(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Ty Lue has been named head coach of the Clippers.
After choking away a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals, the Los Angeles Clippers decided big changes were needed, the first of which was firing head coach Doc Rivers, who landed on his feet with the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Clippers didn’t leave their head coaching vacancy open for long, as Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that assistant coach Tyronn Lue, who won 61 percent of his games with the Cleveland Cavaliers, has been named the next Clippers head coach.
Shams Charania is reporting that former Detroit Pistons star Chauncey Billups will get his first NBA coaching job as an assistant under Lue.
Ty Lue was a finalist for several other head coaching jobs
Lue won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers and made it to the Finals two other times, but he was fired after a winless start in Cleveland following the departure of LeBron James. While he interviewed for the Lakers job in 2019 before Frank Vogel was named head coach and was also named as a finalist for the 76ers and New Orleans Pelicans head coaching spots, Lue ended up moving upward in Los Angeles.
Billups is an NBA champion and five-time All-Star, but he is looking to get back into basketball after spending a few years on TV with ESPN. After putting his name out there for GM vacancies, Billups decided to link up with Lue in Los Angeles.
Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and the rest of the Clippers certainly have the horses needed to make it to the Finals and win a title, but they need the right emotional manipulator to push the right buttons. Lue can command a locker room and impress with his tactics, and that should be enough to keep the Clippers in the title picture for 2020-21.