Dunleavy & players respond to Sterling

[JJ LoDuca]

Dunleavy fires back at Sterling for ultimatum
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/clippers/la-sp-simers23jan23,1,298135.column?coll=la-headlines-sports-nba-clippe

It gets kind of ugly.

To accomplish that, Sterling said, the coach needs to do a better job. The coach, meanwhile, said he has been sabotaged by people in the Clippers organization who have no business making basketball decisions.

"In my humble opinion," Dunleavy said, "yes, that's the situation."

Dunleavy thought he had a deal with Dallas in the summer to trade Corey Maggette, eligible for free agency after this season, for guard Jason Terry. But Sterling, who has said he will not meddle in player personnel but who has always professed a desire to keep Maggette in a Clippers uniform, refused to approve the trade.

Dunleavy also wanted to sign former San Antonio free-agent guard Beno Udrih, but the Clippers' bean counter, Andy Roeser, decided Udrih wasn't worth the money it would take to sign him.

As for Udrih, Baylor said, "It didn't make a difference to me" whether the Clippers signed him.

Do you really wanna hear the GM and VP of basketball operations say "it doesn't make a difference to me" regarding basketball operations?? At least Dun tried.

Clippers try to bridge great divide
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-clippers23jan23,1,6659378.story?coll=la-headlines-sports

"I just can't throw my coach under the bus, regardless of people saying I don't like him or we don't get along," Maggette said. "He's had a hard time with the injuries. It's always 50-50. Fifty percent [of the blame is] on us and 50% on the coach."

Said guard Cuttino Mobley: "I do get frustrated, not only with myself, my teammates, my coach. . . . That's life. But you have to stick with it and what you have and that's all we have is each other. This situation is messed up, but you've got to deal with it until there's a change."

"Regarding Mr. Sterling's feelings about the team, of course, I want to play for an owner that wants this team to win," Brand said.

"In [Dunleavy's] system, I had one of my best seasons ever and a great playoff run. I feel he's a good coach. I totally understand Mr. Sterling's frustrations, but I know if I was healthy, things would be different for sure. Hopefully, this [dispute] will spark us to win us some ballgames."

Aw. Leave it to EB to make a positive out of a Knick-esque situation.

[loflin3hree5ive]

god i love eb.

way to cop out elgin baylor. no guts to comment on how bad d.t.s. botched the udrih signing. at least try not to sound like such a moron saying a personel move didn't make a difference. how can a gm say something like that? i'm disgusted by elgin baylor right now.

this shouldn't even be talked about in the first place. elton is right if he were around our record wouldn't be in the bottom 10 of the nba. not to mention if shaun were healthy... sterling said the right things about the commitment to winning and the fans and all that, but the timing of all this just makes the organization look bad. very bad.

at least this mess has gotten the press to talk about us which i've missed the past season and a half. we've had spots on espn first take and pti for all the wrong reasons.

[JJ LoDuca]

we've had spots on espn first take and pti for all the wrong reasons.

Man, now that I have class that takes up my time during PTI's time slot, they talk abou the Clippers. Of course. As negative as the press may be (that darn Wilbon has no love for the Best Coast), I still get excited when the Clips are mentioned nationally. Maybe next year it'll be for the good things.

But I agree with you loflin. I didn't necessarily post my feelings about this situation, but I think Baylor is the Dr. Evil here. Really, after 20+ years, he's done nothing to warrant him a place in this organization. Screw that "Executive" of the Year award he won in '06, Dunleavy shoulda got that one. Maybe even Cassell. But the "other" EB is as dead to me as he looks.

[mkwest]

I think it was Sam that said that these disputes should be kept in-house and I agree with that. Elgin being indifferent on player moves and organizational decisions kind of says a lot. I give him credit on the trade for Brand and even Maggette back in the day, but this guy has had so many seasons in his position with very little to show for it. He just doesn't care.

I am glad that Dunleavy cleared the air with the team on everything that's been said, after how he handled things with the Patterson situation. I think he came off a bit arrogant in his rebuttal but made some very good points. I think that he understands the importance of building for the future. You get tired of looking to the future as fan with all of the lottery picks that we've had, but with the injuries sustained this season there is not much else that you can do right now that is going to make a dramatic difference for this season. So you have to play chess and anticipate future moves. The best thing the team could try to do is grow and improve, weed out the weak links in each level of the organization and come strong next season.

