Earlier this month there was word circling around the league that Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni had lost control of his team, and before you knew it he was gone. Now we have rumblings coming out of the Clippers camp, and it seems fairly conclusive that Del Negro has little time remaining with the team if they don’t turn things around quickly.
After watching Del Negro’s Clippers play over the past week, it’s evident that the team has completely lost focus and determination. How much an NBA coach has influence over a game is debatable, but these two facets are undeniably the head coach’s responsibility. And while the team has one of the league’s best floor generals in Chris Paul, they’ve struggled with a leadership crisis and their execution in late-game situations has been well below-par.
Not all coaches are expected to have a Rick Carlisle type level of offensive creativity, or a Tom Thibodeau-esque defensive system, but when a coach fails to implement a game plan that works consistently on either side of the floor, it becomes a problem. I’ve followed Chris Paul closely since he was a rookie, and like most great players he has a knack for making the coach look good. In his time playing in New Orleans under Monty Williams, Paul’s ability to cover up coaching mistakes was a frequent point of discussion, but so far this season even CP3 has had a tough time making Del Negro look like a competent play caller.
Earlier this week ESPN’s Bill Simmons tweeted: “Heard today that Vinny Del Negro is on super-thin, could-go-any-day ice. A blowout loss in OKC tonight won’t exactly help. 2 things going in VDN’s favor: 1) Sterling is too cheap to pay for 2 coaches, and 2) can’t hire an interim coach for a playoff contender.”
Much like Del Negro, Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been the punchline to a bunch of NBA related jokes since he became involved with the league. He’s owned the Clips since 1981, and in that time they’ve mustered up not one, but two winning seasons (record greater than 41-41). So it’s conceivable that Sterling would be happy to let Del Negro go down with the ship, rather than fork out some cash for a head coach who could push them back in to a winning direction.
If this were last year you could bet that Sterling would stick with Del Negro for the remainder of the season and watch as the Clippers slowly fade out of the playoff picture, but such failure this year could come at a cost, and that price is Chris Paul reconsidering his future with the Clippers. As some people may know, Paul can become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2012/2013 season, which means if he isn’t sold on this Clippers franchise he can opt out of Lob Angeles and become fair game for the rest of the league.
As a part of the deal that sent Paul to LA the early opt-out clause was waived from his contract, which keeps him with the Clippers through the 2012/13 season, much like Dwight Howard in Orlando. This gives them an extra year to build a contender around Paul and Griffin. However, when Chauncey Billups was ruled out for the season with a torn achilles tendon, it presented the Clippers with their first bump in the road, and how the organisation steadies the ship will tell Paul a great deal about his new ball club’s commitment to winning and whether or not he wants to put pen-to-paper in extending his stay with the Clippers beyond 2013.
In the off-season Paul made it clear that his sole-purpose for leaving the Big Easy was for a better opportunity at winning an NBA championship, and if he doesn’t feel the Clippers have the capacity to do so, why would he stick around? With only two winning seasons under their belt in over 30 years, it seemed questionable that the Clippers would be that team for Chris Paul. After they got off to a strong start with signature wins over the Thunder, Lakers, Heat and Mavericks, the skeptics were silenced, but for the first time since the Paul trade questions are being asked, and if farewelling Del Negro will put these issues to bed (for now), it seems like a no-brainer.
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vs San Antonio - Game 6 (L) 17/05/13
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Andrew Bogut (GSW)
Patrick Mills (SAS)
Aron Banyes (SAS)
16 Comments until now.
Nate McMillan would be a good fit IMO.
Nate McMillan’s always been respected around the league, he probably will get an offer from another club in the near-ish future.
A slightly more progressive scenario I saw (also tweeted by Simmons): “What Clips SHOULD do: fire VDN, convince Chauncey to retire (for this year), then make Chauncey interim coach. No joke, thats the best play.”
The Clippers obviously have a great deal of respect for Chauncey and since he’s been away from the team they’ve had a massive leadership crisis, would be very interesting.
I agree, Nate McMillan would be perfect for this group.
Chauncey Billups? C’mon now.
Haha come on man, Mr Big Shot could hold a clipboard in a nice suit!
But yes, McMillan would be a safe, sensible and logical option.
One thing I’ve loved about McMillan as a coach is his ability to make do with the hand he’s been dealt.
There’s something to be said for a coach whose teams constantly overachieve.
Rick Adelman another great example…
McMillan’s a top notch coach, similar to Adelman as you said SP. Teams like the Clippers, Knicks and even Golden State should be knocking on his door NOW.
Doesn’t surprise me that that idiotic suggestion came out of Bill Simmon’s mouth
I’m a huge Simmons fan (I often find myself quoting him once an article) – but the trick with anything he says (be it his Twitter, articles or podcasts) is to be able to seperate his attempts at humour from the harder analysis.
Spot on Ash.
It’s often difficult to convey sarcasm through a 140 character tweet, so every now and then people (myself included) take things the wrong way.
Must have been a few too many late night beverages before hitting up the twitter feed!
