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Three weekends have come and gone since their season ended with no meeting. This poses a problem for Clipper officials who favor offing Vinny so Chris Paul can choose the coach. Of course, it will pose a worse problem if it upsets Paul as his contract runs out.
In any case, a league source says Paul will check out other teams, as Howard is expected to do. If Paul leaves, it could could pose a problem for the Lakers, who had enough already, if he and Dwight Howard decide to create a new option, joining up in Atlanta. Howard and Paul are pals. The Hawks can open up two maximum slots. They mused about Atlanta (D12’s from there, CP3 from North Carolina) years ago, before fate led them in other directions.
With or without the CP3-Atlanta scenario, re-signing Howard looks ever trickier amid reports he voiced his frustration about Mike D’Antoni. Not to mention his frustration with Kobe Bryant. ESPN L.A.’s Dave McMenamin reported Howard told GM Mitch Kupchak he felt marginalized by D’Antoni, who looked to Bryant and Steve Nash for leadership but not him.
Worse, a league source told me that despite the apparent thaw between Howard and Bryant, Dwight complained privately about Kobe late in the season. If this summer wasn’t billed as an NBA-chang event, it was because insiders were sure Paul would stay, and Howard would accept the extra $30 mill from the Lakers, however grudgingly.
Now, for the first time, there are rumblings, like the shifting of tectonic plates. With five teams seeking coaches–pending further developments–and 30 teams that can use a superstar center or point guard, a lot of big pieces are in play. Besides Howard and Paul, free agents include Josh Smith, Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap. Available coaches include Jerry Sloan, Jeff Van Gundy, Stan Van Gundy, Nate McMillan, Byron Scott, Alvin Gentry, Doug Collins and Mike Dunleavy.
Then there’s Memphis’ red-hot Lionel Hollins, who’s only under contract through July 1.
If Cinderella teams and coaches don’t often part, the Grizz is under new management, which traded Rudy Gay, a move Hollins protested publicly.
The Grizzlies say they want to re-sign Hollins, but with widespread interest, they won’t get a bargain. Hollins just happens to be the Clippers’ new favorite option, should they turn out to need a coach. He’s reportedly on Brooklyn’s list. (In what may be pure coincidence, Sterling sat courtside at Game 1 of the Grizzlies-Spurs series in San Antonio.)
Thus, it’s a sobering thought for all involved if the linchpin at the middle of all this manpower is, my hero, Donald T. Sterling.
Next Page: Clippers Looking To Remain Relevant Despite Donald Sterling
Donald was a cottage industry for me in the days I wrote him open letters in the Los Angeles Times, offering to outline some basics… like that taking a meeting with your players to complain about your coach undermines his authority.
RIP, Don Casey.
Happily—at least for my schtick–Donald didn’t get anything I wrote, often telling me, “I didn’t understand what you meant.”
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As I used to note in my full-time employee days, it’s always dangerous when the Clippers reach the point at which Donald has to do something. For the last two seasons—the best in Clipper history—he had nothing harder to do than OK the trade for Paul and extend Blake Griffin.
Not that Del Negro deserves to be fired. It was just set up that way with his contract expiring as Paul’s did, to give CP3 a say on the hire, if he needed one more reason to stay.
Below the level of Donald, it was the Clipper plan for a year, since deciding to bring Vinny back this season, albeit without an extension, as a lame duck on an expiring contract.
Donald likes Vinny but let’s not get crazy. Actually, Donald likes Vinny more than any of his coaches including Mike Dunleay, whom he handed control of the basketball operations—even if Donald forgot to mention it to GM Elgin Baylor.
Unfortunately, after taking the Clippers to the second round, Dunleavy hit Donald up for a four-year $22 million extension. When the team sank like a stone, Dunleavy was raised to war criminal status in Sterling’s eyes. Trapped by his unwillingness to fire Dunleavy and pay him off, Donald settled for barbecuing him publicly, telling the Los Angeles Times’ T.J. Simers: “Do you think anybody loves their coach? They’re just a necessity.”
Dunleavy into a lame duck flambe for two more seasons before he was fired.
Sterling then insisted Dunleavy was never fired–despite a team announcement that he had been–a claim unmasked in arbitration where Donald was forced to come up every last nickel.
Some agents, like Warren LeGarie, who reps Dunleavy—and Hollins–now insist on arbitration clauses in any contract with the Clips.
Vinny is personable and low maintenance. He doesn’t need the boat rocked, or much of anything but the gig.
He could have arrived with “BARGAIN” stamped on his forehead. With Sterling cool to hiring Clipper officials’ candidate, Dwane Casey, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf recommended Vinny. With the money the Bulls owed him, Sterling only had to pay him $1.4 million in his first season.
So it’s not the first time Donald has spiked his peoples’ recommendation, or the second, or….
Unfortunately for Donald, if he’s an irresistible force, Paul is a movable object and it’s a bad time to shake his faith in the organization.
What, Donald worry? He’s reportedly convinced that CP3 can’t turn down the extra $27 million.
I’m also renouncing my statement that there’s no way CP3 can wind up with the Lakers.
Not that I can come up with any scenario. If Dwight leaves, the Lakers will still be over the cap so no signing him as a free agent.
The Clippers won’t trade him to the Lakes, not even for Howard.
I’m going out of the prediction biz for a while. With Donald in the middle, anything can happen.
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