Mike Dunleavy has stepped down as the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, but will remain general manger of the team. The Clippers have needed a new coach for a while now, and this move should only help them. But Dunleavy staying on as GM leads to a host of new questions.

First off, Mike Dunleavy is a pretty good coach. LA fans may remember that Jerry West pulled him out of nowhere to replace Pat Riley in 1990, and was rewarded when Dunleavy guided the Lakers to an upset over Portland in the 1991 Western Conference Finals. A few months later, Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive, and Dunleavy still rallied the Lakers to a playoff appearance.

Afterward, Dunleavy left for Milwaukee to become the Bucks' Coach/GM and after several lousy years, he stepped down as coach while remaining as GM (sound familiar?). That arrangement lasted one season before Dunleavy was hired to be the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. He guided Portland to two consecutive Western Conference Finals, doing his best to keep the talented "Jail Blazers" under control.

With the Clippers, Dunleavy led the team to its most successful season ever, a 2006 appearance in the second round of the playoffs, one round further than the Lakers. But Dunleavy's Clippers never came close to repeating that success. Part of that was due to injuries which seemed to ravage the team every year. But Dunleavy no longer seemed able to motivate his players and his defensive-oriented system clearly did not suit his personnel. He especially clashed with Baron Davis who thrives in a more up-tempo system, like the one he played in Golden State.

Most basketball observers felt Dunleavy should have been fired last year, or even earlier, but it's been widely assumed that Donald Sterling didn't want to pay the $5.5 million a year Dunleavy is owed through next year and a whole other coaching staff. Before today, Dunleavy was the only coach/GM in the NBA, and it's very difficult to do both jobs at the same time. But again, Sterling reportedly didn't want to have to pay for a new GM as well.

Kim Hughes is the new interim coach of the Clippers and no one knows what to expect from him. It's interesting that he was the assistant chosen over John Lucas, who actually has head coaching experience, but Dunleavy told ESPN Radio's Steve Mason and John Ireland that he felt Hughes was more familiar with the players.

The real question is how Dunleavy will continue to impact the Clippers as GM. There's no other NBA GM who makes close to $5.5 million a year, so it remains to be seen if he will stay on after next season. We also don't know if Hughes will be given a shot at becoming the permanent head coach, or if the Clippers will want to bring in a more established coach next year. And we have no idea what role Dunleavy will play in hiring a new coach. I actually think that Dunleavy has done a reasonably good job with personnel moves since Elgin Baylor left, finding ways to obtain cap space while still bringing in quality talent.

With Davis, Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, and others, the Clippers have the talent to be a playoff team. Next year, they'll get a major boost with Blake Griffin coming back. But the Clippers need a coach who will run a more up-tempo offense to suit Davis' strengths.

Byron Scott would sound like a great candidate except that him and Davis did not get along in New Orleans. Avery Johnson might also be a good choice, but he would probably want to take more control of the team than Dunleavy would allow. Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau is long overdue for a head coaching job, but he might be more defensive oriented than the Clippers need.

If there's one thing we've learned about Donald Sterling's coaching hires, it's that you can expect the unexpected. Kim Hughes is now the Sterling's 17th head coach in the 20 years he's owned the franchise. But this is an organization that has the potential to be successful and just needs the right coach to lead them. The current arrangement simply comes with more questions.

Earlier this evening I spoke with Fred Roggin about Dunleavy and also gave my Super Bowl pick on The Filter.

Over the past few years, I've seen an explosion of interest in college football recruiting. Much of this can be attributed to internet sites like Rivals.com and Scout.com which allow die-hard college fans to actively follow recruiting battles across the country. It's now reached the point where just a few days before the Super Bowl, ESPN.com devoted more space on its home page to National Signing Day than to any story it's covered in months.

While I'm always thrilled when people take an interest in sports, especially niche subjects like recruiting, I'm here to tell you not buy into the hype. At best, recruiting is an inexact science, and it is hardly worth obsessing over.

