition of an effort player. Dude can jump, too. He gets boards like crazy, and I’ve always thought he’d be a great fit in Lob City if Blake ever left, or if we needed another big off the bench.
This is actually a great story. Prior to the 2011-2012 season, I never sat down to watch an NBA game. I’d played basketball competitively for my entire life and watched a lot of college hoops, but since my parents didn’t care much about the pros, I never did either. So eventually, I got my own TV in my bedroom and got bored one night. I was flipping channels, found a Clippers-Grizzlies game, and turned it on just for kicks. The Clippers lost that one, but the rest is history.
Once we’re all healthy, we’ve got a great shot of succeeding in the playoffs. It’s just a matter of how we play
until
we’re all healthy. If we don’t get ourselves into the top 4 by the end of the season, a deep playoff run seems doubtful. It’s really unfortunate, too. When we started at 14-2 this season, my hopes were high. Like, we’re going to the Finals high. It’s been a disappointing season to say the least. While a lot of it has been out of our control, it’s important that we have guys that can step up and play big when our stars are out. That just hasn’t been the case yet.