When the Los Angeles Clippers relieved him of his head coaching duties nearly five weeks ago, Mike Dunleavy conceded that his team needed to hear from a fresh voice. Dunleavy moved upstairs in his role as general manager and readied himself for the trading deadline and the June draft. He took a bow after the Clippers were able wipe $5.5 million off the books at the deadline to put themselves in position to extend a massive contract in the 2010 free agency chase, and scheduled scouting trips to get an up close look at this year’s crop of college talent.

I’m not so sure Shaq could do that these days. The tube might burst. (Via Andy Gray’s SI Vault ) Alright, last post from me before my trip.

“In my country, we celebrate with open mouth. And tongue.” The San Antonio Spurs: No LeBron

LeBron came to Milwaukee to chew bubblegum and kick ass sit on the bench in street clothes Put on your Snuggie — it’s time for BAD.

Photo: John Marcus Jonathan Kraft, Mark Cuban, Daryl Morey, Bill Polian, Bill Simmons, Michael Lewis and conference co-founder Jessica Gelman.

The MAC tournament tips off in… oh, a few hours. So let’s run this down one more time in 2010, shall we?

The Detroit Pistons: As if losing their sixth straight game wasn’t bad enough, Rodney Stuckey collapsed during the third quarter of Detroit’s game against the Crabs in Cleveland. The good news is, it appears Stuckey is going to be okay . But damn, that was a freaky-scary moment.

The basketball analytics panel is always one of the best-attended and most engaging panel of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Last year, the debate crackled when the panelists revisited the Jason Kidd-Devin Harris deal. This year, the participants took inventory of the state of basketball analytics in the League, and made particular note of how many NBA organizations had sent representatives to the conference (by one count, 16 of the 30 teams)

In addition to the lively panels, the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference features the presentation of research papers by up-and-coming thinkers in the field. Brian Robb of Celtics Hub attended one such presentation today, “Whistle Swallowing: Officiating & the Omission Bias.” An omission bias can best be defined as a referee’s willingness to make an incorrect call rather than make an incorrect non-call. Robb explains the nut of the findings by Tobias Moskowitz and Jon Wertheim, who wrote the paper: So where does the NBA fit into this type of bias

It’s one thing for an NBA organization to commit itself to collecting and analyzing advanced statistics, but it’s quite another to get the coaching staff to buy in. Zach Lowe of Celtics Hub attended the panel on Saturday at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on coaching analytics