Forward Lamar Odom, left, holds his Clippers jersey as he poses with Coach Vinny Del Negro during a news conference last month. / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Perhaps the Clippers don’t need a general manager after all.
Or maybe Neil Olshey’s successor already is on the premises.
The Clippers have been one of the NBA’s most active teams this summer, bringing in a half-dozen veteran players — headed by Jamal Crawford, Grant Hill and Lamar Odom — while re-signing Chauncey Billups, and getting Blake Griffin’s signature on a max extension that could keep him a Clipper through 2017-18.
Coach Vinny Del Negro, team president Andy Roeser and director of player personnel Gary Sacks have handled basketball operations since Olshey defected to the Portland Trail Blazers in early June.
At that time, the opinion here, and elsewhere, was that Olshey’s Northwest passage could be a serious blow to the Clippers’ momentum gained from a second-round playoff advance.
Since then, though, they’ve done nothing but move forward.
They have landed former NBA Sixth Man of the Year award-winners Odom (2011) and Crawford (2010), plus a seven-time NBA All-Star in Hill. The trio gives Del Negro a much better bench, especially offensively, than in 2011-12.
Also brought in were two veteran big men, center Ryan Hollins (UCLA) and ex-Lakers forward/center Ronny Turiaf, the latter fresh from earning a championship ring with the Miami Heat, plus guard Willie Green.
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