Tyronn Lue has done a questionable job throughout the season as Los Angeles Clippers head coach and one of his former players has now seen enough.
The Clippers -- playing without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George -- lost again on Saturday to the Phoenix Suns to fall behind 3-1 in their first-round playoff series. Despite having better options at his disposal, Lue opted to start and close the game with veteran forward Marcus Morris Sr., who had largely been out of the rotation since March (in a possible front office decision).
As has been the case for much of the year, Morris struggled on both ends of the court. He finished as a -19 overall, shot 3-of-13 from the field (including 1-of-8 from three) and was unable to stay in front of a tortoise on defense (much less Kevin Durant).
Despite all of this ineptitude, Morris ended up playing 25 minutes, nearly double that of the team's other available power forwards — Nicolas Batum (six minutes) and Robert Covington (eight minutes) — combined.
After the 112-100 loss, former Clipper Patrick Patterson tweeted a little shade at Lue. Patterson, a power forward who played under Lue in 2020-21 (and barely saw the court at that time), accused Lue of continuing to show “favoritism” and said that “things still ain’t changed.”
Lue did a tremendous job coaching the team over his first two years in Los Angeles, perhaps most notably helping to lead the Clippers to their first-ever conference finals berth as a sideline rookie in 2021. But he has looked nothing like that coach this season.
Among Lue’s many missteps have been an over-reliance on an aging Morris (who has now made 66 total starts this year) and a stubborn willingness to play a point guard at all costs -- and that's even before Russell Westbrook arrived. Lue has also badly underutilized many of his players (such as Terance Mann and especially Covington, who has been DNP’d for most of the season) while costing the Clippers a number of close regular season contests due to his insistence on trotting out ramshackle small-ball units (often deploying three guards or more).
The Clippers have other big issues eating at them right now, not the least of which is the continued inability of George and Leonard to stay healthy. But Lue is not doing himself any favors, either, and his long-term future with the organization is one which should be closely monitored .
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