Clippers coach is a nice nobody who needs to be somebody fast

Met the new Clippers coach, nice guy, so you would think he’d be perfect for the job because you know where nice guys finish.

But Kim Hughes’ future rests on the play of the Clippers, so he’s got about 30 games to go before he starts looking for work.

The two guys he has to impress the most, GM Mike Dunleavy and owner Donald Sterling, chose to be out of town rather than watch him coach his first two games.

Maybe they’re already looking for his replacement, or home like so many others watching TV rather than the Clippers.

Too bad because Hughes is refreshingly appealing, saying before Tuesday night’s game he was going to tell Utah Coach Jerry Sloan that Sloan has always been his idol.

At one point in his pregame interview with the media, he says, “I know nothing,” in response to a question about his chances of retaining the job of head coach, and then laughs when he realizes he has told the media, “I know nothing.”

He’s so new to the job as head coach he hasn’t learned yet to lie or speak in clichés. “I’m honest,” is how he puts it, “and I need to get better.”

Better? “Maybe become more tactful,” he says, after saying earlier his team lacks chemistry, the players don’t know the plays and “we have a trust issue.”

Other than that, many of them can’t always be counted on to give it their all, and with guaranteed contracts, do they really care who coaches the team? Not this group.

Hughes is also a nobody, which doesn’t play very well in the entertainment capital unless he becomes somebody in a hurry, and try to pull that off as Clippers head coach with the players already knowing they’re goners as far as the playoffs go.

His only real claim to fame seems to be the NBA record he holds -- worst free-throw percentage in NBA history, .333.

He’s obviously a better teacher, though, working with DeAndre Jordan, whose free-throw percentage is now .366.

He says he’s going to be a players’ coach, as if this group needs someone to treat them well after they lost to New Jersey and Minnesota recently. He’s not a screamer, and he says some people might think him too calm. He won’t berate officials because his father was an official.

“I’m going to try and do it my way,” he says, and how did that go in his first game as head coach against San Antonio on Saturday night?

“A full-bore failure,” he says, “and that’s on me,” as he changed the Clippers’ approach and tried to have them run the ball. They lost by 17.

“Walking up the court didn’t work,” he says by way of explaining how well it went before he took over. “Part of the definition of stupidity is not changing something that didn’t work.”

His twin brother, Kerry, is a chemical engineer in Louisiana. Kim, a pre-med major, chose to go on and work as an assistant coach, scout and personnel director. He knows the chances now of staying on as an NBA head coach are “bleak,” but as an underdog he grows on you, willing to take on the challenge with disarming candor.

“Our players had trouble remembering Mike’s plays, so no reason to add mine,” he says. “I thought they were tight in the first game. They played hard, but not well.”

When Dunleavy took him aside and told him he was stepping down, Hughes’ response was, “OK.” When Dunleavy told him the job was his, Hughes’ response was, “OK.”

“I don’t think my family wants me to be a head coach,” he says. “People say things and there’s the stress, but a lot of people would -- well, not die for this chance because that would be ludicrous to say -- but a lot of people would just like the opportunity to be a head coach.”

He says he’d like to do a good enough job so it would be difficult to get rid of him, but that probably means making the playoffs, which would also qualify him as a miracle worker.

“It’s my chance,” he says. “I think I can be good at it.”

It was really nice knowing him.

TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Glenn M. Langdon:

“Dude, you need to chill out and drink a beer. Who anointed you the king of moral authority? Who are you to tell me what my family should or shouldn’t see on television? You’ve shown what a fine job of parenting you’ve done, raising a daughter who aspired to marry a grocery store bagger. The first amendment allows you to spew your vicious idiotic bile through the pages of the Times. That same amendment thus allows television broadcasters to show whatever commercials they wish that pass through their standards and practices.

“If you are so offended by these advertisements . . . your television set has an on/off button, although with your limited and diminished mental and intellectual capacity, the operation of such a button is most likely beyond your comprehension.

“There is a place where I guarantee you will never ever see a beer commercial -- Iran. I will be glad to purchase you a one-way ticket. I’m sure your brand of ‘humor’ will go over quite well with the ayatollahs.”

I see what you mean about just chilling out.

t.j.simers@latimes.com