First Impressions - Clippers Head Coach Kim Hughes
by Steve Perrin on Feb 5, 2010 12:51 PM PST
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PrintI have to say, I like this guy.
After his first practice as the Clippers interim head coach, Kim Hughes spoke with the media this morning. Dena was there with her camera, so keep an eye on the Clippers web site or youtube channel to get the unfiltered story.
Hughes has to walk a bit of a tight rope here. In answering questions about how things will be different, the implication of saying "I'll do things this way" is always, at least implicitly "Dunleavy did things another way, and that way was wrong." And of course this guy is still the general manager, so it would be unwise to throw him under the bus.
Hughes navigated that minefield impressively. I asked him to compare and contrast his style versus MDsr's style, and he didn't shy away from it. Frankly, he said all the things that the vast majority of the Citizens of Clips Nation wanted to here. He used very positive language to refer to Dunleavy - called him the most intelligent basketball mind he's ever worked with, called him cerebral - but said that he'd be different. He wants to run more, get more easy scores in transition, call fewer plays, let Baron Davis run the show - everything he said made sense, and was music to Baron's ears.
As a former NBA center and Chris Kaman's mentor for seven years, I was interested to hear about Hughes' big man philosophy. I was a little surprised by the answer. For one thing, you wouldn't expect a former NBA center to necessarily be advocating the running game, not to mention that Kaman has said before that he prefers to play half court. On the other hand, Hughes said some things that were old school NBA big man. He doesn't want Kaman settling for jump shots as much as he does sometimes. If he misses a few, he wants Chris to get into the post rather than continuing to play face up basketball. (My dad would definitely concur - he hates seven-footers taking jump shots, even if they go it. He wants them near the basket where they can rebound misses.)
Baron Davis, Chris Kaman and even Mike Dunleavy also took turns in front of the mikes (a lot of sore shoulders tomorrow among the reporters holding digital recorders in front of tall people). I'll have more thoughts on those sessions a little later. The videos will probably be up soon as well.
For now, let's just say that everyone seems to be on the same page, whether it's spin or not. No one came out and said that the players had actually tuned Dunleavy out, there were many references to "a new voice". Baron described Highes' style as more "free-flowing", a chioce of phrase that I found particularly telling given his comments last week. Kaman described him as "my guy" since he's been his friend and mentor his entire NBA career.
As for Dunleavy, there was a particular moment of clarity when he knew that it was time to make a change. On the plane trip home from Atlanta, rather than watching game film, he watched "The Hangover." And that's when he knew that he needed to move on.
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The hangover? dunleavy has a sense of humor??? BRING HIM BACK!!!!! hahahahahaha
"Put the icing on the cake ladies and gentlemen" - Ralph Lawler vs. The Grizzlies
by In GrIfFin We TrUsT on Feb 5, 2010 1:10 PM PST reply actions
Nice post!
Kim hughes will probably become the anti-Dunleavy – which still means losses – but exciting ones.
"Excellence...is not an act, but a habit" Aristotle
I have doubts about this rumor
people have said we have been looking at Isiah for years now and it never happens. I don’t think that DTS is stupid enough to hire a disgraced coach when firing Dun gave us a fresh start.
" Baron for the win, BINGO!!!! The Clipers Win, The Clippers win!!! "
Ralph Lawler
gross...
If that’s the case then bring back Dunleavy.
9:21 LAC - Offensive foul on C. Smith
by LancasterGordon4Eva on Feb 5, 2010 2:02 PM PST up reply actions
Shelburne shoots down the rumor
On twitter she mentioned that she’s spoken with the Clips brass and they big time shot down the rumor.
There’s no way the organization does this.
I hope you are being sarcastic
and I am not reading it well online….
+1
"look, you can find any coach you want, bring him in here and run the situation. But I don't think they are going to do as good a job as I do." -Mike Dunleavy Sr.
by CLiPPz WeRD 12 on Feb 5, 2010 2:37 PM PST up reply actions
from the talkhoops twitter..
WIN RT @lowposts BREAKING: Isiah Thomas denies meeting with Clippers officials; claims LA interviewed his daughter for the position, instead
…is that a joke or for reals?
9:21 LAC - Offensive foul on C. Smith
by LancasterGordon4Eva on Feb 5, 2010 2:09 PM PST reply actions
yeah that is probably what happened
if they wanted Isiah they could of had him last year.
