LOS ANGELES — Mike Dunleavy
stepped down as the Los Angeles Clippers' head coach Thursday,
retaining his job as general manager.
Assistant coach Kim Hughes will be
the interim replacement for Dunleavy, who has led the Clippers to just
one winning season since taking over the star-crossed franchise in
2003.
The Clippers abruptly announced the
moves in an afternoon news release, saying the decision was voluntary
and mutual. Los Angeles (21-28) has lost five of six heading into
Saturday's home game against San Antonio, with another once-promising
season in danger of slipping away.
"It just seems clear that the team
needs a fresh voice, and we hope that our players will respond in a
positive way," Clippers president Andy Roeser said in a statement.
Despite a talented roster including
Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Eric Gordon and Marcus Camby, the Clippers
are in 12th place in the Western Conference. Los Angeles dropped a
season-worst seven games under .500 with six losses on a just-completed
eight-game road trip.
Perhaps the Clippers Curse has a bit
to do with it as well: Blake Griffin, the No. 1 overall pick in last
summer's draft, will miss the entire season after breaking his kneecap
in Los Angeles' final preseason game.
Dunleavy, who said he had "several
conversations" recently with owner Donald Sterling about the Clippers'
direction, is the winningest coach in franchise history — admittedly
not a high bar to clear on a team with just two winning seasons in 30
years and only one playoff series victory since moving to Los Angeles
in 1984.
"I've come to the conclusion that
this is the ideal time for me to direct my efforts toward the many
personnel opportunities that lie before us, such as the trade market,
the draft and the free-agent process," said Dunleavy, who added GM
duties to his coaching responsibilities in 2008. "We fully expect to be
active and productive on all those fronts."
Hughes, a former ABA and NBA player
who has never been a head coach, has been Dunleavy's assistant since
the start in Los Angeles. He spent several years on the Nuggets' bench
before joining the Clippers, and has been a scout in Denver and
Milwaukee.
Dunleavy was 215-325 in 6 1/2
seasons on the bench, and Los Angeles made the playoffs just once in
his first six seasons, getting within one game of the Western
Conference finals in 2006. The Clippers haven't been back to the
playoffs since, winning just 42 games in the past two seasons.
Dunleavy played for Philadelphia,
Houston, San Antonio and Milwaukee during his career, but the Brooklyn
native's entire coaching career has been downhill from his debut season
with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1990-91, when he reached the NBA finals.
After just two seasons with the Lakers, he coached four losing seasons
in Milwaukee before a moderately successful four-season run with the
Portland Trail Blazers.
After hiring Dunleavy in 2003, the
much-criticized Sterling showed considerable patience, extending the
coach's contract through 2011 after that sole playoff run — and even
sticking with him through the Clippers' 19-63 misery of a 2008-09
season.
Dunleavy's record as a personnel
executive is actually fairly solid, which made his failures as the
Clippers' coach even more glaring. He replaced Elgin Baylor as the
Clippers' top basketball executive before last season, uprooting Baylor
from a job he had held since 1986.
Despite adding Rasual Butler and
Craig Smith to a well-stocked roster that still should have ample
salary cap space to sign a major free agent this summer, the Clippers
have struggled even to reach .500 this season.
"As we approach the trade deadline,
the NBA draft and the upcoming free agent period, our team is very
well-positioned from a salary cap standpoint," Roeser said. "Mike's
experienced input will be vitally important as we continue to develop
our young talented nucleus and shape our team's future."