By all accounts, USC and UCLA have excellent recruiting classes. The three major services -- Rivals, Scout, and ESPN -- all rank the local schools in the top-10 for 2010. Rivals even ranks USC No. 1, which is impressive considering the school changed head coaches just a few weeks ago.

But the successes at USC and UCLA don't guarantee anything. Just three years ago, USC had the No. 1 recruiting class in the country according to ESPN. This was largely due to the Trojans securing the nation's No. 1 player (Joe McKnight), the No. 1 defensive recruit (Everson Griffen), another Top-5 recruit (Marc Tyler), and a top-flight QB (Aaron Corp).

Well, how has that worked out? Not so well. Dubbed "the next Reggie Bush," McKnight never realized his potential at USC, failing to consistently run between the tackles and only occasionally breaking off a big play. McKnight missed the Emerald Bowl this year because of an investigation into his use of a car that belonged to a marketing representative, and some fear it could lead to NCAA sanctions. McKnight initially said he'd come back to play in 2010, claiming he could win the Heisman, but after the investigations began he chose to enter the NFL Draft. After being the No. 1 recruit in the nation in 2007, he's now projected to be taken in the fourth round, meaning he's fallen from No. 1 to roughly No. 100

Griffen's first two years at USC were frustrating to watch, as he seemed undisciplined and unable to fulfill his potential. He finally became a full-time starter this past season, and did OK, being named Second-Team All-Pac 10. Griffen could barely wait for the Emerald Bowl to end to announce he was declaring for the NFL Draft. Based on potential alone, he's projected to be a late-first or early-second round pick, but he's been a disappointment at USC.

Tyler has had two injury-riddled seasons with the Trojans. In the one year in which he did play, Tyler rarely saw playing time, being stuck behind four other RBs on the depth chart. He hopes to have a good 2010, now that some of his competition has left.

Corp got passed on the depth chart by another top QB recruit in Matt Barkley. He started one game last season against Washington and looked horrible, subsequently falling to 3rd string. He has since decided to transfer to Richmond.

So as you can see, these recruiting lists aren't exactly a crystal ball. Three years ago, Boise State, TCU, and Cincinnati were on no one's top-25 recruiting lists, but all three made BCS games. Schools like Oregon, Iowa, and Georgia Tech, which also made the BCS, didn't have hyped recruiting classes either.

In the meantime schools such as Clemson, South Carolina, Illinois, Notre Dame, and Texas A&M continue to produce well-regarded recruited classes with little to show for it on the field.

The truth is, when you're talking about 17-year old kids, you never know what to expect. It's easy to watch a highlight tape of a high school kid and see that someone is fast or strong against lesser competition. But it's far more difficult to know how hard a kid will work, how he will work with others, whether he cares about team success or his own NFL prospects, and if he is able to withstand the pressures and lifestyle changes that accompany playing on the college level.

There's no question that it's important to recruit top talent. No team can win without good players. But it's more important to coach and develop players. There's a lot of development that goes on between ages 18 and 21, and young football players are no exception.

Recruiting rankings have little correlation with actual results on the field, so it's silly to wrapped up in the hype.

©2010 Daisy Getty Design

No. Not just books.

I quit my job as a journalist to go write novels.

Fiction.

Now, given the current condition of the newspaper industry, that probably makes me look like a genius to some, as though I ought to be waxing rhapsodic on the eve of my debut novel's publication. ["Boon" is available in stores and online. View the trailer at YouTube, read an excerpt, or visit WhatTheBoon.com.]

Indeed, several newspaper friends have inquired in recent weeks as to how they might do the same thing. How, they ask, does a journalist becomes a novelist?

"How?"

I've written and rewritten the answer to that question at least 100 different ways in the past week, all of which amounted to very poetic piles of steaming horseshit.

You want to know how? My answer is "no."

Los Angeles mini-malls might seem an unlikely subject for photographer and UCLA professor Catherine Opie. She first gained notoriety in the art world in the mid 1990's with her large-scale portraits of members of the sadomasochistic leather culture in San Francisco. She's also widely known for her images of lesbian family life, high school football players and California surfers.

