If you haven't read Citizen Zhiv's comment on my first Baylor post, you really should.  I much prefer his take to my own. 

In fact, after re-reading what he wrote, and seeing the excerpt that ClipperBlog chose to use, I've decided that my first ramblings were off base.  Here's the money quote:

Baylor is a link to "The Worst Franchise in Pro Sports" days.  He should have been fired each and every year since, say, 1987.  So that's about two decades of reprieves.

Citizen Zhiv turns that over and says that Elgin should have quit every year since 1987.  That's more apropos.  But here's the point of what I was trying to say. 

Baylor took over the GM responsibilities (if not the title) in 1986.  That season they won 12 games.  The next season they won 17.  In the first five seasons under Baylor, they averaged 60 losses per season.

When a franchise is losing 75% of its games, there are a few things that are likely to happen.  Maybe the coach gets fired.  Maybe the GM gets fired.  Maybe both.  It doesn't necessarily mean that suddenly the team is going to start winning.  But given that NBA teams are not built from lead by alchemists, these are some of the options an organization has at it's disposal to try to find a winning combination.  It's pretty standard stuff really:  fire the GM - let someone else give it a try.

From 1986 when Elgin Baylor first took over until they hired MDsr in 2003, in 17 seasons the Clippers had nine different head coaches - and I'm not even counting the interim guys; they bring it to an even dozen.  So the team tried the magic 'change coaches' lever on average every 18 months or so.  But they never played the GM card.  Why?

For me, it screams that the organization just wasn't serious.  One could attribute a noble motive of loyalty to Donald Sterling in this behavior - he was simply too loyal to Elgin Baylor to get rid of him.  But that argument would seem to break down in the happenings of the last few weeks, where he couldn't manage to make the transition without opening himself up to a possible lawsuit.  No, I think it was purely inertia. 

"Hey, Donald the team is still losing and still a laughing stock.  What do you want to do?" 

"Have Elgin fire the coach and get a new one." 

"Think maybe we should get rid of Elgin?" 

"Are you kidding?  Elgin can't very well fire himself and hire his replacement.  Who's going to do it?  Me?  I'm not qualified."

So when I say that Elgin should have been fired every season for the past two decades, certainly I'm using hyperbole, but I do have a point.  It's simply that a serious, professionally run sports franchise would have fired it's GM many times in those 22 years.  By showing up at the lottery in his Cosby sweaters year after year, Elgin came to symbolize how utterly disinterested the franchise was in improving.  It certainly wasn't even his fault - but that was the message he conveyed.

It's clear that this was not an easy job.  Sterling did not give Elgin nearly enough resources or support.  As Zhiv points out, one of the ironies here is that the final concrete vestiges of Clipper bush leaguism were washed away when the training facility opened a few weeks ago.  Elgin Baylor was trying to draft without a decent scouting department, to sell tickets to the worst arena in the league, to retain talent without the a budget to pay competitive salaries, and to attract free agents without the advantages (like a training facility) of every other team in the league.  No wonder he wasn't very successful.

But even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile, and Elgin had a few highlights as GM.  Among them:

• The 1989 trade that sent Reggie Williams and the rights to Danny Ferry to Cleveland for Ron Harper and several picks, one of which became Loy Vaught. 
• The 2000 trade that brought in Corey Maggette and a pick that turned into Keyon Dooling for a pick that eventually became Marcus Williams (the guard) - six years later.
• The 2001 trade for Elton Brand, where the Clippers gave up the third pick in the draft (Tyson Chandler) and Brian Skinner.
• The 2005 trade that netted Sam Cassell and a still future first round pick for Marko Jaric.

Still, do you notice anything about those highlights?  They're all trades - not a draft pick in the lot of them.  And even the highlights are lowlights if you scratch the surface a little.  Take that Ron Harper trade.  Ferry was taken with the second pick in the draft - despite the fact that he had made it clear he wouldn't play for the Clippers; despite the fact that he was overrated; and despite the fact that Sean Elliot and Glen Rice were on the board.  Meanwhile, Reggie Williams was the fourth pick the year before, ahead of Scottie Pippen, Kevin Johnson and Reggie Miller.  Harper was clearly the best player in the subsequent trade, but one would expect to have some good players with the 2nd and 4th picks in the draft.

