Dunleavy out as Clippers coach; no longer GM, either

[Andrew]

Story @ Yahoo! NBA

Mike Dunleavy has stepped down as the Los Angeles Clippers’ head coach, retaining his job as general manager.

Assistant coach Kim Hughes will replace Dunleavy on the bench, where Dunleavy has led the Clippers to just one winning season since 2003.

The move is being called voluntary and mutual. Who knows what kind of "encouragement" Dunleavy received to step down and stick to the front office but he's probably lengthened his tenure by doing so, avoiding the axe for what will likely be another losing season (though by their own standards, they're not doing too badly). In any case, it's worth noting that Dunleavy is

the winningest coach in franchise history with 215 victories

Not quite the same as Phil Jackson overtaking Pat Riley.

[Lamrock]

Good news for the Clippers.

[Fresh8]

Poor Clippers. Hopefully their fortune will improve with this!

[Patr1ck]

The move is being called voluntary and mutual. Who knows what kind of "encouragement" Dunleavy received to step down and stick to the front office but he's probably lengthened his tenure by doing so, avoiding the axe for what will likely be another losing season (though by their own standards, they're not doing too badly)

So they have low standards? I'm sure you meant by the history of their poor records.

This is a godsend. Now the Clippers can make a run for the playoffs. Who the hell is Kim Hughes?

Kim Hughes was named the Clippers Interim Head Coach for the remainder of the season on Feb, 4, 2010. It is the first stint as a head coach for Hughes, who has spent six years in the Clippers organization as an assistant coach.

Before joining the Clippers, Hughes worked for five years with the Denver Nuggets, starting in 1998 as Director of Scouting before eventually being named Director of Player Personnel. Hughes also served as a Nuggets assistant coach in 1998-99.

Hughes also spent seven seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks as a head and regional scout.

His first game is against San Antonio. Nice...

Good news for the Clippers.

It would have been awesome if you could have kept your Clippers Association going and got rid of Dunleavy as a coach, since it was better than their current real life season.

[air gordon]

what's deal with firing this guy? Griffin out for the year. a bunch of other key players missing some games. a "fresh voice" wouldn't do any better. if he were to ever step down as GM, i'd be happy with him as the bulls coach. maybe even Gm haha

[Andrew]

So they have low standards? I'm sure you meant by the history of their poor records.

I didn't word it particularly well for what I meant to say but yeah, that's the gist of it.

[Dee.]

I Think they're new coach is they're Assistant,is that right?

[Andrew]

That's right, up until now Kim Hughes has been an assistant to Dunleavy.

[dopeboy]

Finally. I don't really understand why it happened now though. Compared to previous two seasons, they are doing ok this year. But good decision anyway.

[Dan's Brain]

And in what might be the most Clipperish move of all-time, look at who they're reaching out to:

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/Los- ... mas-020510

[Lamrock]

I love it. Hopefully, with time, he can take over GM duties as well

[benji]

http://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/8695042537

Just checked with Clippers brass on the report about Isiah and got an ALL CAPS denial...

http://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/8695221197

This feels like story came from Isiah... Can't see why the Clippers would want to pay $10 mill worth of coach next year

[Andrew]

I love it. Hopefully, with time, he can take over GM duties as well

On the bright side, Isiah couldn't really ruin the Clippers as much as simply carrying on a tradition.

[koberulz]

The move is being called voluntary and mutual. Who knows what kind of "encouragement" Dunleavy received to step down and stick to the front office but he's probably lengthened his tenure by doing so, avoiding the axe for what will likely be another losing season (though by their own standards, they're not doing too badly)

So they have low standards? I'm sure you meant by the history of their poor records.

Those poor records have set a low standard.

[NovU]

He just needs to stick to the GM job. Good that he resigns as a coach. It should have been not fun, coaching underacheiving team anyways. I hope everything gets better next season with healthy Griffin.

http://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/8695221197

This feels like story came from Isiah... Can't see why the Clippers would want to pay $10 mill worth of coach next year

[/quote]
$10 mil? Just pay me $10/hour and I will coach the team and sure I will carry on the tradition.

[shadowgrin]

a team with just two winning seasons in 30 years and only one playoff series victory since moving to Los Angeles in 1984.

I didn't know they are that terrible.

[benji]

Out as GM now as well.

[Lamrock]

May have been a bad coach, but he was a solid GM. Here's a funny fake Mike Dunleavy twitter. http://twitter.com/notmikedunleavy Unfortunately, only the first month or so of entries were good, and now they are either lame or about football.

Some highlights:

Sterling hates the Lakers banners. Told me to call Staples and ask if we could hang "Lottery champion: 2009, 1998, 1988".