In the late 1990's, as part of her project "American Cities," Opie photographed urban scenes with a 7" by 17" banquet camera, typically used to photograph large groups of people. She shot Los Angeles mini-malls very early in the morning, before the rush of traffic. Eight of these L.A. images are featured in the upcoming Getty Center exhibit, "Urban Panoramas, Opie, Liao, and Kim."

According to the Getty, the show "displays the work of three contemporary photographers, each of whom explores a specific city and how various modes of transportation define the urban infrastructure." (Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao photographed New York City and Soo Kim shot Reykjavik.) "Urban Panoramas highlights three distinctive bodies of work, each of which explores a specific aspect of urban architecture to capture the essential rhythm of a city," says exhibit curator Virginia Heckert.

Opie's mini-mall images may be devoid of human activity, but they speak volumes about a certain aspect of the way life is lived in Los Angeles — a city designed for, and dominated by, cars.

Urban Panoramas accompanies a larger exhibit, "A Record of Emotion:The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans." Evans, a British photographer who died in 1943, is best known for his images of medieval British cathedrals. The shows open Tuesday and run until June 6.

"Untitled #17, 1998" © Catherine Opie. Courtesy the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Toni Ann Johnson, a screenwriter, community activist and blogger, uses her blog to document her efforts to bring more green to her neighborhood in South Los Angeles. It's been a two year struggle but she's finally achieving visible results. Partnering with Million Trees L.A., the Southwest Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and Ralph's super market, Toni Ann gathered with over 100 volunteers to plant Ginko Biloba trees in front of Ralphs supermarket at Western and Manchester on Saturday, January 23, 2010. If you review the video above, you'll see that Los Angeles Councilmember Bernard Parks made the event.

Not content to rest on her laurels for a moment (sorry I couldn't resist), Toni Ann gave Native Intelligence a quick interview.

How did you feel after the event and as you were putting in the trees?

Right after the event I was delighted, gratified and very tired. Later when I reflected on what we'd accomplished and how long it took to reach the goal, I was profoundly grateful and feeling very connected to God, very blessed.

As we were putting in the trees I was joyful. Many of my very dear friends and neighbors came down to help out and it was pretty amazing seeing them work to make the community better. It moved me. I enjoyed digging the dirt and seeing the roots of the trees, thinking about how they were going to reach down into the soil and become a real part of the landscape. I love the idea of an urban forest!

What was the toughest obstacle in this process?

The toughest obstacle was actually what motivated me the most and I'm grateful for it. It was when the director of store operations for Ralphs told me that they wouldn't allow the trees to be planted. He said there were no plans to green that location and that there probably never would be. Knowing that all the other Ralphs in Los Angeles had trees, the fact that he said no infuriated me and propelled me into action. I made as much noise as I possibly could, determined to be a pest until they'd install the trees just to shut me up. I gained momentum in 2009 when an op-ed that I wrote was published in the Los Angeles Times. The forces against me allowed me to develop strengths and skills I hadn't cultivated previously, so I appreciated the challenge.

"Advice for Greenies in a Complicated World"

Dear JJ:

My 8-year-old son Rory wants to play in a baseball league, but the closest one is two towns away--28 miles! My wife wants to do it, but I think it's more important that Rory knows about climate change and learns how to act responsibly. Please advise!

Jason
Warming up in Wallula, Washington

Dear Jason:

Ah yes, this is a tough question--and it's exactly the sort of argument that families are having more and more these days. Happily, I can suggest two easy ways you might solve it, though:

One, carpool.

Or two, you might try a simple and very useful equation that two UC-Berkeley math whizzes have just developed. Amazingly, it empowers families to calculate the answers to just these sorts of dilemmas.

Here's how it works. First, you have to figure out your family warming coefficient (FWC).

