Tyronn Lue Expects To Return To Clippers Next Season
The 2022-23 season for the Los Angeles Clippers began with high hopes of competing for a title and ended in the first-round of the playoffs.
Injuries played a huge role in the Clippers' demise this season though, as they never seemed to have everyone at 100 percent at the same time.
All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George both battled injuries and load management all season long and in the playoffs, George did not play a single game due to a sprained right knee he suffered late in the regular season. As for Leonard, he played just two playoff games before suffering a knee injury that was later revealed to be a torn meniscus.
Now, the Clippers enter the offseason with a ton of questions to answer, one of which revolves around head coach Tyronn Lue's future with the team.
Having a few more years left on his current contract, Lue has been with the Clippers since the start of the 2020-21 season. He has led them to a 133-103 (56.4%) record during the regular season with one Western Conference Finals appearance in 2021.
Losing Game 5 of their first-round playoff series to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night and being bounced early from the playoffs yet again, Lue talked to the media about the season the Clippers had and the adversity they had to deal with.
"First of all, I just want to thank our fans. You know, they have bene unbelievable this year, sticking behind us with the inconsistency of lineups and different things and they stuck behind us 100 percent so I just want to thank the fans, they were great all year long," Lue opened up saying. "I want to thank my coaching staff second of all, who put in work every single day and helped me in any way, shape or form I needed. They are always there for me and I couldn't do this by myself."
Lue went on to thank his players for the effort they put in throughout the entire season and he also thanked those who run the organization. As Clippers' reporter Tomer Azarly mentioned, it almost seemed like a goodbye message from Lue.
However, Ty Lue did tell Andrew Greif from the Los Angeles Times that he does expect to be the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers next season.
"For me, the encouraging thing is that with PG [Paul George] and Kawhi [Leonard] healthy, we haven't lost a series yet," Lue said. "It's always in the back of your mind, like ‘what if?' And it's easy to say, 'what if’ because a lot of guys get hurt, but it's just been our luck the last three years. If you look back to my first year taking over, we did some really good things, Kawhi tears his ACL and missed the whole next season, but we haven't lost a series with our whole team and so that's encouraging."
As mentioned earlier, health has been a huge factor for the Clippers not reaching their full potential through the years and if Leonard had not torn his ACL in 2021, the Clippers may have very well had a chance to reach the NBA Finals instead of losing in the Western Conference Finals to the Suns.
Heading into the 2023-24 season, the good news for the Clippers is that both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George should be 100 percent ready to go with no restrictions and almost everyone from this year's team is still under contract.
Only Russell Westbrook and Mason Plumlee are set to become free agents and while it will cost them a lot of money in taxes, Los Angeles can still retain their full roster.
On paper, this team definitely has the potential to compete for a championship, but the Clippers are one of the oldest teams in the league and thus, injuries happen more frequently for them over the course of an 82-game regular season schedule.
It will be very interesting to see what the Clippers ultimately decide to do heading into the offseason.
