SportingNews

At long last, the tension that has been brewing within the Clippers staff has been relieved—the Clippers have announced that they’ve relieved coach Mike Dunleavy of his duties, replacing him with longtime assistant Kim Hughes.

The possibility of Hughes replacing Dunleavy was raised early in the year, when the Clippers were getting off to a 4-9 start, before the team began winning and saved Dunleavy’s job. That, according to sources, helped continue some tension between Dunleavy—viewed by players as unnecessarily controlling—and Hughes, widely seen as a more laid-back, veteran-friendly coaching option. Over the course of what has been a disastrous eight-game road trip for L.A. (they went 2-6, including losses to the Nets and Minnesota, plus a 25-point loss to Cleveland), rumors about Dunleavy’s imminent demise heated up again. Dunleavy was poised to be fired had the Clippers lost to the Bulls on Tuesday, but a win that night, a source told SN, staved off the decision until the team’s loss in Atlanta on Wednesday.

Hughes, a five-year NBA veteran center who also played in Italy, deserves much credit for the development of Clippers center Chris Kaman(notes), who is having a career year. As Kaman told SN about Hughes, “He’s been great for me, he has shown me a lot of the little things you need to be a good center at the professional level, and I appreciate that.”

Dunleavy, the team announced, will stay on as general manager. Dunleavy said in a statement, “I’ve had several conversations with our owner concerning what we think is best for the team overall. We have discussed the possibility of my concentrating only on basketball operations. That option has always been available to me. … 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. We fully expect to be active and productive on all those fronts.”

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