<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> LOS ANGELES -- While you're not looking, the Clippers are quietly positioning themselves to make it back to the postseason next year. Of course, the Clippers always do things quietly in Lakerville, where the fireworks are strictly purple and gold. Except for that two-week period in May of 2006 when they survived longer in the playoffs than the Lakers, the Clips have been Los Angeles' Invisible Team. Even their top draft pick will need a cram session to get caught up. "I really didn't know too much," said Al Thornton, the 6-foot-8 small forward whom the Clippers took with the No. 14 pick, when asked what he knew of his new team. "I knew they were a veteran group and a playoff team." Well, they were a playoff team, but not this year. Thornton was introduced at a Thursday news conference at Staples Center before being whisked off to Las Vegas, where he will begin play for the Clips' entry in the NBA Summer League this weekend. Top draft picks often don't make it to summer league competition, sometimes because they haven't worked out their contracts yet, sometimes because they don't have to, and sometimes because they don't want to. Not this guy. "The player wanted to play," said Elgin Baylor, the vice president of basketball operations. Thornton signed Thursday morning and appeared ready for takeoff. "I'm excited," he said. "I'm anxious to get going." It's a serious upgrade from the days of Danny Ferry, the No. 2 overall pick in the 1989 draft who refused to play for the Clippers, fleeing all the way to Italy to start his pro career. Anyway, the way the Clips tell it, Thornton already is being ticketed for serious playing time after coming their way on the wings of Providence. Yeah, yeah, everybody claims they couldn't believe their luck on draft day -- how the player they wanted all along miraculously dropped down to them. But the smiles in the Clippers camp these days seem genuine. </div> Source: Press Enterprises
