The Coaching Staff is Demopoulos, Iavaroni, Pack & Severns

[mkwest]

In Las Vegas for Summer League, Marc Iavaroni confirmed that he has accepted an assistant coaching position with the Los Angeles Clippers, joining newly appointed head coach, Vinny Del Negro.

The move to LA comes after Iavaroni spent the past season on the Toronto Raptors bench, serving as an assistant to Raptors head coach, Jay Triano. Iavaroni first gained national recognition while working under Mike D’Antoni in Phoenix with their high-octane, “seven seconds or less” offense. It will be interesting to see whether Iavaroni’s history of working with uptempo offenses will mesh with Del Negro’s more traditional offensive principles in Los Angeles.

The Basketball Jones

Iavaroni is the most recent addition. Dean Demopolous has been coaching the guys in Vegas. Dave Severns who was with VDN in Chicago, will be serving the team in a workout/player development role.

[mkwest]

The Los Angeles Clippers have hired former Grizzlies head coach Marc Iavaroni as an assistant coach, general manager Neil Olshey confirmed Saturday.

He joins Dean Demopoulos and Dave Severns on new coach Vinny Del Negro's staff. The Clippers are expected to hire one more assistant coach before training camp opens.

Iavaroni is best known for his work on Mike D'Antoni's staff in Phoenix during the "Seven Seconds or Less" era. He worked as an assistant coach on Jay Triano's staff in Toronto last season.

"I'm excited about the opportunity," Iavaroni said while watching the Clippers play San Antonio on Saturday in the Las Vegas summer league. "They're young and they're going to be hungry. They want to learn how to win. It'll be interesting and fun to see them grow along with Baron [Davis] and Chris [Kaman]."

Ramona Shelburne, ESPN Los Angeles

[PlinkingPanda]

I just saw that. Perhaps that shows a bigger commitment to playing at a faster pace, which is exactly what we need to do.

I wonder if Kim Hughes is still going to stick around.

[littlerock2277]

Marc Iavaroni is a bad addition to the coaching staff because when he was with the raptors he was responsible for their defence and they were basically playing the worst d in the history of the nba.

[PlinkingPanda]

Marc Iavaroni is a bad addition to the coaching staff because when he was with the raptors he was responsible for their defence and they were basically playing the worst d in the history of the nba.

Well yeah.. Honestly that's a stupid part on Toronto's FO since this guy is more of a focus on fast pace offense. He was part of Dantoni's run n gun offense. Why would anyone make this guy responsible for defense? >.> It makes no sense to do that...

If anything that's all he'll focus on here in Los Angeles since we already have defensive minded coaches set.

Edit - I'm confused as hell now. Is this guy really focused on defense? I don't recall anyone mentioning that he was a "defensive guru" ever. I'm reading the Raptor's thread and it seems like everyone's saying he was known for defense, but Phoenix and Memphis were horrible on defense when he was with these teams?

[DangerCurtis]

That's a funny picture Real GM found of Marc. I'm still laughing.

[mkwest]

Panda,

Iavaroni is a considered a defensive guy as he was when he was a player. His last few jobs haven't really shown that. He's also known for working with bigs and got to see firsthand how the SSOL offense was run. We're supposedly going to kick up the tempo a notch, so his input could help in that area.

Demopolous from Portland is also considered a defensive specialist. We'll just have to see how it all plays out and who will be responsible for what.

[Det the Threat]

Looks a like a defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator approach by the Clips, with Iavaroni helping on offense and Demopolous(if signed) on the defensive end.

I really like it and i hope Iavaroni teaches Vinny how and when to use timeouts...

[mkwest]

Also, both Lucas and Hughes have pretty much confirmed with a couple of writers for the Clippers that they will not be added to the staff.

[playaloc916]

Also, both Lucas and Hughes have pretty much confirmed with a couple of writers for the Clippers that they will not be added to the staff.

Shoot, I wanted Lucas back. I hope he does well with which ever team he decides to join. I'll always remember him for (I had a good laugh at this clip, even though it doesn't end well):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxcU-LRKUDo[/youtube]

[mike3]

Haha hes got some moves.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

That's too bad about Lucas because I saw him sitting next to Del Negro when I was watching the Clippers/D-League Select team. They didn't sit next to each other for too long, but they were talking during the game.

[mkwest]

I read on another board that the Clippers have interest in Jamahl Mosley who has been an assistant in Denver for the last 5 seasons. He is considered one of the NBA up and coming coaching talents.

