One of my favorite movie lines of all time is in Bottle Rocket, during a scene where Owen Wilson is trying to convince Luke Wilson to join in a planned heist. “Here are a few of the ingredients,” he says, ticking off elements of the plan on his fingers. “Dynamite, pole vaulting, laughing gas, helicopters…can you see how incredible this is going to be?!?” The joke, of course, is that it’s a terrible plan — long on pole vaulting, short on logic. The Clippers enter the 2010-11 campaign with a new coach, a new general manager and a whole bunch of new parts, including last year’s top overall draft pick, the Completely Cleared for All Basketball Activities Blake Griffin. And the question is: Has Neil Olshey put together a workable plan or will it be another season of laughing gas and helicopters?
Clippers 2010-11 Unpreview
Dunleavy and Clippers in Arbitration
Since being fired earlier in the year, Mike Dunleavy has not received any of the money owed to him from his guaranteed contract, which reportedly totals upwards to $12 million dollars.
This isn’t exactly new territory for Donald Sterling. The Clippers fired Bill Fitch after the 1997-1998 season and proceeded to pay Fitch only $200,000 of the $4 million dollars owed to him. Fitch of course had to pursue legal action against the Clippers, which led to Sterling giving this deposition (via a story by Peter May in the Boston Globe in January 2003):
Afternoon Roundup
- Our friends at ClipsNation.com are having a big sponsored game night Saturday, April 10th against the Warriors. After reading Steve’s teaser, it’s hard not to get excited. All the information about the event can be found here. I’ll definitely be there – should be a very fun evening.
- Since Mike Dunleavy stepped down as coach and Marcus Camby was shipped to Portland, the Clippers have had only two games where they’ve posted a defensive efficiency number under 100. Even worse, both were against bottom dweller Sacramento. Remove the head, and the body will still flail around a bit. Remove the head and the body, and what are you left with?
- Adrian Wojnarowski of Y! Sports talks about Donald Sterling: “Donald Sterling has always talked a big game, but he’s never gone after a star GM in his prime. Dunleavy leaves the franchise set up in some good ways, but Sterling doesn’t understand that winning in the NBA doesn’t come from empty words in absurdly worded press-release firings, doesn’t come with throwing red meat to a fan base that wanted the old GM embarrassed and fired on the spot.”
- Bill Plaschke, doing some true California dreamin’: “Now introducing, Clippers forward LeBron James and two of his high school chums as general manager and coach. Crazy, too, but that’s the thing about what happened Tuesday. The Clippers didn’t lose a general manager, they gained a world of possibilities.”
On the Dunleavy Firing
Sources around the league maintain that with Dunleavy focused primarily on his coaching responsibilities, Olshey has been the main pipeline into the Clippers’ organization for a while now. Though Dunleavy — and Clippers president Andy Roeser above him — had veto power over any personnel moves, Olshey was the guy you called when you wanted to discuss deals. If that premise is correct, then Olshey had a big hand in getting the Clippers where they want to be financially heading into the summer.
Initial Reactions on Dunleavy’s Release
Mike Dunleavy being let go from his duties as General Manager is obviously shocking. Poor Kim Hughes found out about it after the game through Dain Blanton, the sideline reporter for Fox Sports Prime Ticket. According to an agent that spoke with Adrian Wojnarowski, Dunleavy himself may have had no idea he was being released up until just recently. The whole move feels a bit impulsive. Early conclusions would lead one to believe this was fully a Sterling orchestrated firing, right down to it being announced during a game broadcast.