LA Clippers Should Fire Vinny Del Negro and Target Phil Jackson

When he was in Chicago, we liked to call Vinny Del Negro "Vinny Del Idiot."

When he signed with the Clippers, I thought, "typical Clippers." When they traded for Chris Paul, I thought, "If anyone can ruin this, it's Vinny Del Negro." 

Just putting this all out on the table so no one thinks I'm trying to pass myself off as unbiased here. When I saw some people floating his name before the season started as a potential Coach of the Year candidate, though, I sprained my spleen laughing. 

I'm not exaggerating here. He made a team with Derrick Rose a middling team so there was no reason to expect that he shouldn't be able to do the same, even with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin to play with. 

The Clippers' potential has hardly been tapped this year. Yes, they took a hit when Chauncey Billups went out, but that's not really much of an excuse. They still have two All-Stars and Caron Butler. There's plenty of reason for them to be doing better than they are. 

The difference between a well-coached team and a team that is merely talented comes when they play against the other elite teams. It shows how well prepared they are both mentally and in terms of game preparation. 

A team's not going to win every big game, but they need to be in them. Last night's blowout loss at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder, (who were incidentally on the back end of a back-to-back) was a sign that as talented as the Clippers are, they are not well coached. 

Bill Simmons tweets:

The Clippers need to do some clipping, as in take a little off the top, if you know what I mean. Get a real NBA coach in there. Phil Jackson wouldn't really have to move. I think he knows how to get to the Staples Center. 

It might make a little awkward conversation when he's visiting his girlfriend's parents, but I think he's got enough credit built up there that coaching her daddy's team's rival would be enough to make getting through the holidays a possibility. 

Having a coach like Phil Jackson would be every kind of storyline you could hope for. From Michael Jordan to Shaquille O'Neal to Kobe Bryant to Chris Paul, he would have the chance to add to his already tremendous legacy. The crosstown rival aspect of the story would just be icing on the cake. 

The moral of the story is, if you're going to pick a head coach that got their start with the Bulls, start at the top, not the bottom.