Earl Bloom of the Orange County Register writes that the Los Angeles Clippers had no problems handling the loss of former GM Neil Olshey, who took a similar position with the Portland Trail Blazers back in June. --------------------------------- Coach Vinny Del Negro, team president Andy Roeser and director of player personnel Gary Sacks have handled basketball operations since Olshey defected to the Portland Trail Blazers in early June. At that time, the opinion here, and elsewhere, was that Olshey's Northwest passage could be a serious blow to the Clippers' momentum gained from a second-round playoff advance. Since then, though, they've done nothing but move forward. ... All in all, it was a nice summer haul — one that could result in Sacks getting promoted from within to fill the GM role. Or, maybe Del Negro will have a dual role ... if the Clippers could let Mike Dunleavy do it, why not? --------------------------------- The Clippers traded for Lamar Odom and signed Grant Hill, Jamal Crawford, Willie Green, Ryan Hollins and Ronny Turiaf. They re-signed Chauncey Billups. They traded away Mo Williams and let Reggie Evans, Nick Young, Randy Foye and Kenyon Martin go. They also signed Blake Griffin to a mini-max extension. The Blazers re-signed Nicolas Batum and J.J. Hickson, signed Joel Freeland, Victor Claver and Ronnie Price, traded for Sasha Pavlovic and Jared Jeffries, and drafted Damian Lillard, Meyers Leonard and Will Barton. They traded away Raymond Felton and Kurt Thomas, bought out Shawne Williams and let Jamal Crawford, Craig Smith and Hasheem Thabeet go. -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter