Mike Dunleavy Sr. has finally stepped down as coach of the Clippers and one would think that he woudl soon be out the door as general manager as well since he hasn't done a bang up job in either position. Of course, now that there's a likely GM opening, every blogger will probably be throwing their hat into the ring as the new hypothetical GM of the Clippers and who am I to think I'm above that?

So if I was in charge of the Clippers, I'd approach things the same way that I suggested the Wizards should proceed. The first order of business is to get everyone in the franchise to realize that this team is on a three-to-five year rebuilding plan. Right now, I don't see anyone on the team who is untouchable and there are a number of guys who should probably go ASAP. I wouldn't even waste our time pretending like we were a player in the 2010 free agent market. The Clippers are such a mess that nobody would sign there unless they were vastly overpaid and, honestly, anyone who WOULD agree to come here would be suspect. Probably just another player looking for a payoff without care if they ever see the playoffs.

Since the team has little hope of using their cap space this coming offseason, they should be buyers in the current market; agree to take on unwanted salary in exhange for getting a talented youngster. So this might be my plan for the trade deadline:

1. Marcus Camby and Rasual Butler for Sam Dalembert, Jrue Holiday, and Marreese Speights
I'd love to get Thad Young but I'm not sure that possible. Also, I think I can probably get a good SF out of New York for taking back one of their contracts. In this deal, I bring in a solid backup for Chris Kaman and a young PG (who's also a local kid) to backup Baron and possibly take over the starting spot in the near future.

2. Craig Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Ricky Davis and Al Thornton for Jared Jeffiries and Danilo Gallinari
Yes, Thornton is a promising talent but he's 26 years old and still hasn't put it together so I think it's better to use him as a trade asset now rather than re-sign him and potentially overpay him. Also, if it means getting Il Gallo from the Knicks, I'm all for it. This deal would help clear almost ten million off of the Knicks payroll.

Of course, there could be some tweaking of those deals and maybe a different team sneaks in and makes a better offer but these seem like very plausible deals that would help improve the Clippers' young talent and not really kill their long term cap situation.

I'd then start preparing for the offseason and trying to figure out ways to dump Baron Davis or maybe get something for Eric Gordon, a player I like a lot in the same way I liked Mitch Richmond - very good player, not sure how much you're going to win with him. I'd even consider moving Blake Griffin since that knee injury scares the bejeezus out of me. I might see if I couldn't swap him for Michael Beasley.

As you can probably tell from names like Beasley and Gallinari, I'd make my first focus offense. High scoring teams will bring in more fans and, most importantly, create an atmosphere that players would be interested in joining. The Clippers are located in a city that most players would LOVE to play in; the problem is that they've not only been bad, they haven't been fun. Nobody wants to play for Mike Dunleavy Sr. I'm not a huge fan of George Karl but he might be free after this year and would be the right direction for this franchise to take.

And, as I've said time and again, I'd try to get the franchise to rebrand itself in 2011. New name, new colors, new attitude.