Is anyone else surprised that The Clippers are in the process of shitting the bed again this season?
If so, Really? I mean…Really, Why?
Ask yourself this:
In their entire recent history have The Clippers ever unexpectedly followed through on a good stroke of luck?
No matter who they hire, draft, trade for or how hard they play, people need to not forget this one small piece of information about them – They are The Clippers for god’s sake!
If there is one thing in life I know it’s that the Clippers will find a way to screw up. Whatever the situation.
Sure there’s some positives at the moment:
Best Pg in the league
Two of the top five most athletic bigs in the league
Being over .500 for the first time comfortably in a long time
Being on Sportscenter most nights
But then there is:
A grossly stagnant under-performing defense, the cheapest tightarse owner in the league, leadership issues, and to top it all off an ever-panicked little brother mentality that the other LA team seems to have inbuilt into it’s management/culture.
Did the Lakers improve at the deadline? I’d argue yes they did, plus they needed to move some pieces.
Did the Clips? No they didn’t, Nick Young might have filled the glaring hole at SG and bring in some instant offense, but whatelse is brought with him from via Washington is an ever increasing sense of unaccountably.
Besides the Young trade being extremely shortsighted move, no…that’s it, it leaves LAC worse off next year (The year they want to actually make a serious push at the conference finals) potentially than now. If you aren’t moving forward you are standing still.
Notorious V.D.N is far from the best coach in the league, but he’s also not the worse. He’s only one of the many problems the clips are pissing against the wind into.
The moment they reach they slump to .500 he’ll be gone.
The “joke” Simmons was trying to make was that Sterling was too cheap to bring in an extended new coaches salary. Nothing more, nothing less, so if VDN goes, whoever they get will be a short term contract.
Here’s another take on Paul/The Clippers:
http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/clippers/post/_/id/1273/chris-pauls-old-coach-talks-leadership
I don’t know about Bill Simmons, he comes out with some stupid stuff. Just listened to his pod with Steve Kerr, and he’s rabbiting on about how Orlando could beat Miami in a playoff series…thats just idiotic..has he watched them this year?…he called them ‘deep’..what the?…Duhon is their backup point guard, Baby is their only capable reserve big and QRich and Wafer are getting time..that is horrible…dont get me wrong his pods are great but sometimes he says stuff which makes you really question his chops
Yeah I listened to the BS Report podcast with Steve Kerr today as well.
I don’t think his point was that the Magic WOULD beat Miami in a series, but that they are one of the very few teams who would be able to, if absolutely everything went right, arse their way through a series with the Heat.
@TJR – Totally agree with you that the Clips have a losing culture, but I disagree about them not improving at the deadline.
I was amazed they were able to get a player who could crack a rotation in return for Brian Cook. I understand that Nick Young’s game is so far from being complete, but if the Clippers wanted to solve all their problems, it was going to come at a cost much greater than ‘Cookie’.
The Clips brought in another weapon, and once they figure out how to use him the trade will undeniably have made them a better team.
SP; I said he was going on about how Orl ‘could’ beat Miami in the playoffs. Even this notion is ridiculous. Magic have no bench (except Redick), they dont have a closer, noone to create their own shot when it matters and they’re relying on hacks Turkoglu and Richardson for major production. they have no chance of beating an elite team in a 7 game series. their wins are fools gold. everyone seems to be forgetting that this same team lost to bloody Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs last yr, which says all you need to know. and nothings changed
Couldn’t agree more, One thing he overlooked was Miami’s perimeter defenders. Wade, James, Battier and Chalmers are all above average defensive players so the idea of Orlando shooting their way through Miami seems pretty ridiculous.
I’d say he’s just thinking of Howard.
The one thing that seems to spook Orlando (and by Orlando I mean Dwight) besides streaky shooting, lack of decent ball-handlers and depth, is physical interior defence on Dwight.
He folds like a cheap suit if it comes into the 4th and has to shoot free throws, last year and beyond Jason Collins has made him a non factor. Enough said.
The fact is if you can restrict Dwight’s impact on the game, keep your foul count low until the fourth and only have single coverage on him most of the game you are going to win more game than lose against Orlando.
If I was Sterling, Coach Nate is the first call, but the next call for me would be to Jerry Sloan.
Paul=Stockton
Griffin=Malone
Anyone disagree?
For the record my third call as Simmons suggested “When Kentucky win College ball this year” Calipari should be in an NBA job next year. New York or LA either one wouldn’t be a bad thing.
The Robert Pack era and not the amusingly named Iavaroni was apparently set to begin being interim head coach last Saturday, but Stirling jumped in and said he wanted to see some home games first, two wins later and a now next to a zero chance of extending VDN’s contact Pack is set to be announced as taking over on Thursday.
Its potentially good news for Austin Rivers who now since the Clippers hold a protected Celtics 1st round pick he is more likely imo going to end up being coached by his dad in Beantown.
Watch out if that happens.
Also Patty is officially now on the San Antonio roster! Rock and Roll!
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