To do that, you take the weight in grams of your heart, add the weight of your wife's heart times 2, and multiply by the volume (in cc's) of your child's dreams. Multiply by the number of things that you value half or more as much as doing your part to reduce carbon--e.g. family, friendship, health, travel, chocolate. Then sit your child down and explain that the world as we know it is going to end if we don't stop doing things like driving 8-year-olds 56 miles round-trip to play baseball. Add the weight of the child's guilt to the previous total.

OK, that's your FWC--which you can now use to calculate answers to the specific questions that come up in your family-- e.g., How far is too far for Little League?

In this case, you're almost there. Just add together the distance one-way to the game, the weight of the vehicle you plan to drive, and the weight of the people and equipment times 2 inside it. Multiply this sum by the gas mileage, and divide by 2 if it's a hybrid vehicle (or multiply by 2.3 if the hybrid gets ≤6mpg more than your other or last vehicles). Add half the air miles you've flown in the past 15 months (multiply by 1.5 for business class, 2 for first class), and add the number of offsets you purchased and immediately subtract the same number. Subtract the square root of the number of children that you and your wife have decided not to have primarily because of their energy demands. Now add the distance that all the grandparents will drive or fly (multiply by 3.2 if they fly) to their grandchild's games in the course of the season, and subtract the number of deceased grandparents times 3. Then divide by the combined total weight of Moms and apple pies in your town that will compensate for the absence of baseball.

Got it? Then just multiply that number by your FWC:

0-1000: play ball
1000-2000: OK if you convert the car to vegetable oil (or ≥1 grandparent gets sick)
2000+: personally responsible for a .004-inch rise in sea level if you play

Or carpool. Let us know what you decide!

Green Me Up, JJ is an occasional advice column. You can e-mail JJ with your burning questions about how to act and think environmentally smart in our complicated 21st-century world.

For previous entries, click here.

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A major surprise today as Lane Kiffin reportedly will be named head coach of USC football. Kiffin is a former USC offensive coordinator who had coached the University of Tennessee this past year.

I'm shocked that USC would hire Kiffin, and I didn't even bother to put him on my list of potential candidates. While USC is a program with great tradition and resources, so is Tennessee. Kiffin seemed firmly entrenched there, being very outspoken in the press about recruiting and his conference rivals, sometimes to his own detriment. Tennessee seemed to brush up against the NCAA rule book several times in Kiffin's lone season there, and his comments have gotten him in trouble.

Kiffin brings with him an impressive group of assistants. His own father, Monte, is an old friend and mentor of Pete Carroll's and is considered one of the best NFL defensive coordinators of all time. He will cost USC a ton of money. Ed Orgeron is a former USC assistant from the Carroll era, who is an excellent recruiter. He failed in his one stint as a head coach at Mississippi, but he's well-respected in Southern California.

Kiffin seems to have lived a charmed life in coaching, when it comes to getting jobs. Using his father's connections, he earned a spot on the USC staff under Carroll, and eventually unseated Norm Chow as offensive coordinator, in a move that upset plenty of people. After just two seasons in that role, he was hired as head coach of the Oakland Raiders. That was a real shocker because it's almost unheard of for a college assistant coach to get a pro head coaching job. Kiffin seemed to win the respect of his players though, and seemed to be making the best of the dysfunctional situation that Al Davis created. Kiffin lasted less than two seasons though after an ugly fallout with Davis that embarrassed the owner and led many to question his sanity.

It seemed like Kiffin had found a home at Tennessee and was set there for the long run. He took over a 5-7 team, and had them go 7-5 in the regular season, eventually losing 37-14 to Virginia Tech in the Chick Fil-A Bowl. He also lost to UCLA at home early in the season. Still Kiffin's team nearly knocked off national champion Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and the team showed gradual improvement throughout the year. Tennessee's recruiting was also going strong.

At USC, Kiffin will come to a program he's familiar with, and he will be in a good position to keep many of the recruits that Pete Carroll had brought on board. He's also the kind of guy who could stay at USC for a long time (he's still just 34!). But he's also a person who has been rather unpredictable over the years, and one could easily see this arrangement turning sour. If Kiffin is to succeed at USC, he will have to show more discipline with his comments than he's shown at Tennessee (although Kiffin claims everything he's said has been calculated).

