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 a ton of cap space and only one hole in the starting lineup. With that in mind I look for the Clippers to go all out to try to sign LeBron James, Rudy Gay or Paul Pierce in that order. Mike Miller and John Salmons would likely be the fallback options for the Clippers at small forward. The Clippers also need to fill out the bench. Don’t be surprised to see the Clippers make a nice offer to Shaquille O’Neal in an effort to bring a name player to the Clippers. He would be nothing more than a backup to Chris Kaman but he would help the Clippers sell some tickets. Josh Howard would be a player worth possibly taking a risk on if his knee checks out healthy. The Clippers will improve the team this summer…..bank on it.

The Clippers have picked 21-year old shooting guard Willie Warren with the 54th overall pick of the NBA Draft. Warren played in 21 games (19 starts) at Oklahoma and he averaged 16.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.0 steal per game. He played in 57 games (53 starts) in college and he averaged 15.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game. Warren is a combo guard who can provide offense off the bench for the Clippers so I like this pick for them.

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 picked 19-year old power forward Al Farouq Aminu with the 8th overall pick of the NBA Draft. Aminu played in 31 games (30 starts) at Wake Forest last season and he averaged 15.8 points, 10.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocked shots per game. He played in two years in college playing in 62 games (60 starts) in which he averaged 14.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.3 blocked shots per game. Aminu can really stuff a stat sheet but he will likely be behind Blake Griffin unless he proves capable of handling the small forward spot.