Who is New Coach Kim Hughes?

by moKi on Feb 4, 2010 4:20 PM PST

Kim Hughes has worked as a Clippers assistant for seven seasons after serving the previous five years with the Denver Nuggets. Hughes started with Denver in 1998 as Director of Scouting before being named Director of Player Personnel and also was a Nuggets assistant coach in 1998-99. Before joining the Nuggets, Hughes spent seven seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks as a head and regional scout. A member of the 1975-76 ABA All-Rookie First Team with the New York Nets, the former University of Wisconsin star (1970-74) played six years in the NBA and ABA and also played professionally in Italy.

I don't know much about Chicken Man's successor. It's great that Dunleavy has finally let go of his dream of coaching a fully healthy team but where does that leave us? In all the euphoria is it possible things could get worse? In Clipperland, we all know that just when we get happy about something, things can always get worse...

I am sure that Steve is on the case as I type this but I figure that the Nation could contribute by commenting below with any facts/stories on the new coach. Who is Kim Hughes? Will he do better than Dunleavy?

I seem to remember him filling in for Dunleavy twice and I think he was 1 and 1 but I could be wrong. Can anyone confirm or clarify?

Does anyone remember what he was like as a player? Does anyone have any insight into his coaching philosophy? Is he just a carbon copy of Dunleavy? Does he favor running? Is he a motivator?

Share your thoughts below.

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I think he was 2-0 as a fill in actually...

by Newton Pham on Feb 4, 2010 4:22 PM PST reply actions

I do remember in one game he coached

how the team seemed to play with a very different energy. I believe it was last season and I might have posted a recap. I will look for it.

I know more recently Dunleavy was sick but I can’t recall how the team played and/or if they won…

Thanks Newtybar

by moKi on Feb 4, 2010 4:29 PM PST up reply actions

Link

I wrote this back in 2008…

In a response to CS’s post on Bill Simmons, I wrote about my observations on how the team played without Dunleavy. With Kim Hughes running the team, everybody seemed much more energetic and I thought it was infinitely more entertaining while maintaining competitive play.

My post was on Dumping Dunleavy and Keeping Kaman as some people were calling for Chris to be traded even back then.
Link

by moKi on Feb 4, 2010 4:35 PM PST up reply actions

In the game Kim coached last year...

I remember we got a rebound, and Kim decided to try to score WITHOUT calling a timeout. He argued taking a time out would’ve let the defense get settled in, and he may have been right, but I know we lost and it caused a bit of a ruckus.

But one game is too small a sample. There’s the hope, at least from me, he becomes like Lawrence Frank whose Nets inexplicable won 13 in a row after looking long dead under Byron.

"Buckle your seat belts, folks. This one's doing down to the wire." -The inimitable Ralph Lawler.

by Gordon for President on Feb 4, 2010 5:08 PM PST up reply actions

Right I remember that....

So did he coach 3 games? I remember him coaching two games in a row when Dunleavy was at a funeral..and I could have sworn he won them both.

by Newton Pham on Feb 5, 2010 8:56 AM PST up reply actions

I remember that too... they played very well

by ChrisS.Oaks on Feb 4, 2010 4:40 PM PST up reply actions

Coaching

Yep, he’s 1-1 in the two games he’s head coached.

Let’s see what he can do, but I think even the organization has deemed this season over.

Sorry, we are the BEST team in LA!

by LAC on Feb 4, 2010 4:37 PM PST reply actions

So if this season is over

do you think Kim Hughes’ job is to tank and get a better chance in the lotto?

or is he going to make a serious run at the playoffs and try to make a case to be head coach next year?

I definitely think Dunleavy was to blame for losing about 5 – 7 “winnable” games this year. It will be interesting to see how many “winnables” Hughes will win…

by moKi on Feb 4, 2010 4:41 PM PST up reply actions

I don't see

why we would fire Dunleavy just to tank. Dunleavy was pretty good at losing… So it’s abundantly clear to me that this is a move designed to help us win in the short term and in the long term.

At least I'm also a Redskins fan... oh wait. My sports life sucks.

by Clipper T on Feb 4, 2010 4:46 PM PST up reply actions

Welll...

I don’t think Hughes can make a serious playoff run at all, but I hope I’m proven wrong.

We’ll probably have a new coach in the summertime, hopefully George Karl :), but I doubt Hughes or the Clippers will tank.

Probably a mediocre finish with 32 games left, maybe 18-22 if he’s really good.
39 wins would be amazing.

More than likely they’ll go 16-26 or something terrible, but maybe we’ll spark.

And I have a feeling Camby is going :(

Sorry, we are the BEST team in LA!

by LAC on Feb 4, 2010 5:13 PM PST up reply actions

I think, if anything, they will be more fun to watch.

by Newton Pham on Feb 5, 2010 8:57 AM PST up reply actions

omg thats .500

good enough for me!

by highriser on Feb 4, 2010 6:49 PM PST up reply actions

Why not John Lucas

by ChrisS.Oaks on Feb 4, 2010 4:40 PM PST reply actions

According to some here

He’s more of a cheerleader than a basketball brain and I guess “rah-rah”ing only gets you so far…

by moKi on Feb 4, 2010 4:44 PM PST up reply actions

He runs a very good player development camp.

