From Clippers.com:

The Los Angeles Clippers and General Manager Mike Dunleavy today have severed ties. Dunleavy previously also served as the team’s head coach from 2003-04 until February 4, 2010, when he resigned as head coach.

The organization has determined that the goal of building a winning team is best served by making this decision at this time. The team has simply not made sufficient progress during Dunleavy’s seven-year tenure. The Clippers want to win now. This transition, in conjunction with a full commitment to dedicate unlimited resources, is designed to accomplish that objective.  More...

Marcus Camby on his new situation: “Anytime you get traded it’s always an awkward situation, especially when you’ve been in a place for a couple of years, you’re used to your surroundings, you know, you enjoy the situation that you’re in. But then to find out you’re traded and you have to move on to new surroundings, it’s always difficult. But once you sit back and digest the situation and take a moment to yourself to analyze how things are – where you’re at and where you’re going – it’s a no-brainer. The Clippers are going in opposite direction than what I would have liked in my career. Coming to Portland and being surrounded by the great players that we have – Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge – it was a no-brainer. I definitely welcome the situation to be in playoff contention again, and I definitely can’t wait to get started.”  More...

From my column at ESPN Los Angeles:

The debacle in Oakland Wednesday brought into focus the fallacies of the Clippers’ new strategy. Hughes and Davis have been diplomatic with regard to Dunleavy, but both men seem to subscribe to a syllogism that goes something like this: (A) The Clippers’ offense under Dunleavy was a failure. (B) Dunleavy’s offense was very structured. (C) Therefore, a structured offense is a recipe for failure.  More...

One of my closer friends is a musical conductor and through osmosis, I’ve learned a teeny bit about musicology. He once lent me composer/conductor Pierre Boulez’s “Orientations: Collected Writings” when we were stranded on a rainy beach in West Africa, both completely out of reading material (I think he ended up with Dean Oliver’s “Basketball on Paper.”).

Why is this relevant? For reasons ClipperBlog reader Krai Charuwatsuntorn beautifully laid out after the Clippers’ loss to San Antonio Saturday night.  Responding to my conclusion, “The Clippers are a team in transition, engaged in a dialectic between the more formal offense of Dunleavy and the run-and-gun style professed by Hughes,” Charuwatsuntorn responded:  More...

Yesterday I was asked by a friend if I thought Mike Dunleavy was a bad basketball coach. It was a good question.

Dunleavy’s tenure with the Clippers is tough to ignore. He’s had one winning season in six years and one of the worst overall winning percentages in NBA history during that time frame. In the most important aspect of coaching, wins and losses, Dunleavy failed quite a bit more than he succeeded.  More...