Mike Dunleavy and the Clippers are now a thing of the past. Dunleavy, after stepping down from being coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, isn’t the GM anymore either. Now Niel Olshey has stepped in to become GM. After a seemingly good series of trades, in what the Clippers organization called a “home run”, it seems that they’re not too happy about the trades anymore.

Clippers brought in Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake, two guys who are in one year contracts (meaning the Clippers don’t lose any cap space by trading for them, even though Camby is expiring as well). That was a lateral move, but then they also traded Al Thornton and Sebastian Telfair- the two guys who were in the way of the Clippers being able to offer a max deal next summer- for Drew Gooden (an expiring contract). That was a smart move, if the Clippers plan to use the cap space for this offseason at least.

This is very critical news. Although we Clipper fans never liked Dunleavy, especially as coach, why fire him now? This summer is huge for the future of the Clippers- space has been made to offer a max contract to some of the best players in the NBA. So why would the Clippers fire Dunleavy now, when they could have at least done it after this summer? What would the motivation behind a move like this be? It’s obvious that Dunleavy got fired. When we thought he got fired from coaching duties, he was said to have “stepped down from his job”. Now they’re saying that he’s severed ties with the Clippers. My guess is that they tried to make his firing from coach look good by covering up for it and saying he stepped down (since he’s still in the organization). Now that he’s gone, they don’t mind saying that they have severed ties.

So why would the Clippers do this at this point in the season?

My answer, or my guess, is- Larry Brown. Larry Brown has let the media know that he’s interested in the Clippers head coaching job, but also would like to have control over the organization such as the players they bring in, etc etc. Just an educated guess, but it looks like the Clippers might be showing him that the spot is up for grabs. They might be clearing the way for Brown to come here, which is actually pretty smart. If the organization can pull off Larry Brown, they can make some noise- especially in the free agent pool.