The 1989–90 Los Angeles Clippers season was the 20th season for the Los Angeles Clippers in the National Basketball Association, and their sixth season in Los Angeles, California.
Season summary
Off-season The Clippers received the second overall pick in the 1989 NBA draft, and selected power forward Danny Ferry out of Duke University. However, Ferry refused to play for the Clippers, and left to play overseas in Italy; this would force General Manager Elgin Baylor into trading Ferry, along with Reggie Williams to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Ron Harper in November. During the off-season, the team signed free agent David Rivers.
For the season, the Clippers slightly redesigned their home and road uniforms, changing the side panels, outlines and waistband above their shorts, and replacing the city name "Los Angeles" with the team name "Clippers" on the front of their road jerseys; these uniforms would remain in use until 2000.
Regular season After a 12–18 start to the regular season, the Clippers won six of their next seven games, and were approaching .500 in winning percentage with an 18–19 record as of January 20, 1990. However, the team continued to struggle and held a 21–26 record at the All-Star break. At mid-season, the team acquired Winston Garland in a trade with the Golden State Warriors. The Clippers posted a seven-game losing streak in February, and lost their final five games of the season, finishing in sixth place in the Pacific Division with a 30–52 record; the team missed the NBA playoffs for the 14th consecutive year.
Harper averaged 23.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.4 steals per game, but only played just 28 games after the trade due to a knee injury, while second-year star Charles D. Smith averaged 21.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, and second-year star and last season's top draft pick, Danny Manning, provided the team with 16.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. In addition, Ken Norman contributed 16.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, while Benoit Benjamin provided with 13.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, and second-year guard Gary Grant contributed 13.1 points, 10.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game. Meanwhile, Garland averaged 10.9 points and 5.2 assists per game in 28 games, second-year guard Tom Garrick provided with 7.0 points, 4.0 assists and 1.2 steals per game, rookie shooting guard and second-round draft pick, Jeff Martin, contributed 6.3 points per game, Joe Wolf averaged 4.8 points and 3.0 rebounds per game, and Rivers provided with 4.2 points and 3.0 assists per game.
The Clippers finished 23rd in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 486,621 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena during the regular season, which was the fifth-lowest in the league.
Aftermath Following the season, Wolf signed as a free agent with the Denver Nuggets, while Rivers was released to free agency, and Don Casey was fired as head coach.
Draft picks
Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 1 2 Danny Ferry PF Duke 2 31 Jeff Martin G Murray State 2 33 Jay Edwards G Indiana
Roster
Roster notes Point guard David Rivers became the 3rd former Laker to play with the crosstown rival Clippers.
Regular season
Season standings
z - clinched division title y - clinched division title x - clinched playoff spot
Game log
Player statistics
Regular season Player GP GS MPG FG% 3FG% FT% RPG APG SPG BPGPPG 78 76 35.0 .520 .083 .794 6.7 1.5 1.1 1.5 21.1 77 19 17.2 .395 .200 .775 3.0 .8 .4 .3 4.8 73 22 23.6 .494 .190 .772 2.2 4.0 1.2 .1 7.0 71 58 32.6 .526 .000 .732 9.3 2.2 .8 2.6 13.5 71 42 32.0 .533 .000 .741 5.9 2.6 1.3 .5 16.3 70 64 33.3 .510 .438 .632 6.7 2.3 1.1 .8 16.1 69 23 19.6 .411 .133 .705 2.3 .6 .6 .2 6.3 52 11 13.9 .406 .000 .756 1.6 3.0 .6 .0 4.2 52 1 11.3 .478 .000 .473 2.2 .3 .3 .1 4.0 45 2 10.2 .474 .308 .711 1.9 .5 .6 .1 4.9 44 44 34.8 .466 .238 .779 4.4 10.0 2.5 .1 13.1† 28 28 39.5 .481 .283 .795 5.6 4.8 2.4 1.1 23.0† 28 15 31.1 .428 .423 .831 3.7 5.2 1.1 .2 10.9 15 0 6.2 .350 .750 .7 .1 .5 .1 2.1 7 0 14.9 .250 .000 .500 1.7 1.0 .9 .1 2.6† 6 0 14.3 .357 .000 .846 1.2 3.3 .5 .0 3.5† 5 5 26.6 .368 .000 .857 3.0 2.0 1.8 .2 12.0 4 0 6.5 .429 .000 .333 .5 1.0 .3 .0 1.8† 3 0 10.3 .154 .000 1.7 1.0 .3 .0 1.3 3 0 3.3 .000 .667 .7 .0 .7 .3 1.3
Player statistics citation:
Transactions The Clippers were involved in the following transactions during the 1989–90 season.
Trades November 16, 1989 To Los Angeles Clippers Ron Harper, 1990 & 1992 first-round draft picks and 1991 second-round draft pick To Cleveland Cavaliers Reggie Williams & the draft rights to Danny Ferry February 22, 1990 To Los Angeles Clippers Winston Garland To Golden State Warriors 1990 & 1992 second-round draft picks Player Transactions Citation:
References