#Spacing - Steve Clifford Thread

[fatlever]

Adrian Wojnarowski Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA 9m

Lakers assistant Steve Clifford has reached an agreement in principle to become the Charlotte coach, league sources tell Y! Sports.

[fatlever]

Rick Bonnell Rick Bonnell ‏@rick_bonnell 33s

Lakers assistant Steve Clifford has been hired as Bobcats coach, source close to Clifford confirms.

[fatlever]

what do we know about Clifford?

[fatlever]

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2 ... an-hornets

[vorbis]

i wonder how much credit he gets for orlando's defense while he was there, given that dwight howard was in his absolute prime during those years. i also wonder how he felt about being a part of the lakers trainwreck this season. other than that, a very dunlapian candidate. looking forward to hearing from him to get any idea of philosophy, coaching style, personality.

[catch20two]

Clifford is supposed to be a defensive expert that spent 9 seasons working under the Van Gundy brothers, first Jeff Van Gundy in Houston, then Stan Van Gundy in Orlando, before going to LA with Mike Brown and staying as a lead assistant when Mike D'Antoni took over.

I still don't know how to feel about this hire...but I like defense.

[fatlever]

http://www.nba.com/coachfile/steve_clifford/index.html

College - Maine-Farmington
Steve Clifford joins the Lakers for his first season after spending the past five seasons (2007-12) as an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic. Over five seasons on Stan Van Gundy’s staff, Clifford helped the Magic to a 259-135 (.657) record, highlighted by a trip to the 2009 NBA Finals.

Prior to his time in Orlando, Clifford spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets (2003-07) after working with the New York Knicks for three seasons, two as an assistant coach (2001-03) and one as an advance scout (2000-01).

Entering the NBA with more than a decade of college coaching experience, Clifford served as an assistant coach at East Carolina University for one season following four years as head coach at Adelphi University, where he compiled a record of 86-36 (.705). Leading Adelphi to four straight 20-win seasons, he became the first coach in school history to record consecutive 20- plus win campaigns while guiding the Panthers to four appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament.

 After gaining his first coaching experience over two seasons at Woodland High School in Maine, Clifford began his college coaching career as an assistant at St. Anselm’s College in New Hampshire for four seasons. Following his time with the Hawks, he served one season as an assistant at Fairfield University, spent the next four seasons at Boston University and one season after that at Siena College before accepting the head coaching position at Adelphi.

Following a four-year playing career at the University of Maine at Farmington, Clifford, named Best Defensive Player in his final two seasons while serving as team captain, graduated with a degree in special education.

[fatlever]

strong van gundy connections

[HornetJail]

Well, if he's got plenty of experience coaching Dwight Howard- this can only be a good thing for Bismack.

I'm not sure about anything else though.

[mrknowitall215]

They must've hired this guy on the spot. He was interviewed today.

[vorbis]

i am still digging, but i'm assuming clifford was a part of mike brown's original staff, and was kept when he was fired and d'antoni was brought on. it would surprise me if d'antoni hired a coach known for his defense, honestly.

edit: yes, he was considered mike brown's "lead assistant", fwiw

[vorbis]

They must've hired this guy on the spot. He was interviewed today.

from what i've read he was interviewed last tuesday.

[mrknowitall215]

They must've hired this guy on the spot. He was interviewed today.

from what i've read he was interviewed last tuesday.

I think you're right. The letterhead in the article I read had today's date, but the interview happened a while ago.

[mrknowitall215]

i am still digging, but i'm assuming clifford was a part of mike brown's original staff, and was kept when he was fired and d'antoni was brought on. it would surprise me if d'antoni hired a coach known for his defense, honestly.

edit: yes, he was considered mike brown's "lead assistant", fwiw

From what I read, Clifford didn't work under Mike Brown during the Lakers 41-25 season of 2011-12. He wasn't hired until the following season which happened to be this year's debacle due to his work with Dwight Howard, replacing Quin Snyder as an assistant.

[vorbis]

From what I read, Clifford didn't work under Mike Brown during the Lakers 41-25 season of 2011-12. He wasn't hired until the following season which happened to be this year's debacle due to his work with Dwight Howard, replacing Quin Snyder as an assistant.

interesting. thanks for digging. it's kind of fun going on an internet scavenger hunt for unknown non-wikipedia'd coaches every may for this franchise.

[JMAC3]

Not much information about this guy out there

[vorbis]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--sourc ... 11124.html

according to woj, he's expected to "try to" hire patrick ewing as an assistant. ok then.

[JMAC3]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--sourc ... 11124.html

He is expected to bring in Patrick Ewing as one his top assistants

[JMAC3]

Deal is 3 years for 6 million is what I heard... via ESPN scorecenter alert.

[GREENBK]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--sources--bobcats-agree-to-hire-steve-clifford-222511124.html

He is expected to bring in Patrick Ewing as one his top assistants

Pat Ewing + Bismack Biyombo? This will be nice