I think he’s known to be very good at developing players. Not sure about coaching though.

by Newton Pham on Feb 5, 2010 8:59 AM PST up reply actions

Tony Brown as Head Coach and JLuc as the assistant and fire Kim Hughes.

Everything starts out New, Gets Old and Dies or is Destroyed.

by HVYDRT007 on Feb 4, 2010 5:14 PM PST reply actions

hell no

Brown is another carbon copy of MD. Hughes has been here the longest and probably brings the most opposite style of Dun compared to the rest of the staff. With only 33 games left, I want to see someone with a different style, not the same.

by dulciusEXasperis on Feb 4, 2010 6:23 PM PST up reply actions

Are you serious?

You already want to fire Hughes?

by Michael White on Feb 4, 2010 7:19 PM PST up reply actions

I think he might be using sarcasm

at least I hope he is.

" Baron for the win, BINGO!!!! The Clipers Win, The Clippers win!!! "
Ralph Lawler

by bestclipfan on Feb 4, 2010 8:50 PM PST up reply actions

Nope

that’s the way he operates. At one point Kim Hughes and Dunleavy was at the relms of superiority. Now that their (Dunleavy and Hvyt) relationship has turned sour, so has his relationship with Hughes.

by JackduhSun on Feb 4, 2010 9:45 PM PST up reply actions

I like Kim

and the players seem to also (especially Kaman who considers Hughes to be like a second father)

" Baron for the win, BINGO!!!! The Clipers Win, The Clippers win!!! "
Ralph Lawler

by bestclipfan on Feb 4, 2010 7:00 PM PST reply actions

Interesting Comments

Kim makes some interesting comments in the Yahoo Article on him.

First, he admits that the team has had chemistry issues with the coach (probably between Baron and Dun):

"It is a challenge but I’m not afraid of it," Hughes told Yahoo! Sports. "We’ve had chemistry problems. We have to get on the same page. Maybe with a different voice, it will be different."

He also says he doesn’t expect to be the full time coach next season:

Asked about his chances of retaining the head-coaching job on a full-time basis, Hughes said, "probably bleak. But it depends on how we play."

by madglove on Feb 5, 2010 1:29 AM PST reply actions

Thx for the link

by moKi on Feb 5, 2010 9:35 AM PST up reply actions

Here's what I know

I would do a post on the main page with a few thoughts on Hughes, because there’s not a whole lot going on in this thread, but SP is probably working on something and I don’t want to spend too much time myself.

Kim Hughes is Chris Kaman’s mentor. That’s number one. He seems to be a great big man coach. He may be inclined to try to keep Kaman focused and at his best, supplement with Camby (while he’s still got him), and let the guards, especially Baron Davis, try to play at their own tempo and make some plays, for the time being.

The Clippers are going from having an intense, hard-working undersized shooter with relatively poor ball handling skills (MDSr was not a passing PG; he was more of a sharpshooter. He didn’t do anything badly, but without size or athleticism he had to work hard to excel in college and then stick in the NBA) to having a former big man. There’s a difference.

I believe that Kim Hughes is a twin. Did Kim Hughes play in the ABA? Funky.

A big difference is that Dunleavy tries to control every play from the sidelines. It’s almost as if he is a 6th player on the court. This is a guard’s mentality. Big men see the game differently. Hughes isn’t going to be calling plays, telling BD and others what to do all the time. It will be a big change.

Kim Hughes is a longtime Dunleavy disciple. The lengthy and complex Dunleavy playbook will not be abandoned. It will be simplified, I would imagine, over time, but it will serve as the foundation for the Clipper offense.

It should be interesting if they is some new and different flexibility in the rotations. I’m curious to see if DJordan gets more minutes and improves. Also curious to see how he deals with Mardy Collins—Bobby Brown before Telfair comes back.

Oops—got pulled away for a few hours there. Will post this and catch up I guess. Maybe SP has written this up.

by citizen zhiv on Feb 5, 2010 2:56 PM PST reply actions

Thanks Zhiv

I figured Steve would take over this topic sometime soon as he recovers from illness.

Good point on where they both come from – totally agree.

I understand that point guards in theory should be good coaches but Dunleavy was too much. Seems like he wanted to be out there playing and it was bad for the team – definitely an unwanted annoying 6th man on the court.

Kim being a big man would definitely be more comfortable with the idea of letting the PG carry this load armed with the philosophy and strategy he gives him beforehand.

As a “dumb” fan I definitely enjoy seeing Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan SITTING DOWN and letting the team figure it out as opposed to Dunleavy or even SVG jumping up and down screaming or yelling instructions all the time. I think the “relatively” calmer styles of Jackson/Sloan infuse the players with more trust and faith. I think it boosts their confidence more.

I had almost given up on the Clips for this season, (as far as watching every game and caring)…but now I’m hoping that I enjoy watching them play regardless of the final win loss record. I really hope we get a more exciting, watchable style of basketball, but most of all I want to see the team having FUN.

by moKi on Feb 5, 2010 4:23 PM PST up reply actions