Revisiting the LA Clippers over the last 10 seasons
By Ethan Smith
2010-2011: The Vinny Del Negro Era Begins
The Clippers entered a new era at the turn of the decade in 2010 when Vinny Del Negro entered as the head coach after Mike Dunleavy’s term as head coach had ended the season prior.
Of course coaches weren’t expected to come in year one and take teams to the Finals back then, unlike now where Steve Kerr and Nick Nurse were able to accomplish that albeit with much better rosters. But nevertheless, Del Negro was able to instill his system early on and he knew who his star was and he ran the offense through him.
Despite a 32-50 record, the Clippers had an exciting season Del Negro’s freshman season as Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon both eclipsed 20 points per game, with Griffin taking home the 2010-2011 Rookie of the Year award. Mo Williams, Baron Davis and Chris Kaman would follow suit adding double-digit points per game which created a fun team in LA for the first time in awhile.
The team jumped six spots in attendance from 20th to 14th during this season, seeing almost 50,000 more fans pour into Staples Center for Clippers games. The Lakers were still a much better team, but were swept by the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals and it sent shockwaves through LA as the era of Kobe Bryant‘s reign was quickly coming to an end.
Meanwhile, the Clippers were slowly but surely getting better, and their mix of young talent and savvy vets with a first-year head coach made for an intriguing team. But at the time, no one knew what could be coming in the following season.