The Clippers were ecstatic after making their first selection in Thursday's NBA draft.

Indiana freshman combination point guard Eric Gordon, the player they'd been targeting all along, and had even contemplated trading up for earlier in the day, was available at No. 7.

"We've hoped, way back (during the college basketball season) that we'd be able to get him. We've targeted him for a while," Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy. "He's a great fit for out team. He'll be able to stretch the defense and he can attack the rim. We think he can make an impact right away."

Gordon isn't the pure point guard the Clippers desperately need, but he's a prolific scorer (20.9 points a game, to lead the Big Ten) with good outside shooting ability who was regarded as a top three pick for most of the season, until a wrist injury hampered him at the end, and controversy derailed Indiana's season.

Most NBA scouts compare him to a bigger version of Chicago's Ben Gordon.

"He's 6-foot-3 , but when we had him in here and saw how wide his shoulders were, it was clear he plays a lot bigger than that," Dunleavy said. "He's got double-wide shoulders."

Dunleavy said the Clippers drafted Gordon as a shooting guard. If he's able to play point guard, Dunleavy said, it'd be a bonus. But Gordon said he's more than ready to take the reins.

"I'm equally comfortable (at point guard)," Gordon said. "I played a lot of shooting guard at Indiana, but I usually play point guard. I've played there all my life, I just didn't show that in college."

In the second round, the Clippers took Texas A&M freshman center DeAndre Jordan.

Later, the Clippers traded a future second round pick to Portland for the rights to former Iowa State guard Mike Taylor, who played in the D-League last year.

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