Los Angeles Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro’s job is in imminent jeopardy, ESPN’s Bill Simmons reported last week, but team owner Donald Sterling said Monday that he has not even considered making a coaching change and that there’s no reason Del Negro won’t remain in his position for the rest of the season.
Sterling’s remarks don’t necessarily conflict with Simmons’ tweets, since Simmons did stress that one factor weighing in Del Negro’s favor is that coaching changes aren’t typically made when a team is contending for the playoffs. As Sporting News’ Sean Deveney pointed out, however, that doesn’t mean Del Negro’s days as Clippers coach aren’t numbered.
But, Sterling told the L.A. Times, "I like him. I usually follow the advice of my people, and I think they care for him, like him and want him to succeed. And I think he will."
ESPN’s Chris Broussard reported late last week that Del Negro "has lost the team" and players no longer "want to play hard for him," but Sterling told The Times, "I don't know where all these stories are coming from; nobody talked to me. Everything is good."
Clippers GM Neil Olshey, too, said he isn’t buying the notion that Del Negro has lost the locker room.
"No," Olshey said, per The Times. "I don't know where that would have come from because I'm sure it didn't come out of our locker room."
The Clippers have been mediocre of late. After getting off to a 15-7 start, they have gone 13-14 since losing Chauncey Billups to a season-ending injury on Feb. 6—and 8-9 since the All-Star break.
"Would I like more wins?,” Sterling asked rhetorically. “I'd like more. I'd like the players to develop more; I'd like to play better. But then I have great expectations, and to a certain extent they've been realized. To some extent they haven't, but I'm a patient guy."
Added Olshey, "If anyone had told us when we made the trade for Chris Paul that we'd be fourth in the conference and two games behind the Lakers, we'd say, yeah. Because of that the pressure's on and now we'll see how we do.''
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