Elgin Baylor was a great basketball player (although, as it happens, my earliest memories of the NBA are from the Lakers 1972 championship, just after his retirement).  He seems like a nice enough man.  But his career running the Clippers was undistinguished, to say the least.  It may not have been his fault - but a change was long overdue.

The Southwest Division is complete in the now annual NBA Blogger Previews.  Enjoy.

Dallas Mavericks
Jake Kerr: Mavs Moneyball

Houston Rockets
grungedave and UofTOrange: The Dream Shake  

Memphis Grizzlies
Joshua Coleman: 3 Shades of Blue

New Orleans Hornets
Rohan: At the Hive
ticktock6 & mW: Hornets Hype
Ryan Schwan & Ron Hitley: Hornets247.com

San Antonio Spurs
Graydon Gordian: 48 Minutes of Hell

And here again are the links to the Atlantic Division Blogger Previews:

Boston Celtics
Jeff Clark: CelticsBlog.com    
Jim Weeks: Green Bandwagon      
FLCeltsFan: LOY's Place
John Karalis: Red's Army
Dustin Chapman: Celtics 24/7

New Jersey Nets
Dennis Velasco: About Basketball

New York Knicks
Joey: Straight Bangin'
Seth Rosenthal: Posting and Toasting

Philadelphia 76ers
Dannie & Pete: Recliner GM
Jon Burkett: Passion and Pride

Toronto Raptors
Franchise: RaptorsHQ.com
Ryan McNeill: Hoops Addict
Cuzzy: Cuzoogle

One of the big complaints that you often hear about the NBA is that the season is too long.  Some people view regular season games as meaningless, and only begin paying any sort of attention during the playoffs.  Well that's me and baseball.

When I was a kid, I was a huge baseball fan.  Because, you know, that's what you did.  You watched baseball in baseball season, you played little league, and you cheered for the home team.  (Never one to be completely conventional, I bucked the trend enough to be an A's fan in the 70's, and almost caused a riot in the bleachers at Dodger Stadium with my plastic A's helmet as a 11 year old at the 1974 World Series.)  But these days, I pretty much ignore baseball, at least until the pennant races in September.  This year I've managed to avoid it even longer.

BUT, I am paying attention now.  And if you too want to get immersed in the playoffs, SB Nation has a playoff recap page just for you.  You are probably aware that SB Nation has deep roots in baseball - no sport is more esoteric, more arcane, more analytical, more discussable, more downright bloggy than baseball.  And the SB Nation Dodgers site, True Blue LA, is among the best of the best.  Did you know that Citizen ToyCannon, a member of our Clips Nation community, is a front page author at True Blue LA? 

Anyway, check out the SB Nation Baseball Playoff page and True Blue LA to get caught up on the playoffs.  By the time the World Series comes around, the Clippers regular season will finally be here.

To say that this was a long time coming doesn't really do it justice.  Elgin Baylor had been the Vice President of Basketball Operations (essentially the general manager) of the Clippers for 22 years, longer than anyone else in the league - the second longest current tenure is 13 years for Kevin McHale and Geoff Petrie; no one else has been with their team more than 9 seasons.  The year Baylor first took the job, Magic Johnson was the league's MVP.  He's been around a long time.  Unnaturally long.  Too long.

But in typical Clipper fashion, they appear to have screwed up his departure.  The timeline from Tuesday looks something like this:

• Art Thompson III, apparently given enough leash by the OCR to sniff out a story not colored purple and gold, gets suspicious when Baylor's bio is nowhere to be found in the Clippers' preseason media guide.  He asks Clipper reps, who give him the run around, and then he calls his old pal Elgin who tells him "There’s a dispute going on.  My attorney advised me not to discuss it."  AT3 posts this at 12:36 PM.
• Lisa Dillman of the Times and Ramona Shelburne of the Daily News start following up.  They talk to Dunleavy and coach tells them "the team came to me recently, just in the last couple of days and said that Elgin was retiring and they wanted me to take on the responsibilities as general manager."  Dillman posted on the LAT's Fabulous Forum blog at 3:30 PM and had a brief story up on the Times' site at 4:18 PM.  Shelburne had her blog post up at 4:07 PM.
• All of this apparently took the Clippers completely by surprise.  The story was out there - Baylor was out, Dunleavy was in - and it seemed acrimonious.  The coach had confirmed that he'd be taking over the GM duties, but in fact there was still no official word from the organization.  So a press release went out at 4:19 PM.  Better late than never, I guess.

