Wow I can't believe I listened to that whole thing. All he talked about were injuries. At least he could have taken a little responsiblity for the record.

The Clipper organization has been racked with injuries since I've started following them. It's always the same story, Lawler and whoever his sidekick is are always talking about the injuries killing the team, making it impossible for them to win. Bill Walton, Randy Smith, Norm Nixon, Danny Manning, Stanley Roberts, Kerry Kittles, Maggette, Cassell, Kamen, Livingston and Brand. the list goes on and on. You'd almost think that the Clippers have a poor training department that doesn't prepare the players for the season. Does Dunleavy really have the statistics that show that the Clippers have that many more injuries than every other team in the league? Why do teams like the Rockets, who lost Yao Ming, or the Wizards, without Arenas and others, continue to be competitive? Look what the Suns accomplished two years ago without their two big men(replaced by of all people Tim Thomas!) No wonder people just smile and say "it is after all, the Clippers!"

As for the rockets, T-Mac is still a superstar. And for 22 game winning streak, the last 12 games w/o Yao was against mostly shitty teams like the Bobcats, Clippers, etc.

To Craig's point...I remember a fan writing in to Ralph's Mailbag recently, and saying that Jasen Powell and his staff should be fired because of the rash of injuries over the last few years (which I agree with), and I laughed my ass off when Lawler (or whomever was answering his questions for him) proclaimed the Clippers have the best training staff in the NBA, bar none. Any credibility that poor Ralphie had went away with that comment.

They're saying that this new training facility (whenever it opens) is suppose help better prepare Powell and his staff to treat and prevent injuries better. We'll see.

As far as their injury statistics. After a 1/3 of the season, when they were eliminated from the playoffs, players like Kamen and Maggetti took injury days off to be extra careful. If they were in the playoff race, the 300+ injury days would be 150 or so. And 3rd string players like Paul Davis and Aaron Williams don't really count.

I too cannot believe I listened to that whole thing. What a whiny little bitch MD is with his "just give me a healthy team" BS. My response to that is hey MD, sometimes in life you don't get what you want, and it's what you are able to do with what you have, not what you wish you had, that makes you the man you are. And that's the problem, MD has the make-up more of a woman than a man with all his damn excuses. The guy makes me sick with all his meaningless dribble about injuries. My $$ would be on Popovich under MD's ridiculous scenerio where Duncan and Parker would be out cause Pop is a winner, and would find a way to grind out many more than the 23 wins MD was able to get from this team.

The other thing that was just amazing was MD's assertion that the Clips have no bad contracts. That's what I would say too if I was the idiot that brought in Mobley and T2 at those prices. He's completely in denial. He's never won anything coaching in the NBA and with his loser mentality, it'll never happen.

I couldn't believe the "no bad contracts" comment either. That one really stood out for me. He is really in denial and Dunleavy is as stubborn is a beaten mule. What a terrible combination: extreme stubbornness, astoundingly overinflated ego and on top of that he surrounds himself with yes men just like could be expected for his personality type.

I agree that Jasen Powell should be fired. The problem with Ralph and Mike is that they are far from objective and their credibility suffers. Their continual glowing comments with regard to Ross, who is the biggest scrub ever, and Mobley, who they absolutely carry on about despite him disappearing for 75 games of the year, prove that.

I also see that Dunleavy did not talk about Houston - a team of scrubs and castoffs with one superstar (although that "superstar" is perhaps the most overrated "superstar" ever being that he is a total high volume low percentage shooter)

Mike Dunleavy has never overachieved in his long NBA career. In fact I would argue that he has under achieved in almost all of his years as a coach except for the 2005-2006 Clippers. Even that year was a fluke because we played Denver and they did not deserve the seed they were awarded that year. In fact the 2005-2006 Clippers would be in the 10th spot for this years playoffs. Dunleavy sucked for the Lakers, Portland, Milwaukee, and now the Clippers. I think what I dislike about him the most is that he sticks with his ineffective strategies. For example, why when the team had a frontline that consisted of Powell, Maggette, and Thornton did the team continue to walk the ball up the court? Why are we near the bottom of the league in fast break points? There were signs of this even with a healthy team when you look at how the team ran with Livingston and Cassel as the point guards. Remember when Livingston would come in and continue the same tempo that Cassel established.

I think you’re the team to be successful they need to take a few risk in the off-season. There are coaches out there like Larry Brown, Rick Carlise, Brian Shaw, Mark Jackson, etc. This would let us Clipper fans know that things are changing. Along with the lottery pick and hopefully 1 quality free agent acquisition.

Injuries during the season is one thing a coach can not prepare for, but Dunleavy knew before the season began that he would be without Brand and Livingston and he did not prepare a good game plan on how to win without them, he used their injuries as an excuse. A coach is supposed to do the best they can with the team they have, and Dunleavy did not do diddly sqaut, Fire him.
As for Jason Powell, don't get me started, don't even get me started.

The other thing about MD's comments are he fully expects Shaun to be back, and be a contributing member of the team.

I certainly hope that's the case, but given how bad that injury was, it's wishful thinking at best.

It'll be interesting to see if Clips management/MD are smart enough to have a contingency plan in place with an NBA level guard, not Dickau/Knight etc. Somehow I bet we are having this very discussion as training camp opens up, and the Clips will be scrambling for the latest re-tread to plug in to fill minutes at the point once again.

If Baron Davis opts out of his contract, Is he worth taking a look at him as a PG option?

If we can get Baron, it would be great.

