A Father-Son Act?

Mike Dunleavy apparently has warmed to the idea of coaching his son, forward Mike Dunleavy Jr. of the Golden State Warriors, who will be a restricted free agent after next season and might already be on the Clippers’ radar.

“I’d be very interested in him,” said the Clipper coach, who pulled himself out of the running for the Warriors’ coaching position three years ago when it became apparent they would use the third pick in the 2002 draft to take his son. “[When he was] coming into the league, I would not coach him. Now, I have no qualms about it. I don’t know that he would. I don’t think he would, but you never know.”

While acknowledging potential pitfalls, Dunleavy said he believed a father-son working relationship could be successful now because his son had “established a certain credibility in his game.”

Teammates enjoy playing with his son because of his playmaking abilities and unselfishness, Dunleavy said, and his versatility makes him attractive to coaches.

“He and I are extremely close,” said Dunleavy, who also has two younger sons, one in college and one in high school. “The only way I could mess that up would probably be to coach him. I’m not sure that we’ll ever go there.

“But as far as asking me, would I like to coach him as a coach and a player, flat-out yes. If you said, would I like to coach him father and son, there’s a risk and I would weigh that. It would depend.... I’d probably be harder on him than the other guys. I wouldn’t be too easy on him. People who know me, it’s all about doing the job, doing it the right way. It wouldn’t be favoritism.

“As a matter of fact, that would be one of the things I would tell him: ‘You have to understand, I’m probably going to be on you more because it has to be done. You almost have to be held to a higher standard because people may think it would be otherwise.’ If he could live with it, I could live with it.”