For what it's worth, here's the official word from Clipper town:

The Los Angeles Clippers today announced that Head Coach Mike Dunleavy will assume the additional role of General Manager, replacing Vice President of Basketball Operations, Elgin Baylor.

In a related move, the team’s current Director of Player Personnel, Neil Olshey, will be elevated to the post of Assistant General Manager.

"We greatly appreciate Elgin’s efforts during his time with the Clippers, and we wish him the very best," said Clippers’ Owner and Chairman of the Board Donald T. Sterling.

Referring to Dunleavy and Olshey respectively, Clippers President Andy Roeser said, "In Mike and Neil, we're fortunate to already have talented people in place to make this transition a seamless one. Going forward, we have high expectations for our team. From a basketball standpoint, these are the people we're counting on to make those expectations a reality."

Dunleavy welcomed the opportunity, saying, "I really appreciate the trust that the organization has placed in me.  We’re ready and excited to move forward, and we think we’ll have a team which can be dynamic and exciting, certainly one with enough talent to be a force in the Western Conference."

Baylor, an 11-time NBA All Star, joined the Clippers in 1986 as Vice President of Basketball Operations after a stellar 14-year playing career with the Los Angeles Lakers and a brief coaching stint with the New Orleans Jazz. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1976, chosen as one of the NBA’s "50 Greatest Players of All Time" during the league’s 50^th Anniversary celebration in 1997, and was named the 2005-06 NBA Executive of the Year.

Dunleavy, entering his sixth year as Clippers’ Head Coach, has manned dual roles before: he was Vice President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach of the Milwaukee Bucks from 1992-93 through 1995-96.

Olshey, originally hired as Clippers’ Director of Player Development prior to the 2003-04 season, became an assistant coach on Dunleavy’s staff in 2004-05.  He has been the team’s Director of Player Personnel for the past three seasons.

It's hard to imagine that they thought no one would notice that Elgin was nowhere to be found at the new facility, or that his name was missing from the media guide.  In fact, it's hard to believe that it took a week for someone to call Elgin and ask him what was up.  When were they planning to announce this? 

Ignoring the typically inept handing of the situation, at least the Clippers finally made this happen.  Dunleavy has been acting as the de facto GM for many years now.  He asked for involvement in personnel decisions in his first contract, and asked for more in his extension. 

I'm not sure that 'ex-player doing double duty as head coach' is really the profile of a successful NBA GM in the Buford/Pritchard/Presti era.  But at least we have some confidence that MDsr, with the broker gig on his resume, can do the salary cap math.  So Dunleavy gets what he wants, which is full responsibility (he aked for it in January during his kerfuffle with Sterling: “As long as I am here, I’ll take full responsibility, and I guarantee you everybody is going to be happy").  And Sterling has one fewer salary to pay - which actually will make him happy.

Does it make ClipperSteve happy?  Well, it's a start.  Baylor is a link to "The Worst Franchise in Pro Sports" days.  He should have been fired each and every year since, say, 1987.  So that's about two decades of reprieves.  And although not much will change in the short term since MDsr was already calling the shots, it's clearly better for him to have the title along with the responsibility.

Seems like it could have been handled better though.  I hope Baylor doesn't end up suing Sterling for his salary like Bill Fitch had to.  That's embarrassing.

For the third year in a row, Jeff at CelticsBlog has organized a bonanza of team previews from NBA bloggers.  The Atlantic Division is first up, and here they are, including five (count 'em FIVE) Celtics previews!  Enjoy.

Boston Celtics
Jeff Clark: CelticsBlog.com    
Jim Weeks: Green Bandwagon      
FLCeltsFan: LOY's Place
John Karalis: Red's Army
Dustin Chapman: Celtics 24/7

New Jersey Nets
Dennis Velasco: About Basketball

New York Knicks
Joey: Straight Bangin'
Seth Rosenthal: Posting and Toasting

Philadelphia 76ers
Dannie & Pete: Recliner GM
Jon Burkett: Passion and Pride

Toronto Raptors
Franchise: RaptorsHQ.com
Ryan McNeill: Hoops Addict
Cuzzy: Cuzoogle

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com