Clippers fit to be Ty’d at coach
The Clippers have their new head coach — for whatever that’s worth.
The Clippers replaced one championship-caliber coach with another, firing Doc Rivers and promoting Tyronn Lue on Thursday. Lue, who won two championships as a player and another as head coach in Cleveland in 2016, will bring Chauncey Billups and former Hawks, Bucks, and Cavs head coach Larry Drew onto his coaching staff, according to The Athletic.
But the Clippers have bigger fish to fry. Swapping head coaches was merely the batter. Ty Lue, Larry Drew, Pikachu, it doesn’t matter. Clippers in four, five, six or seven is the only successful outcome over the next few seasons. Anything short of a championship will be a disappointment in Los Angeles.
Remember: This Clippers’ offseason is a pivotal one. They cannot afford to get this wrong.
The Clippers traded their future for bricks off the side of the backboard — five first-round picks, a potential franchise player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a quality veteran in Danilo Gallinari to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Paul George, who disappeared more often than not in the playoff stretch. It was a requirement from Kawhi Leonard: He wasn’t going to the Clippers unless they traded for George first.
In hindsight, the Thunder won that deal. Of course, that’s still pending any Clippers title.
They fell far short of those expectations in Year 1. The Clippers entered the season as juggernauts, an overloaded team featuring two All-Stars and two Sixth Man of the Year candidates poised to challenge the Lakers for the Western Conference crown.
Instead, they were bounced in the second round by the young, fun Denver Nuggets, who forced a Game 7, then ran up a 20-point fourth-quarter lead en route to a 104-89 smackdown.
George was the poster boy for his team’s failures. He shot 4-of-16 from the field and 2-of-11 from three in the Clippers’ elimination game, his woes embodied by a wideopen corner trey that bounced off the side of the backboard.
Leonard also shot poorly in Game 7, as did both Lou Williams and Marcus Morris. But Leonard is a two-time NBA champion and Finals MVP. If anyone deserves a pass, it’s him.
George, on the other hand, has failed to deliver in the playoffs with regularity. This was the player Leonard hand-picked as his Robin. There was no Leonard-to-the-Clippers if Clippers brass didn’t trade for George.
That trade cost the Clippers their future. The only first-round picks they own from now through 2026 are the ones the Thunder wanted them to have.
That may not be an issue. What’s a draft pick to a perennial NBA champion?
That’s what’s on the table for both Los Angeles teams, a chance to reign supreme and contend for championships for years to come. The Clippers have their new head coach, but they need to make sure this roster is one that can contend.
Both Leonard and George can become free agents at the end of this season. And if the Clippers are neither competing for championships nor draft position, they could find themselves right back at the bottom.
Lue led a team to a championship before. This time, he can’t go to LeBron James, instead, he’ll have to go through him.
Then again, the Clippers couldn’t even get to the Lakers this season.