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Brian Kamenetzky: Clippers find a new home for Zach Randolph. I’m not joking. (updated)

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It’s official: I owe Mike Dunleavy an apology.

He has, assuming all the reports are correct, managed to execute what I might call a basketball miracle. Had he conjured the image of the Virgin Mary on a Spalding or somehow managed to make Steve Novak’s jersey the league’s best seller, I would have been no more shocked and impressed. I wish the Clippers played near a body of water, just so I could see the guy walk across it.

Yes, Mike Dunleavy moved Zach Randolph. To another team (Memphis, not that it really matters). In the NBA. One with uniforms, an arena, a paid GM and everything. I thought it impossible, one reason I called last season’s deal that brought Randolph here one of the worst I’d ever seen. Not that they gave up anything of value (Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley) but in bringing Randolph to L.A., Dunleavy committed the Clips not only to the $14.67 owed Z-Bo for the ‘08-’09 season, but the $33.3 million he’s scheduled to earn over the next two seasons. This for the single worst statistically productive player in the NBA, a living, breathing, occasionally running example of why fantasy sports aren’t real sports.

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Randolph gets his 20/10, which is commendable, but can’t/won’t pass, is (to say the least) an inattentive defender, shoots indiscriminately, and basically does none of the things that help basketball teams win outside of what Kevin Arnovitz, my friend over at ClipperBlog and ESPN.com’s True Hoop, once referred to as Randolph’s ‘fiefdom’ of scoring and rebounding. Add in serious questions of attitude and character -- in his brief stint with the Clips he was twice suspended, once for punching Louis Amundson of the Phoenix Suns, then again after his arrest for suspicion of drunk driving (Note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Randolph was suspended for DUI.)-- and you really get a full picture of how lucky the Clippers are to be rid of him.

He is the antidote to a winning team, and acquiring him was a panic move in the wake of the LAC’s slow start, front-court injuries, and Elton Brand’s defection. Mike Dunleavy the GM messed up Mike Dunleavy the coach.

Sending him away would be enough (diyanu), but to quote my inner infomercial... Wait! There’s more!

Not only did the LAC lose Randoph’s physical presence, one that would unquestionably hinder the development of No. 1 pick Blake Griffin, himself a power forward who will work off the block, but managed to do so without taking on another team’s financial albatross in return. Nope, the Clippers will receive the $8.7-million expiring contract of (not that it really matters) former red, white, and blue stalwart Quentin Richardson, sent to Memphis in a draft day deal for Darko Milicic. (This, by the way, can’t be a proud moment for Q. To be traded for one of the draft’s biggest busts and one of the league’s worst contracts in the same week? It puts things in perspective.) And, note the folks at Hoopsworld.com, the Clippers pick up a valuable trade exception to boot.

Reportedly, Donald Sterling nixed a similar deal on draft day, but managed to be convinced this time around. Good thing, too, since the second version is better than the first, which may (depending on which account you read) have required taking Marko Jaric and his longer contract in return. This is a step or two past turning lemons into lemonade. Not only are the Clippers better off without Randolph, but they’ve once again made themselves players again in the anticipated free agent orgy of next summer, when the list of quality players potentially available is extensive. (The loss of cap space for next summer was one of the most absurd aspects of acquiring Randolph in the first place.) They essentially get a do-over. Actually, it’s better than a do-over, because the Clippers not only gained cap space for next season, but more flexibility for this summer should they be so inclined.

I said it couldn’t be done, and I was wrong. I can’t excuse the trade that brought him here, nor will I stop expecting strangeness in one form or another moving forward (at least this’ll end his recent run of radio interviews I’ve heard in which Dunleavy defended himself and the organization against charges of incompetence and started a mini-fued with Bill Simmons), but now that Zach Randolph is on his way out of town, I owe MD Sr. an apology.

As the saying goes, there’s always another sucker. Dunleavy found him, in Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace. You did wrong last year, Mike, but you fixed it and fixed it good. My bad.

-- Brian Kamenetzky

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