Shawn Livingston in camp! Showed his highlights to the kids. Should've left out the one where his knee exploded. Kids crying.

#CampDunleavy: Doing some drills to simulate game situations. Gave the kids a 15 point lead with 12 minutes remaining and had them blow it.

#CampDunleavy: Taking a break from drills to show the kids 20 years of Clippers highlights. They deserve 3 minutes of rest.

Sterling just fired our scouts. Says if we want to find out about guys, we can just watch Youtube highlights. Saves us $60k.

Scouts only cost us $60k because Sterling was using illegal immigrants and paying them sub-minimum wages. Lo siento, Manuel

Wait, Thabeet was still available? Crap! Can we go back and pick over again? I forgot about him! He's like a skinny Olowokandi.

Really liked the T-Wolves draft. I would go with a 3 PG lineup and run a play called "Everybody pass to Jefferson and then stand there."

Mr. Sterling says we can't afford free agents, so we're going to offer Ben Gordon an unpaid internship as a shooting guard.

ESPN's @ricbucher wrote up the 20 best free agents, but Sterling won't pay for Insider. I'll just assume Speedy Claxton is on there.

We're not offering Sheed $10M per season at this point. That would be nuts. We're doing 5 yrs, $46 mil.

Today I have to take all the 2-ply toilet paper here and pull it apart so it's only 1-ply. Mr. Sterling says it'll save us $35

Found out that Griffin scored 22ppg last season. If you add 22 pts to every game we played, we would've won 3 more games.

Some people are questioning why I'd want Iverson. Frankly, I need to put the brakes on Eric Gordon's development.

Ordered a Clippers banner to hang at Staples: 2005 Pacific Division Runner-Up. Greatest achievement in Clip history.

Big Baby's contract has a "don't be fat" clause. I once suggested a "calm down" clause for Sheed's contract. He choked me.

I told the team last night to play 48 good minutes. Unfortunately, pre-game warm-ups were 30 of those minutes

I like when we lose by 20+, because the beat writers can just recycle their articles from every other time it happened.

Why do people assume we're going to sign someone with all this cap space this summer? Why can't we just be cheap?

Only 16 teams in the NBA make the playoffs, but if they change that to 16 per conference we're right back in this thing!

[Patr1ck]

Best move by the Clippers this season/decade/existence.

[Andrew]

Might as well go ahead and update the thread title.

So much for that arrangement. Funnily enough, no statements about it being a voluntary and mutual decision this time around. Instead, we have this:

“The team has simply not made sufficient progress during Dunleavy’s seven-year tenure,” the statement said. “The Clippers want to win now. This transition, in conjunction with a full commitment to dedicate unlimited resources, is designed to accomplish that objective.”

[Rip32]

There is finally a dim, barley lit, flickering light at the end of the Clippers' tunnel. Without Dunleavy around they can officially hire a GM and coach with sustained NBA success and move in the right direction.

When the Detroit Lions of the NFL fired their GM Matt Millen (who was 10x worse a GM than Dunleavy) last year, I think I smiled for about 3 days straight lol, so hopefully the same type of joy infests the hundreds of Clippers fans around the world.

[Lamrock]

Dunleavy was actually good at his general manager job.

[Patr1ck]

But they are saying that his replacement was a key in those "good" transactions. That's two gm's out the door in less than an entire season. I guarantee you that if they don't have a good season next year, by that I mean make the playoffs, Sterling will once again gut the team, starting with the players.

[benji]

Not exactly seeing why that would be a problem.

Plus it implies other teams would actually want the right to pay Baron Davis and Chris Kaman $12 million a year to jack up 20 shots a game.

[Andrew]

Wojnarowski doesn't mince words in describing the move Sterling should make next; sell the team.

The biggest embarrassment ever under the NBA commissioner’s watch, as pitiful and pathetic of an owner sports has ever seen, Sterling acted like he had done something he’s rarely done in his life: a public service.

Firing Dunleavy changes nothing for the Clippers. They’ll never win something significant or something sustained. They’ll never be blessed with the staying power, the resolve, to be a contender. Dunleavy goes and they’re celebrating the abrupt firing as some kind of a clarion call from Sterling. This was no mission statement, but the ranting of the crazy uncle living in David Stern’s attic.

The only things that Sterling has ever “fully committed” these so-called “unlimited resources” to are settling the lawsuits of his racist, slumlord heart.

Hey LeBron, come out to L.A.

You can pick your GM, your coach, your teammates.

Anything you want to be a Clipper – you can do anything but rent from me.

Ouch.