Clippers to Hire Michael Winger as New GM

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20396304/la-clippers-offer-gm-position-oklahoma-city-thunder-executive-michael-winger

Seems like a good addition. OKC has a brilliant front office (cheap owner though).

Nice! Good to see the team finally get a legit GM. Though not sure why Jerry West wasn't just made GM- maybe he didn't want the full time job.

So I guess bringing in Ryan West is out of the question?

Love this move. OKCs philosophy was always to build from within. Hopefully he learned from Presti and can repeat what they did in OKC here

Why couldn't we have a competent front office 5 years ago when we actually had a championship core. It's pointless now that we're doomed for irrelevancy. I think the lakers got more national televised than us.

? I think you're crazy but you're entitled to think such. It sounds like you've already entered the other side of the hall. Good luck with your national broadcasts.

Lot of good things said about him. Certainly not a guy that would mess up cap rules as he's said to be one of the best cap guys in the league

Well we're not doomed for irrelevancy, but we couldn't have this because Donald Sterling was the owner, and while Ballmer came and wanted to make this franchise great, he did not have any NBA ownership experience and it took some time for him to figure out how to set everything up.

The past 6 seasons have never been better for this old school Clipper fan, but I must say I have never been so excited for the future of our franchise.

Like any great business, I believe Ballmer is doing everything he can to continue forward...Go Clippers!

Jerry West rules!!!

The quiet hand in the back making all the moves...

Building this franchise..and the roster..

I love it!

Finally a young progressive GM I been asking for for the last few years. Better late then never, lol. Good move.

Naw....think you're jumping off the cliff a little too soon there jarca. Take a deep breath and enjoy the upcoming season, you just might be a little bit surprised on the out come.

Looks like Ballmer is getting the hang of being an NBA owner, almost cleaning house with front office personnel that Doc had put in place. This is a great addition. Having Jerry "The Team Whisperer" West in Ballmer's ears this off-season has been tremendous.

I know nothing about this guy, but am very glad he's here. Ballmer seems to be doing the right things. We have an owner committed to winning. That much is certain and after 30 years of Sterling, that is more than welcome.

Hold your nose grab your balls and jump in the water. We will be fine. What I like is that we're going back to the Brandian blue collar Clips like we always were. It will be fun. Did we have a championship core? Maybe the Emperor had no clothes and we were pretending he wore a tux.

Doc is on a real short leash depending what the locker room issues were. Nepotism will not be tolerated and it wouldn't surprise me to see Austin gone unless he really produces We don't need the distraction. I'd rather lose Doc. What Ballmer knows is how to win. It's a learned skill. I wish I had learned. First you surround yourself with winners and develop a no nonsense culture.

It's quite odd to suggest Jerry West is doing everything and the inspiration behind every move, that doesn't even seem very reasonable. I don't even think Jerry West would be happy to be in a situation where he's making every move.

I don't think West was hired to make moves but rather, give advice. What Ballmer and the FO do with it, is up to them. With that said, I have a feeling his advice is not being wasted.

I agree Joe. We have over four years with Doc being a key part of the decision making process. We have identified a pattern with Doc, which I'm not going to re-summarize. This off season was remarkably different, so did Doc suddenly turn a new leaf? No, the greater likelihood is that Jerry West is the key factor behind the moves this offseason. First, trading away Chris Paul for the package we got was unlike anything Doc has ever pulled off. In fact, in his time here Doc never once entertained trading any of our core. His team building was essentially to keep the core and surround them with veteran minimum contracts in the hope that we could hit a home run with them. Second, the package acquired from Houston included young guys like Harrell, Dekker, Hilliard, Liggins, Wiltjer, and a first round pick. Doc has always hated playing young players, so including guys like this was beyond what he ever tried to get in return. Third, Doc has always been hesitant to trade Jamal Crawford, whose wonderful personality and good nature has allowed him to stay on the squad longer than he should have. This trade of Crawford was instrumental in the acquisition of what could be one of the best small forwards, Danillo Gallinari, that we have had in a long, long time. Acquiring a good small forward was an elusive, almost impossible, task for Doc, yet this year it magically happens. Fourth, the smaller contracts acquired in Willie Green and Marshal Plumlee don't resemble what Doc has done in the past with small contracts. Doc has usually favored former Lakers or Celtics players due to familiarity, so that leads me to think that Doc either didn't scout well or didn't have the right personnel to do so.....

Nice post!

I was going to go further into it but just like you, I didn't want to bring it up. I will say that I firmly believe (no proof) that Ballmer took away his GM title based on two things that are related.

1. CP3 leaving

2. Doc didn't trade for Melo that led to CP3 leaving.

• The reason why I feel more sure about it now is the fact that Melo will only waive his no-trade clause for Houston. Now that the FA dust has settled, He doesn't have to play games now. Melo wants to play for Houston only. If anyone thinks CP3 doesn't have his hands in this when he's had his hands in EVERYTHING from Doc Rivers coming here to Caron Butler, then you don't know CP3. I'll go further by saying I think CP3 wants Melo there more than Melo does. Add in the fact that Houston and NY are talking again, then you realize just how bad these guys want to play together. Does that mean I wanted Melo and CP3 here? Hell no. I like this younger team a lot more. Melo and CP3 long term would have death for us long term. And don't kid yourself, signing CP3 long term means you're signing Melo long term. While Doc created a lot of this mess, a lot of the players we got was a direct result of CP3 campaigning for them to come here.

good stuff joe. We just finished season Tix. This was our last year buying, but anytime you want to watch a game please let me know. Love to introduce you to the wife and watch a game

Wow, thanks for your offer. If I decide to go to a game (I'm sure I will), I'll let you know and maybe we can meet up there.

Yup agreed, whatever West says will be taken seriously, but they didn't hire him and he didn't come so that he could do their work for them. He's there to critic the ideas and provide ideas, but not to spear head every move that might be made. If they're doing a GM search, what is likely is that Frank is the guy who does all the research and rounds up all the candidates, and then Ballmer and West are in the room along with him making the final decisions. It might not necessarily be West who came up with the candidates, but they also wouldn't choose someone if he was not on board with that person. West's role though is not to be the day to day manager which means while he will give ideas of players to sign, etc, Frank is the one doing most of the legwork, but West will always be in the room and be part of the process. Now that they have added a GM and Assistant GM, those guys will be doing the majority of the legwork in terms of player acquisitions, while Frank will be managing everyone together. Doc had been getting pushed out since the last off-season as soon as Frank moved into the front office, and again as soon as Frank was the one put in charge of restructuring the front office and not Doc despite Doc being the "President". The whole reason Frank was put in there is that they realized that Doc actually could not do both roles effectively, so it allowed Frank to do the actual work, while Doc just retained decision making power (how nice). Now, as much as I'd like to bash Doc, I'm not sure Doc was opposed to this either because we can't think he was....

For sure. It's going to be nice to enjoy the final years of Staples. I'm happy to have a new stadium and a home of our own, but I'm very sad to leave the Staples center because the area has become as one member here in CNS referred to "mini-Manhattan." Oh well, maybe Inglewood will have similar success.

Have to agree with you on this, don't think some have realized the enormous leverage on management CP wielded from the moment he arrived. Everyone talks about the leverage LeBron has with Cleveland management, but it was also a similar situation with CP here.