Elton Brand Ruptures Achilles: What Will The Los Angeles Clippers Do?

ESPN news services reports on Elton Brand’s injury:

In the latest nasty injury blow for the Los Angeles Clippers, cornerstone forward Elton Brand ruptured his left Achilles tendon on Friday during his usual daily workout.

Brand, 28, is expected to undergo surgery next week and joins teammate Shaun Livingston on the list of long-term injury victims for the Clippers.

Achilles tendon injuries typically sideline NBA players for at least a year, which would theoretically threaten Brand’s availability for all of the 2007-08 season.

But ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reports that the Clippers have received a preliminary medical indication that Brand will be sidelined only six months. If so, Brand would be in line for a comeback in February.

My Quick Take: The curse continues. Whenever the Clippers take one small step forward, they often take two large steps back. Such is the life of Los Angeles’ other team.

Right now, the injury bug has decimated the Lakers’ ugly step-sister. Super-prospect Shaun Livingston may never recover from a knee cap injury and now Brand will miss half of next season with a ruptured Achilles tendon.

The Clippers have two options for next year:

1) They can act like the Clippers of old and concede. Simply wave the white flag and regroup for 2008-09. By then, Brand will be at full strength and Livingston will have hopefully recovered.

The team would be undermanned for 2007-08, relying on Corey Maggette and veteran Sam Cassell to carry the offensive load. But such is life.

2) They can act like the Clippers of 2005-06 and 2006-07 and compete. In the last two years, the new Clippers have made progress and partially changed their lovable loser image.

But management must pursue outside help. They should pursue a veteran who can offset the loss of Brand and also contribute when the All-Star forward returns.

Complicating matters is the Clippers stand pat approach to the off-season. They have done little during the summer to improve. That may change.

How the Clippers react to Brand’s injury is important. Will they crumble or compete? Are they the old or new Clippers? Only time will tell.

Click here to read and subscribe to Oly Sandor’s NBA Blog.