[loflin3hree5ive]

Screw that "Executive" of the Year award he won in '06, Dunleavy shoulda got that one. Maybe even Cassell. But the "other" EB is as dead to me as he looks.

i can't even give baylor much credit for the cassell deal. trading for cassell's expiring deal instead of giving marko a long-term deal isn't exactly a brave move on baylor's part, it was a safe, typical clipper budget-motivated move. the sam trade is very similar to the sequence of deals that landed us kerry kittles' expiring contract and resulted in the departure of the then free agent, quentin richardson.

the pattern of not signing free agents and replacing them with older players who just happen to be on the last year of their contracts is no coincidence. it isn't hard to believe that sterling is calling the shots and baylor is just a figure-head, especially when you take into consideration sterling's desire to win and baylor's laissez faire additude towards roster moves that have been express over the past couple of days.

[mj_shoefanatic]

Baylor needs to get 86'd and give Dumb Sr his position then hire Skiles to coach the new look Clippers in 08-09 led by Livingston, Mayo, Maggette, EB and Kaman.

bench: Knight, CAT, Ross, Thornton, TT, Powell and Davis.

[loflin3hree5ive]

Baylor needs to get 86'd and give Dumb Sr his position then hire Skiles to coach the new look Clippers in 08-09 led by Livingston, Mayo, Maggette, EB and Kaman.

bench: Knight, CAT, Ross, Thornton, TT, Powell and Davis.

skiles and tim thomas reunite!!

[mj_shoefanatic]

I'm all for aggressive coaching. NO HEADBANDS!!


GET IT DONE DTS

[mkwest]

"More Chaos for Clippers"

Dunleavy elaborated on Roeser's instructions Thursday morning at the team's practice. Dunleavy explained how he carried through with them, by talking to reporters before Wednesday's game about his "conversation" with Sterling, in an effort to quiet a growing public rift.

Then late Thursday, Roeser said: "In our haste to create closure on this matter, Mike and I obviously had a misunderstanding. Mike has acknowledged to me that he regrets how he handled this situation. You can be sure that we are disappointed in the way he chose to handle it. His comments were inappropriate. It's now time for us all to move forward and concentrate solely on working harder to improve the team.

"[Sterling] knew what I said. I knew what he said and Andy said he'll either see you at the game [Wednesday] or when you get back from this road trip," Dunleavy said.

Meanwhile, Sterling is said to still be upset with Dunleavy's comments about replacing him as coach.

Sterling left his courtside seat Wednesday at the start of the third quarter, angry that Dunleavy was playing Quinton Ross, who has missed his last 19 shots, instead of rookie Al Thornton, who had a strong second quarter.

LA Times

Baylor declined to comment on Sterling's demands for trades to be made and Dunleavy's comments.

[madmaxmedia]

way to cop out elgin baylor.

If Baylor had any guts, he would have never stayed on so long as Clipper GM in the first place. He's part GM, part Sterling's stooge.

I like that the players are all sticking up for Dunleavy, especially Corey since they've had their issues in the past.

Regardless of what I think of Dunleavy, I would say that by far Dunleavy the coach >>> Sterling the owner, or Baylor the GM. But if anyone goes, of course it will be Dunleavy.

This thing is very close to becoming irreparable, hopefully things will cool down. If Dunleavy ended up leaving in ugly terms, it's going to look bad for the franchise.

I think Terry for Maggette was a very good trade. It's roughly comparable in terms of player value, plus Maggette is likely gone after this year. And just as importantly, Terry fits alongside Thornton better in a future starting lineup.

[cinnamon]

None of the management guys comes out of this looking too good. The two trades Dunleavy proposed would have improved the team, but the injuries still would have held it back. If Baylor, Sterling and Roeser have problems with this, there are appropriate ways of dealing with it.
There are also highly inappropriate and needlessly unpleasant ways, which are the ones they seem to prefer.
I can't help feeling that we shouldn't know all this stuff.
They need to learn to communicate with each other, answer each other's phone calls, treat each other with at least common courtesy and preferably with some measure of respect.
I cringe when I call up Hoopshype and see a ton of detailed stuff on the rift in the Clippers organization.
Get a grip, guys.
Run the organization with some dignity.