After a brief holdup in contract negotiations, the Los Angeles Clippers and head coach Ty Lue have agreed to a five-year, nearly $70 million contract extension, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Ty Lue and the Los Angeles Clippers reached agreement on a five-year contract worth nearly $70 million, league sources tell me and @LawMurrayTheNU. Massive commitment to secure one of the NBA’s best head coaches. pic.twitter.com/RxbTa0PfYC
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 29, 2024
With this deal, the 47-year-old will remain in the Hollywood Hills for the foreseeable future.
Clippers Secure Long-Term Deal With Ty Lue
Ty Lue Background
Lue initially got his coaching start with the Boston Celtics as an assistant under Doc Rivers. He then followed Rivers to L.A. in 2013 while Boston hired Brad Stevens (now the Celtics president). In 2014, Lue was hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers as the top assistant under David Blatt. Indeed, he was the highest-paid assistant in NBA history at the time.
Having twice interviewed for the head coaching position himself, this proved to be a prescient decision. When Blatt flamed out in Cleveland, Lue was tagged to be the next head coach of the Cavs, who delighted in his willingness to hold LeBron James accountable. In that time, the former point guard also proved himself a more than capable strategist. Cleveland posted a top-five offensive rating in his first three seasons with the team.
However, in that time, he and All-Star guard Kyrie Irving had a rift that helped lead to both of their departures from the Cavs. Considering Irving’s mercurial nature, this isn’t really a mark against Lue. Nonetheless, it’s worth mentioning as Cleveland had to replace a generational player and couldn’t. Irving’s request for a trade after the 2017 NBA Finals was granted and, a year later, James left the Cavs as well.
It’s those events that led Lue to Los Angeles in 2019, where he reunited with Rivers. Yet, as Rivers was on the hot seat by the team he arrived, he had once again positioned himself to rule in the chaos that followed a head coach firing. In 2020, Lue was named as Rivers’ successor, the Clippers hoping to have better playoff success with him at the helm.
L.A’s Achilles Heel
To what could have only been their satisfaction, they got instant results. Lue led L.A. to the Western Conference Finals in his first season as their head coach, eventually falling to the Phoenix Suns in six games. However, it’s been rough sledding from there, as the Clippers missed the playoffs completely the next season. In the last two years, they’ve been eliminated in the First Round.
To Lue’s defense, injuries have been the biggest problem for the Clippers since he took over. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are uber talented but incredibly unreliable because of their lack of durability. It wasn’t until this season that both Leonard and George were both available for at least 60 games. Even then, Leonard was held out for all but two playoff games due to a knee injury.
