The Clippers have hired 43-year old Vinny Del Negro to be their new head coach. Del Negro got fired in Chicago after last season despite going 41-41 during the regular season and 1-4 in the playoffs against the Cavaliers. Del Negro has a career record (two years) of 82-82 (.500%) during the regular season and he is 4-8 (33.3%) in the post season. This was a good hire for the Clippers who have playoff aspirations for the 2010-11 season.

The Clippers have acquired 21-year old point guard Eric Bledsoe from the Thunder for a future first round pick. Bledsoe was the 18th overall pick in the first round out of Kentucky. Bledsoe played in 37 games (35 starts) last season for Kentucky and he averaged 11.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Bledsoe will likely do a lot of learning behind Baron Davis who he probably will replace down the road.

The Clippers have fired head coach Kim Hughes. The Clippers were 8-25 (.242) under Hughes and that is pathetic. The Clippers should have just kept Coach Dunleavy on board until the end of the year. But, hindsight is always 20/20. Hopefully the next coach the Clippers bring in will be a good one.

The Clippers got involved in a huge trade today with the Wizards and Cavs. They Clippers have acquired 28-year old power forward Drew Gooden from the Wizards in the deal. Antwan Jamison goes to Cleveland along with Sebastian Telfair from the Clippers. The Wizards get Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Cleveland’s first round pick in 2010 from the Cavs and they get Al Thornton from the Clippers. Gooden might get a lot of minutes that were going to Marcus Camby before he was traded to the Blazers earlier this week. Gooden has played in 46 games (11 starts) for the Mavericks this season and he was averaging 22.4 minutes, 8.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. Gooden has now played in 556 games (407 starts) in his NBA career and he is averaging 27.6 minutes, 11.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. Gooden’s contract is up at the end of the season so this trade will clear a lot of cap space for the Clippers. Still, I don’t like the deal for them because Al Thornton is a solid young player that they might regret getting rid of. Thornton played in 51 games (30 starts) for the Clippers this season and he averaged 27.5 minutes, 10.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. In three years with the Clippers, Thornton played in 201 games (128 starts) in which he averaged 30.9 minutes, 13.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. The Clippers pretty much had to trade Thornton if they wanted to get rid of Sebastian Telfair’s contract so they did it. Sebastian Telfair played in 39 games (1 start) for the Clippers this season and he averaged 14.9 minutes, 4.3 points, 1.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. The Clippers didn’t need Telfair anymore after acquiring Steve Blake in the Marcus Camby trade.

The Clippers have waived 30-year old shooting guard Ricky Davis to make room on the roster for Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake. Davis played in 36 games (2 starts) for the Clippers this season and he averaged 13.9 minutes, 4.4 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. The Clippers have been disappointed in Davis’ play the last two years so his release should come as no surprise. Look for him to hook on with another team before the year is over.