INGLEWOOD — For the first time in years, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue is more of a teacher than a coach, schooling rather than practicing during early days of the season. There’s a lot to learn for the nine new faces on the Clippers’ roster, three of whom are rookies.
In the past, Lue has had the benefit of veteran-ladened rosters and star-studded lineups. This season, with Kawhi Leonard dealing with more knee issues for the near future and James Harden as the Clippers’ lone proven healthy star, Lue has had to pick up his whistle a lot more.
“I love it. It gives me something to do,” Lue said Monday after the Clippers’ first practice in their new training center. “You know, just teaching the new guys, teaching them how to understand spacing, understanding how to execute offensively, what we’re looking for in first, second and third options. So far, it’s been good.”
Lue said the last time he had to teach this much was the 2021-22 season when Leonard was out after having surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament, and fellow All-Star Paul George missed all but 31 games. That season, the Clippers finished eighth in the Western Conference and failed to qualify for the playoffs, losing a pair of play-in games.
Without many long-time veterans, Lue said the challenge for him this season is fitting the players into the game plans, doing “whatever it takes” and not vice versa.
“Whatever personnel we have, we gotta make sure our staff, make sure that our offense and our defense fits our personnel,” Lue said. “It can’t be the same thing (saying) this is going be my system no matter who plays for us. You know, it’s gotta be different depending on who you got on the floor. And that’s what we’re good at.”
To quickly adapt to their new surroundings and schemes, Lue held a practice on Sunday, the day after the team returned from training camp in Hawaii, and again Monday before they head to Oceanside to face the Brooklyn Nets in a preseason game on Tuesday night at the new Frontwave Arena.
“In the last two days, I thought we got better,” Lue said. “Our group came in willing to work. … The kids continue to get better.”
Lue singled out second-year players Kobe Brown and Jordan Miller as two players who appear ready to take the next step in their development. Both played a large portion of last season in the G League.
Brown, the Clippers’ 2023 first-round draft pick, came to camp having shed 16 pounds off his 6-foot-7 frame and a 6.4% body fat percentage in anticipation of seeing some time at the backup center spot.
“Last year, I wasn’t really learning any of it. I was doing the four for the most part, the three or one through four last year, even in the G,” Brown said. “So, this year I’m just trying to learn a whole new set of terminology, ideas, things like that, and just trying to improve my game.”
While coaching a young team can have its challenges, Lue said he has the patience to pull them along as the season progresses.
“You can’t get frustrated,” Lue said. “You gotta have patience with a group. The guys are picking stuff up, you know, very well. I like to teach, make sure we get in the right spots, let them understand why we’re doing certain things and why you guys set the screen here instead of there, why you gotta be here making the pass instead of there. So, it’s a lot of teaching, but it’s good.”
TUCKER TO BE AWAY FROM TEAM
The Clippers and P.J. Tucker mutually agreed that the veteran won’t be with the team for the time being while they work to find him a different situation.
“P.J. is a pro who has achieved a lot in his career and there’s more he wants to accomplish,” the Clippers said in a statement Sunday. “We will continue working with P.J. and his representative to find the best situation for him moving forward.”
This is the second time that Tucker will be apart from the team since he came from the Philadelphia 76ers in the James Harden trade early last season. The Clippers sent Tucker and point guard Bones Hyland away from the team on Feb. 14 with one game left before last season’s All-Star break to clear their minds before rejoining the team in the first game out of the break in Oklahoma City on Feb. 22. Both were unhappy with their roles.
Last season, Tucker was frustrated with his lack of playing time and was fined $75,000 by the NBA for what the league described as public comments about expressing a desire to be traded in February.
Tucker told ESPN in early February – before the trade deadline – that he was “actively trying to get traded,” something he reiterated the week of the trade deadline.
Tucker, 39, picked up his $11.5 million player option for this season, the final year of a three-year, $33 million deal he signed with the 76ers in 2022.