[mkwest]

The Los Angeles Clippers today named Dean Demopoulos, Marc Iavaroni and Robert Pack as assistant coaches under new head coach Vinny Del Negro. The team also named Dave Severns as Director of Player Development.

Demopoulos comes to Los Angeles after serving five seasons as lead assistant coach with the Portland Trail Blazers. A career coach, Demopoulos came to Portland after a previous four season stint with the Seattle Super Sonics. Demopoulos went to Seattle in 2001 after 18 seasons of college coaching, 17 of those alongside Hall of Famer John Chaney at Temple University. Before Seattle, he served as head coach for one year at University of Missouri-Kansas City. That year, UMKC was ranked in the top 10 nationally in several statistical categories, including fewest turnovers (9.5 per game) and scoring defense (60.5 points per game).

The veteran Iavaroni brings 13 seasons of NBA coaching experience to the Clippers. He is highly-regarded in NBA circles for his attention to detail, tireless work ethic, competitive drive and hands-on approach to teaching.

Over the course of his career, Iavaroni has worked for some of the most prominent coaches in the game. While in Miami, where he also served as Director of Player Development, Iavaroni worked under Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley and in Cleveland he served two seasons under longtime NBA coach Mike Fratello. Iavaroni owes much of his teaching expertise to his lengthy association as a student and instructor under legendary Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell. In 2006 Iavaroni assisted the USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team in training camp as they prepared for the 2006 FIBA Men’s World Championships in Japan.

Robert Pack enters his first season as assistant coach with the Clippers after last serving as an assistant coach with the New Orleans Hornets during the 2009-10 campaign. Pack brings with him 13 years of NBA playing experience where in his career he averaged 8.9 points, 4.6 assists and 2.0 rebounds over 552 career games with the Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Hornets, New Jersey Nets and Washington Wizards.

Director of Player Development Dave Severns comes to the Clippers after having served the past two seasons on Del Negro’s staff with the Chicago Bulls as Assistant Coach for Player Development. Prior to his time with the Bulls, Severns spent 13 years in player development with Nike, working with college players at the All-American Camp, All-Asia Camp, Nike Skills Academies and Jordan Flight School. He also worked at Attack Athletics in Chicago under Tim Grover from 2005-08. Severns spent three years as video coordinator at Fresno State University under head coach Jerry Tarkanian, two years as an assistant coach at Fresno City College and one year as an assistant coach at California State University, Chico. Prior to his time at the collegiate level, Severns spent 12 years as a high school coach in California. He has a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree from California State University-Chico.

Fox Sports

[kombayn]

Alright, so the staff is set for the Clippers. Now all we need to do is sign a back-up point guard right now.

[mkwest]

Demopoulos, Iavaroni and Severns were pretty much set in stone, but Pack was a surprise to me. Last year, he was with Collison and Thornton in New Orleans, and I think it will be great for us to have him working with Bledsoe, Warren and even Gordon.

[DunknDave]

Then it seems that Pack has some experience with teaching young gaurds, and hopefully he'll be able to get some positive results from our young guys as well. Our backcourt, although youmg as a group, has a lot of talent and hopefully will be much better than last year. I thought the poor play from backcourt was one of the main reasons why things didn't so well last year.

[mkwest]

From what I have read, he was very instrumental in their progress. Many Hornets fans, wanted him to stay on the staff even with a new coach. Both Collison and Thornton light up when talking about Pack and his involvement in their development. His goal with Collison was for him to become a more complete player. He worked with him on his perimeter game, reading defenses, making smarter plays and wanted him to focus on developing an in between game. He's also a former teammate of Baron. I'm excited about his addition.

Iavaroni will help develop the bigs and Dean is probably in charge of defense. I'm optimistic at this point. I was not a fan of the VDN hiring, but I'm glad that he's put in the work to get a solid staff.

Here are few articles detailing his involvement with their development:

New Orleans Hornets assistant Robert Pack at home with former team
Pack has had an impact on the team's rookie playmakers
An Interview With Hornets Guard Marcus Thornton
Pack Reviews Darren Collison's Rookie Season

[JustAwesome]

Since he coached under Riley & Fratello, Iavaroni should know a thing or two about defense.

[DunknDave]

Thanks for those links. Seems like Pack put in a lot of work and got some very positive resluts with his guys. With Pack being a former teammate of Baron, I think that will also prove to be valuable to the team as well. I am really excited that Bledsoe has an ex-pg who played in the league as a mentor; this should really help in his development. Hopefully EB can provide solid play as Baron's backup this year. Adding Pack to the staff was a HUGE hire.