According to The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson, the LA Clippers have added Dan Craig, former Heat assistant coach, to Ty Lue’s staff. Jackson adds that the Clippers offered Craig more money than the Heat, and that he is hopeful that this step could lead to a head coaching position in the future:

The money, of course, is Steve Ballmer at work. It’s certainly nice to have the wealthiest owner in the league regularly commit to opening his checkbook to put the team in a position to succeed. As far as a future head coaching gig goes, I’ve seen a bit of confusion on why this position would be better for him than the lead assistant job in Miami. It isn’t because “Clippers assistant coach” looks better than “Heat assistant coach,” it’s about networking. Craig has only worked for one NBA team in his career–Miami. From a 2003 internship in the video department to the #2 chair in the NBA Finals earlier this month, he’s been a Heat lifer. The Heat have been a remarkably stable organization over that time, which is certainly a good thing, but that means that he hasn’t worked with a wide range of NBA coaches and executives.

With the Clippers, Craig will get a change to work daily and impress Ty Lue, Lawrence Frank, Trent Redden, Michael Winger, Mark Hughes, and Jerry West. If Kenny Atkinson, Chauncey Billups, and Larry Drew also join the Clippers’ coaching staff, as expected, add their names to the list too. Lue is a recent championship head coach, so make that two (in addition to Miami’s Spoelstra) who would endorse Craig’s ability to take over a team. Frank is the lead executive of one of the league’s top teams (the Clippers). Redden, Winger, and Hughes have all been sought after by other team’s front offices. West is (along with Miami’s Pat Riley) one of the most respected and well-networked people in the league. Atkinson is likely to get a good job as a head coach or in a front office in the next few years. Billups has been a candidate for head coach and general manager positions. Drew has been a longtime assistant and former head coach who will always have a job in the league as long as he wants it.

Building productive relationships with this new crew of colleagues and leaving a strong impression on them will help Craig’s career. Fast forward 3-5 years, and at least a handful of these Clippers coaches and executives will be spread across the league in high-ranking positions (if not as the general managers of teams), and when one of those teams has an opening at head coach, Craig will be a much stronger and more trusted candidate than he is with organizations where he doesn’t have connections.

The New York Times’ Marc Stein adds that the Clippers have now formally interviewed Chauncey Billups for an assistant coach position, somewhat undercutting the previous assumption that his addition to the staff as Associate Head Coach was already a done deal as part of Lue’s hiring. Still, Stein says that Billups, along with Atkinson and Drew, are expected to reach deals to join the Clippers’ staff.

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Report: Clippers add Dan Craig as Assistant
Lucas Hann

According to the New York Times’ Marc Stein, the LA Clippers will target former Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson and current Miami Heat assistant coach Dan Craig for assistant coach positions on Ty Lue’s staff.

Atkinson coached the rebuilding Nets to a 118-190 record over four years, most successfully making an unexpected playoff appearance at 42-40 during the 2018-19 season. Last season, with the Nets adding Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant but both being injured, he coached the team to a 28-34 record before being fired–largely due to frayed relationships with Irving, who only played 20 games this season, and Durant, who did not play a single game.

He’s known as one of the best player development coaches in the league, an area highlighted by Clippers management as they have to make the most of limited draft assets moving forward, and was known for running an “equal-opportunity offense” in Brooklyn that might be compelling for a Clippers team that lacks one true elite playmaker. Before taking the Brooklyn job, Atkinson was an assistant with the New York Knicks and then Atlanta Hawks. He played professionally overseas until his retirement in 2004, briefly coaching in France before jumping to the NBA as the Houston Rockets’ director of player development.

Dan Craig is currently the lead assistant to Erik Spoelstra, widely regarded as the top coach in the NBA after the Miami Heat’s unexpected run to the NBA Finals in the Orlando bubble. Craig originally joined the Heat as an intern in their video department in 2003, slowly working his way up the organization’s ranks until eventually taking the #2 chair on the bench. Along the way, he had a one-year stop with the Heat’s G-League affiliate, the Souix Falls Skyforce, in 2015-16. All he did there was break a league record by finishing 40-10, win Coach of the Year, and win the championship. From my outsider’s perspective, he was one of the best head coaching candidates on the market this year.

