The Los Angeles Clippers today extended a qualifying offer to forward Steve Novak, making him a restricted free agent.

In related roster moves, the Clippers announced that guard Ricky Davis has exercised his contract option for the 2009-10 season and that forward Brian Skinner has decided not to exercise his contract option for the 2009-10 season, making him an unrestricted free agent. The team also decided not to exercise their team option for the 2009-10 campaign on guard Alex Acker.

The Grizzlies and Clippers agreed in principle to a trade involving Zach Randolph, but Los Angeles owner Donald Sterling nixed the deal.

During Thursday night's NBA Draft, the two clubs worked out a deal centered around Randolph and Darko Milicic. Memphis guard Greg Buckner would have also been part of the trade.

After Sterling stopped the deal, the Grizzlies traded Milicic to the Knicks for Quentin Richardson.

Darren Rovell of CNBC released the 2009-10 rookie contract salaries over their three-year deals.  Rovell compared Griffin's $16M deal to the $25M in guaranteed money Mark Sanchez received from the Jets.  The NFL owners are interested in putting a rookie scale system into their new CBA.

1. Blake Griffin LAC $16,071,840

2. Hasheem Thabeet MEM $14,379,840

3. James Harden OKC $12,913,440

4. Tyreke Evans SAC $11,642,640

5. Ricky Rubio MIN $10,542,960

6. Johnny Flynn MIN $9,576,000

7. Stephen Curry GS $8,741,520

8. Jordan Hill NYK $8,008,560

9. DeMar DeRozan TOR $7,361,52

10. Brandon Jennings MIL $6,993,360

11. Terrence Williams NJN $6,643,560

12. Gerald Henderson CHA $6,311,520

13. Tyler Hansbrough IND $5,995,800

The Clippers have long been expected to select Blake Griffin with the first overall pick in Thursday's NBA Draft.

Griffin, who surprised people by going to Oklahoma, isn't worried about the team's sad past.

"A lot of people, when I committed to Oklahoma, asked me, 'Why did you commit there? Why didn't you go to Kansas or Duke or somewhere like that?' " Griffin said Tuesday. "I just said, 'You'll see in a couple years.'

"I'm a big believer in not always following the most popular thing to do. Make your own path. Do you own thing."

It might take longer than a season or two to turn around the Clippers, but Griffin is optimistic.

"It doesn't bother me at all," Griffin told The Associated Press. "All that stuff happened in the past. That's exactly what it is: It's in the past. No one can do anything about it now. If I am with the Clippers, it's going to be all about the future. No disrespect to anybody, but I could care less what happened 20 years ago, 15 years ago."

The Clippers haven't discussed moving the top overall pick in more than two weeks and insist that the club will draft Blake Griffin.

"The pick's not going anywhere," assistant general manager Neil Olshey said Monday.

Mike Dunleavy and Olshey haven't ruled out the possibility of acquiring another pick on or before Thursday's draft.

"We're going to try to jump into the draft," Olshey said. "We've proven in the last year or so, we're not afraid to make transactions. Some have worked, some haven't. But we've been as active as any team in the league and we're going to continue to do that straight through Thursday night."

The Clippers may not trade any of their three highly-paid big men, despite the expected addition of Blake Griffin.

Many believe that Los Angeles will deal one of the following, Marcus Camby, Zach Randolph or Chris Kaman, but coach Mike Dunleavy may have indicated otherwise.

Dunleavy believes that Griffin has the tools to play anywhere from center to small forward for the club.

During his workout with the Clippers on Saturday, Griffin showed off his ball-handling skills by drilling two and three basketballs at the same time -- "something you probably don't see too often from a 6-10 guy," Dunleavy said.

Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy wouldn't completely rule out trading the first overall pick when commenting on it Saturday.

"You can never say never about anything," Dunleavy said. "I don't know who the players are in this league who may fit that category. Obviously, if the word 'LeBron' was spoken by anybody, the door would open, clearly.

"Most of the time a pick like this, 99.9% of the time you would keep it."

Blake Griffin, the top prospect in this year's NBA Draft, worked out for the Clippers on Saturday.

Baron Davis is reportedly offered back to Golden State via trade from the Los Angeles Clippers every couple of weeks.

Davis struggled in Mike Dunleavy's system and seemed to regret his departure from the Warriors.

The Clippers will bring Blake Griffin in for a workout on Saturday.  The workout is an expected formality, as the Clippers have gave every indication that they intend to select Griffin with the first overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.

The timing of the workout will maximize media exposure for the Clippers, with dozens of members from the national media in town for the Finals.

The workout will be open to the media.

In an alternate universe, Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard could have became teammates on the Clippers.

The Clippers secured the second overall pick behind Orlando, the team that won the lottery and selected Howard.  The second overall pick was traded to expansion Charlotte and with the fourth pick, the Clippers selected Shaun Livingston.

Bryant was also a free agent that summer and was heavily courted by the Clippers.