" Baron for the win, BINGO!!!! The Clipers Win, The Clippers win!!! "
Ralph Lawler
I think Hughes
deserves a lot of credit for developing the jumpshot of our bigs. Brand, Kaman, and apparently Griffin is making great strides developing a jump shot. In fact, I think we have had some pretty good bigs in LAC, so Hughes deserves a bit of the credit in that regard….
Makes sense
Welp I am excited to see these guys play!
Shelburne says it's not true
http://twitter.com/ramonashelburne
Just checked with Clippers brass on the report about Isiah and got an ALL CAPS denial…
Feels like one of those trade rumors that the teams deny so hard
Then, pop.
Coaches don't matter. - Bill Simmons, The Book of Basketball
A few Kim Hughes thoughts
I was thinking about it this morning, figuring that SP was out of bed and on the case. Was going to post on moKi’s thread, which is lean on commentary, but was busy for a few hours and in that time, as I suspected he would, SP put up a Kim Hughes item. I’d still like to see a more thorough SP breakdown, maybe some stuff about his career, his vibe, his twin. So here are a few thoughts: what do we know about Kim Hughes?
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. One thing I’m wondering, perhaps a bit optimistically, is if Kim Hughes has any D’Antoni (great player in Italy who never made the NBA, original thinker) or even Uncle Phil in him. Uncle Phil was a cerebral NBA scorcher who carried Red Holzman’s clipboard for awhile, exploring alternative forms of consciousness at the same time. He went back into basketball coaching the Albany CBA team, which has a funny name. Poltroons? What is it? He had something of a big man philosophy as a coach, with a system that trusts the guards (Jordan, Kobe) to work things out on the floor and make plays within a fluid structure. Kim Hughes will use Dunleavy’s system, or part of it at least, but it should flow more and the guards will determine plays, not have Dunleavy barking them out.
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, what happens with Ricky Davis. Al Thornton might be happy to see Dunleavy gone. Lots of different possibilities.
Wow, Zhiv
I think you nailed it on the head!! I hope that this scenerio comes to fruition! Dunleavy was like a bulldog on the sidelines, always barking. Wheather it was a guard, a forward or a center, Dun was always barking. I can’t wait to see the results of the Non-Dun Clips.
This is just some rumor...
started by someone who still thinks the Clippers are insanely incompetent and would only make the most insanely incompetent choice out there. This will not happen.
"Buckle your seat belts, folks. This one's doing down to the wire." -The inimitable Ralph Lawler.
by Gordon for President on Feb 5, 2010 3:11 PM PST reply actions
Zeke Probably Put It Out There
Never liked him much, especially after he tried to get his daughter to take the heat/blame for his meltdown a year or so back. The man isn’t stable.
just saw the video on the clippers site
Kim seems to have accent i can’t quite put my finger on it…is he canadian?
Roger Sterling: To my knees, Don. They're bringing to my knees!"
No wonder Kaman understands Kim
Sounds like northern US, near great lakes- michigan, wisconsin or minnesota.
Wisconsin...
He’s from Wisconsin, but I never really thought of him as having an accent. You have a keen ear.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
Correction...
Raised in Illinois, went to college at Wisconsin. His hometown of Freeport is just a few miles from the Wisconsin border, closer to Madison than it is to Chicago. So midwest, great lakes, that sort of thing.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
Those videos are good...
Particularly the Dunleavy interview. Interesting what he had to say about Randolph, the road trip, the (almost unspoken) analogy where’s he’s off the boat and adrift in the water. He seems more relaxed and looser with the press than before. Was that your sense, SP?
Dunleavy impresses me.
He’s suprisingly candid, and aside from his coaching, I like him a lot. The desire to help the organization is there, like it has been since the day he got here. He (belatedly) realized the team is underperforming and took himself off the bench. Kim impresses me, too. Seems to be exactly what we need; a mellow presence not barking out plays constantly and trusting his PG/leader more.
Hope we see material results, though.
"Buckle your seat belts, folks. This one's doing down to the wire." -The inimitable Ralph Lawler.
by Gordon for President on Feb 5, 2010 4:40 PM PST up reply actions
Barons interview was very solid
He wasn’t really into the Dunleavy questions and is looking forward to Hughes. I think Baron is in a wait and see mode to believe if the change is real
This Zeke article made me have a mild heart attack
Can I sue the foxsports writer for irresponsible journalism?
The next step is rebuilding the mental toughness of this team
The team has folded far to many times under pressure of the past couple of years we nee a coach that can instill a will that demands a higher level of confidence by the players and fans.
Upgrade from previous GM
I would agree Dunleavy the GM is much better than Baylor, in terms of scouting and trading.
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