It’s unclear if the Clippers will be able to land both (or either) of these prize potential assistants, especially as several head coaching vacancies persist around the league in Indiana and Oklahoma City. But as the team continues to invest in the margins in hopes of producing a championship, they’re looking in the right places.

Rumor: Clippers target Atkinson, Craig for assistant coach
Lucas Hann

A new candidate for the Clippers’ vacant head coaching spot has entered the ring! Mike Singer of the Denver Post broke the news just an hour ago that the Clippers were scheduled to interview Nuggets assistant head coach Wes Unseld Jr. today. In addition to interviewing for the Clippers’ role, Unseld has also interviewed for the Rockets’ head coaching gig.

Unseld is of course the son of NBA Hall of Fame player Wes Unseld Sr., who played for the Washington Bullets (now Wizards) in the 1960s and 1970s. Unseld Jr. played basketball at the local Johns Hopkins, but never played profesionally. Instead, he jumped straight to the NBA on the personnel side, serving as a scout with the Wizards for eight years before being promoted to assistant head coach. He then operated as an assistant with them for another handful of years (and coached the Washington Mystics as well) before leaving in 2011.

After leaving Washington, Unseld went to Golden State, where he operated for one year under Mark Jackson. He then went to the Magic, where he coached under Jacque Vaughn for a few years before being fired in 2015. That summer, he was invited to join the Nuggets by his good friend Tim Connelly, and has been there since.

Notably, Unseld has not only a lot of experience as a coach and scout, but has operated in many functions as an assistant. In his Wizards’ years, he was known as an offensive guru, someone who helped design schemes and tactics on that side of the ball. In Denver, his prominence has mainly been as a defensive strategist, with his efforts being given great credit for building a decent defense around Nikola Jokic. He’s also been given kudos as a player development guy (something the Clippers desire), and has helped with the growth of Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr.

In short, Unseld is a highly qualified lead assistant, and a very widely regarded coach around the NBA. He has interviewed for head coaching positions before, though none quite this prominent, and is frequently mentioned as one of the most promising assistants in the NBA. It’s impossible to know how well his skills might translate to the head coaching chair, but he’s about a good a candidate as anyone, and it’s a great sign that the Clippers are interviewing him.

The Clippers have given an interview to Wes Unseld Jr., Ty Lue, Darvin Ham, and Mike Brown, an overall talented and diverse group. We will keep you posted on the Clippers’ continuing search for a head coach as things develop, but no hire seems imminent as of right now.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Clippers Interview Nuggets Assistant Wes Unseld Jr.
Robert Flom

According to multiple reports, the Clippers will interview a top assistant for their head coach job: Milwaukee Bucks top assistant Darvin Ham. Additionally, Golden State Warriors associate head coach Mike Brown interviewed with the team in recent days. Ty Lue, who was Doc Rivers’ top assistant with the Clippers and won the NBA Championship as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, is still in the running.

Ham is one of the more highly-regarded assistants in the NBA, working under Mike Budenholzer in Milwaukee. A bit of a journeyman as a player, he made 417 appearances for 6 teams between 1996-2005. He first worked as a coach in the D-League before working under Mike Brown on the Lakers from 2011-2013. Since then, he has been with Mike Budenholzer, first in Atlanta and now with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Prior to joining the Lakers, Ham was the head coach of the NBA D-League’s New Mexico Thunderbirds for one year, finishing with a 20-30 record. After that season, the Cleveland Cavaliers purchased the franchise and relocated it, creating the Canton Charge.

Mike Brown is one of the more prominent retread head coaching candidates in the league. He’s been on NBA benches for over 20 years, with three separate stints as a head coach. His record as a head coach is quite impressive–347-216 (.616) in the regular season and 47-36 (.566) in the playoffs, but he has a bit of a negative reputation because of the way his teams didn’t ultimately succeed in the postseason.

