Obviously, I read a lot of blogs and bloggers. But there are two NBA bloggers who I tend to like more than others - guys who make my head involuntarily bob up and down as I'm reading them and finding that I agree with what they're saying. Those two are Tom Ziller of Fanhouse and Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don't Lie.
There are lots of other blogs I read and tons of other bloggers I love. Kevin Arnovitz is a friend and a guy I have a ton of respect for, but since he's a Clipper blogger, it's an unfair comparison. And while there are lots of team specific bloggers I really like (too many to mention), I'm not a frequent reader of any of them, because there's just not enough time. I touch base from time to time especially when the Clippers are playing that team, but I don't consider myself a 'regular' of any of them.
To that end, I should be clear that I'm talking about Ziller's general NBA stuff on Fanhouse as opposed to Sactown Royalty. Too much Kings detail on SR, all of it great, to be certain. But for general NBA bloggers, Ziller and Dwyer are my go to guys, the guys whose opinions I most respect.
And they have both eviscerated the Clippers for hiring Vinny Del Negro.
The Bulls got to .500 because of raw talent, and little else, under Del Negro. I like the guy, but they won in spite of him. Or, survived in spite of him. And the Clippers - those idiotic Los Angeles Clippers - just decided to ignore the same circumstances that failed for the Chicago Bulls. They just decided to assume that it actually worked for Chicago (why in the hell do they think Vinny is available in the first place?), and continue apace.
So here we are, with the futures of Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon in Vinny Del Negro's shaky hands. Bad teams remain bad teams because they make bad decisions. If the Clippers are still begging for respect and not deserving it in three years, look back at this hiring process, this unbelievable result. This pick has set the ray to nowhere, a place the Clippers know all too well.
So there you have it. Hopefully they're wrong. For what it's worth, Dwyer is a Bulls fan and watches every Bulls game, so he has some first hand knowledge of VDN's tenure in Chicago.