I'm not sure what to make of a man who would leave a school after just one year while ruffling plenty of feathers in the process. But I do believe that Kiffin is a bright up-and-coming head coach, who can be a success at USC. He brings a great deal of energy and passion to the position, and he provides some kind of continuity in the program after Carroll. Bringing in Monte Kiffin and Ed Orgeron is an excellent start.

UPDATE: ESPN's Shelley Smith now reports that USC is negotiating with UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow about moving across town. This also comes as a surprise because it was believed that Chow and Kiffin didn't get along when they were on the USC staff together. There were reports that Chow resented the increased responsibilities that Carroll gave Kiffin, and it was a factor in him leaving for the NFL. Nonetheless, Chow has a home in Los Angeles, and he hasn't always gotten along with Rick Neuheisel either. His hiring would be a major coup for USC if it happened.

With Pete Carroll having confirmed his move to Seattle and Oregon State's Mike Riley announcing he'll stay in Corvallis, USC is in full search mode.

As we expected, Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher was contacted about his interest. But Sports Illustrated's Peter King reports that the uncertainty at USC has led Fisher to decline. Fisher also turned down the USC job in 2001.

Speculation is now focusing on Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio. While he has never coached in college at any level, Del Rio is a USC alum who would probably be interested in the job. His candidacy is more appealing if Jaguars assistants Dirk Koetter and Kennedy Pola follow him.

We know that Mike Garrett values coaches with pro experience, so it's no surprise that the name Herm Edwards has surfaced. Like Carroll, Edwards is a defensive coach who had several up-and-down years as an NFL head coach with the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs. It's unlikely that Edwards will be in the mix for an NFL head coaching job any time soon, so USC could be appealing to the San Diego State alum.

I wrote last Friday that I expected Brian Billick, Jim Fassel, Dennis Green, and Jon Gruden to receive consideration. Of that group, Fassel would be the most likely to be in the mix. Billick and Gruden probably want to stay in the NFL, and Green is somewhat unpredictable.

Mike Garrett reportedly would like Norm Chow to come back to USC. But it's possible he's thinking about Chow as an offensive coordinator for a new head coach, rather than as the actual head coach. There are also reports that Ed Orgeron would like to come back to the USC coaching staff, but he's a southern guy who is making a ton of money at Tennessee right now.

There are several names on the college level that continue to surface. Chris Petersen has done a spectacular job at Boise State, twice winning BCS bowl games. There are obvious differences between LA and Boise though, and the past two Boise State coaches to leave -- Dirk Koetter for Arizona State and Dan Hawkins for Colorado -- did not fare well. Gary Patterson has also done a terrific job at TCU, but he just signed a long-term extension, and he might not be the best fit.

Washington's Steve Sarkisian is sure to be contacted. I would still be surprised if Sarkisian left after just one year and turned his back on QB Jake Locker, but stranger things have happened.

Some think USC should reach out to Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh. But he could also view USC as a stop on his way to the NFL, and I just don't see him coming here. Mike Bellotti turned down the USC job in 2001, and he could come up again. However, Bellotti was gently nudged out the door at Oregon, and I'm not sure if USC is interested in his spread option offense. The same goes for a coach like Kyle Whittingham from Utah, who runs the spread option. Since Matt Barkley is firmly entrenched as the starting QB, the Trojans will need someone who runs an offense that suits his strengths. That being said, Bellotti could always run a different offense if he came to USC.

At this point, I think USC's top remaining choice is Del Rio. If they can't make it work with him, then I would expect either Edwards, Fassel, or Petersen to take the job. One thing we've learned about Garrett over the years though, is that you can expect the unexpected. No one saw Pete Carroll getting the job in 2001, and Kevin O'Neill was a real surprise for the basketball program. It's possible that a leading candidate is on no one's radar right now.

USC does need to act quickly though in order to avoid losing a talented class of recruits that Carroll had assembled. It would be very problematic for the Trojans if Garrett was unable to hire a coach by the end of the week.