Working with LeBron James for five years during his first stint in Cleveland, Brown’s teams lost in the second round three times and the Eastern Conference Finals once. They made one NBA Finals appearance, being swept by the San Antonio Spurs in 2007. While Brown wasn’t single-handedly responsible for those shortcomings, James making the NBA Finals each of the next 8 years didn’t dissuade critics who claimed Brown wasn’t getting adequate results.

Brown was then hired as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, where he saw the team to a second-round exit in 2012 and then was fired after a 1-4 start to the 2012-13 season, when the Lakers added Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. Despite the talent, that Lakers team never clicked or stayed healthy, and replacement Mike D’Antoni only saw them to a 7th-place finish and first-round sweep at the hand of the Golden State Warriors.

Reports: Clippers Interview Head Coach Candidates Darvin Ham, Mike Brown
Lucas Hann

It has been almost a week since the Clippers and long-time head coach Doc Rivers parted ways. In that time, outside of the initial flurry of news regarding the various difficulties that Doc had this season and some initial coaching candidates, the trail has gone remarkably cold. So, let’s briefly look at the Clippers coaching search and update the information we’ve received over the past week.

The only candidate tied to the Clippers that we’ve received updates on is Ty Lue – who has (or had) interviews with the Rockets and Pelicans lined up. While neither the Rockets or Pelicans is quite as good a landing spot as LA in terms of roster strength, the Rockets were still a second-round playoff team this year, while the Pelicans have some of the best young talent in the NBA. The biggest issue with Lue going to either team might be monetary – Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is notoriously cheap, while the Pelicans aren’t known for their spending ways either. Lue, on the other hand, turned down a gig with the Lakers last year at least in part due to lack of money. I’d still keep my eyes on the Pelicans, but the Clippers should be favored to snag Lue over either of those teams. Per Chris Haynes they were scheduled to meet with him yesterday – but nothing has leaked regarding how that meeting went.

Outside of that, nothing. Other teams have showcased interest in potential targets (the Rockets have reached out to David Vanterpool, Stephen Silas, and Wes Unseld Jr., all very well known assistant coaches), but so far, the Clippers have been silent. The only other name we’ve seen repeatedly mentioned is Jeff Van Gundy, but with Van Gundy covering the NBA Finals in the Bubble, there’s no chance that the Clippers get an interview until the Finals is over (which could be soon, to be fair).

However, given what we’ve heard about the Clippers desiring innovation and creativity, it’s odd that the only two candidates who have been given a lot of attention are Lue and Van Gundy. Lue only has one head coaching job under his belt, and while he’s a good coach, innovation is not what he’s known for. Van Gundy hasn’t coached an NBA team in 13 years, and is known for his Knicks teams in the 1990s that played extremely old school. Neither really seems like the kind of coach that the Clippers are really targeting (or at least targeting exclusively).

That means that the Clippers have probably reached out to other candidates (or even held interviews), but have done so quietly. The lack of fanfare is no surprise. This Clippers front office prides itself on keeping things under radio silence, and for not leaking to the media. The suddenness of the Doc Rivers firing (no rumors beforehand) speaks to that. And, similarly to the Kawhi Leonard situation, where Kawhi wanted things kept under wraps, it’s quite possible that the Clippers have asked all the coaches they’ve reached out to to keep quiet as well.

So, the update on the Clippers coaching search is really that there’s not much of an update, but that this is nothing to be concerned about. The Clippers are doing their due diligence, as they should. The hiring of a replacement for Doc Rivers is a massive decision that could quite literally decide the future of the franchise. A successful hire and subsequently successful 2021 season could mean Kawhi Leonard and Paul George stay Clippers for the rest of their careers. A poor hire could mean one or both of those stars leave, and a quick end to this resurgent Clippers franchise. Hopefully the Clippers take their time, handle their business, and find a coach who can meet their requirements of gravitas, innovation, and flexibiliy.

Clippers Coaching Update: The Waiting Game
Robert Flom