Baron has got to be really pissed at Nelson because of his benching last night. I doubt he'd want to play for Dunleavy who would do the same thing.

They should focus on trying to win the summer league this year. Maybe they can hang that banner next to the LA Sparks one. Livingston and Kamen and the Italian Lebron James could make a good team.

I disagree with chris. Dunleavy had to rework his game plan, something he's been developing over the course of s few seasons, in a month when EB went down. He picked up the pieces and won the first four games out the gate. Dunleavy worked the offense around Kaman while guys like Sam, Corey and Cat would step up on a given night. It was when these support systems went down that it got messy. I like Corey's game, but it's one-dimensional at best. Same with Cat. As the season wore on, there isn't much a coach can do when he's got one real reliable option, Kaman, getting doubled and tripled on every other touch, and a supporting cast that doesn't see the game beyond one play. I don't see Phil Jackson, Poppovich or Nelson getting any more out of this lineup than Dunleavy did.

Now, if you want to talk about his prowess as an NBA coach, all you have to do is say Daniel Ewing on Raja Bell. He's not a great coach. He tinkers a little too much, kinda like Tony LaRussa, who has blown more big games than he has won. He's a guy who doesn't trust his players' instincts, and that probably isn't what we need anymore, especially if we bring in a Baron Davis, which sounds fun but I don't see it going down.

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As citizens of the NBA, it falls on the rest of us to help Save the Sonics! I beg you to please post your team/owner's information with the following. Thanks!

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It involves this:

IMPLORE EVERY NBA TEAM BLOG TO POST THE ADDRESS OF THEIR OWNERS. IN ADDITION, LETTERS SHOULD INCLUDE SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

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Spread this around as much as you can. It's going to take the other teams to prevent this from happening. Let's save the Sonics!

(E-mail your local newspaper too. This is of vital importance)

Let's put Dumbleavy's failures into perspective:

He inherits the Showtime Lakers in 1990 and Magic carries them to Finals where they crash and burn against Michaels Bull's. The next year he loses in the first round of the playoffs with practically the same team, decides to cut out and take another job.

Get's the Portland Trailblazers with 10 All-Stars and 2 future All-Stars on the bench, loses to the Lakers. Clutch is not Dunleavys middle name, but exceedingly bad contracts and a failure to succeed blamed on injuries seem to follow him everywhere.

Point is, even with talent, Dunleavy couldnt coach his way out of a paper bag. He's a terrible manager who doesnt play his players to their strengths and instead wants to rearrange the furniture and hope the room looks better but blaming that its perpetually unfinished on mail-order items that have yet to arrive. Not only that, hes a drama-ho, creating problems with every team he goes to. Here he keeps undermining Elgin and the team by constantly trying to trade one of their main stars with a long tenure and respect from his team. He signed a 7" white dude to a ludicrous contract that stares at a green light and wonders if he should go half the time. He brought in a SG that shoots 1-12 from the arc and we're paying him $8M. We have a SF/PF who makes George Bush look like a Rhodes scholar and we pay him another $7M to turn the ball over our foul out in 20 minutes while losing the game all at the same time. Mike Dunleavy is an inefficiency specialist and a disaster anywhere near the front office.

I would not go as far to say "undermining Elgin". Elgin has not done anything to earn his keep. If we were to start cleaning house, it would start at Elgin for just collecting a check and buying the lastest Bill Cosby sweaters. Next, All the scouts who were in charge of drafting Dehere, Woods, Wolf, Kandi Man, Brent Barry, Kimbo..Basically the picks from 1990 up to date.

On a side note, realistically the clippers have a chance of drafting Bayless or Gordon. Who is a better prospect?

Not to defend Dunleavy's coaching, because I'm not a huge fan of his, but no coach in the NBA could have made the playoffs in the West with this year's roster. For goodness sakes, we had to start Dickau at point sometimes. The same Dickau who was cut by the Knicks.

We do have some questionable contracts, but I've seen a lot worse. Also, Dunleavy would be a complete fool to say that they have bad contracts, even if he believes it.

The bottom line is that Dunleavy did not adapt his coaching to the team he had any given night. He should have given up on the low-post-slow-down-half-court-set game on gone up tempo with his athletic wings. Kaman is a good player but he is not a go to guy that can get you big numbers on any given night. A really outstanding game for Kaman would be about 22 points and 15 boards - nice but not enough to justify the funneling of the offense through Kaman as the Dunce did all year while Kaman was in the lineup. Now if Kaman was capable of putting 34 on the board on a really great night and passing out of double teams then you go there with that mode of play.

The Clippers would not have made the playoffs under a different and more creative coach but they would have been more competitive in games and won a few more. The total lack of competitiveness is what gets me. I can deal with watching the Clippers lose if they are in games and have a chance until the end. I cannot deal with the numerous 20 point blowouts. Every stinkin game a blowout? How is that embematic of a decent coach - it's not like he's got a roster of college players. And, he would have had another "piece" as he like to say if they idiot hadn't drafted Korolev at like number 6 in the draft. What could he have been thinking on that one? You could take one look at that guy and know that he wouldn't have even played on most top college teams.

Dan, the fact that MD said that there are no bad contracts shows how much denial he's in. He shouldn't have even brought it up, but he did so because for some reason, MD has a giant sized ego.

Mike, you hit the nail right on the head with the fact that MD was too damn stubborn to change his offense. He's too set in his ways at this point, unfortunately. It's his incessant whining about the injuries that gets me though, what a damn loser he is.