Our player preview series of the 2024 Clippers continues with Amir Coffey, who has some on- and off-court issues to resolve if he wants to crack the Clippers’ rotation.

Basic Information

Height: 6’7”

Weight: 210 pounds

Position: Shooting Guard/Small Forward

Age: 26

Years in NBA: Four

Key Stats: Averaged 3.4 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 12.5 minutes per game across 50 games in his fourth season with the Clippers.

Contract Status: Signed a three-year, $11M contract before the 2022-2023 season. He is in the second year of that deal and will make $3.66M.

Expectations

Before getting to his on-court play, it must be acknowledged that Amir Coffey got himself in trouble this offseason. Specifically, he was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon in July. He has since been charged with two misdemeanors and will appear in court at some point in September. Without doing too much legal prognosticating, we can say that it is likely that Amir will be able to resolve these charges in a way that allows him to be prepared for training camp.

Even if Amir is ready for camp, though, this incident is likely to put another dent in his hopes to get rotation minutes this season. He is already deep on the depth chart; he’s 26, so the Clippers should prioritize giving opportunities to younger players (like Kenyon Martin Jr, Brandon Boston, or even Jordan Miller); and we know he has been in trade conversations, given he was almost on the way to Boston in exchange for Malcolm Brogdon. Adding off-the-court issues to this mix of considerations means the Clippers have even more incentive to move on.

Finally, setting all of the above aside for the moment, the Clippers are likely going into this season expecting Amir to do exactly what he did last season: play garbage time, absorb minutes when others are injured or resting, and contribute during practice as a scout player. Last year, Amir only played more than 15 minutes 18 times, and most of those games came early in the season when Kawhi Leonard was out rehabbing his knee and ankle. If all goes as planned (that is, Kawhi and the core rotation stay healthy), Amir will have another season of playing the “filler” role.

Strengths

Amir Coffey’s greatest strength is his basic competence: He knows how to fit within an offense, he’s a decent shooter, and he’s big enough to play and guard several positions. He also clearly has some intangible skills: He has survived within the Clippers’ organization for four years after going undrafted, which is hard to do, and has ingratiated himself enough with the front office to earn a “real” NBA contract after a series of two-way deals. As mentioned above, Amir’s recent mistakes might weaken the ties he has created within the organization, but he should get credit for creating an NBA career for himself.

Weaknesses

Although Amir is described as a “decent shooter” above, it should be noted that his splits from last season were pretty bad. He shot 38.6% from the field, 27.5% from three, and 77% from the free throw line. Those splits dropped from 45.3/37.8/86 the year before. To be fair, much of that drop off is likely because Amir played significantly fewer minutes last year, so he was never able to get in rhythm.

Amir also put on some weight going into last season, which in theory made sense: It would allow him to extend his range from shooting guard and small forward to the modern “four” (what used to be called “power forward”). In reality, however, it made him slower and less able to stay in front of guards on the defensive end or burst by opposing defenders.

Summary

In sum, Amir Coffey should focus, first, on getting through his legal issues. Second, Amir should look at the depth chart and determine if he has a better shot of cracking the SG, SF, and/or PF rotation as the third-option. His answer to that question might require him slimming down and returning to his more-agile self. Nonetheless, the Clippers likely are not expecting much from Coffey other than absorbing insignificant minutes, and he remains a likely candidate to get traded.

Clippers 2023-2024 Season Preview: Amir Coffey
Kenneth Armstrong

Our 2022-2023 player season preview series continues with Amir Coffey, who took a huge leap last year and was, at times, the Clippers’ best player during an injury-riddled season.

Basic Information

Height: 6’7”

Weight: 210 pounds

Position: Shooting Guard/ Small Forward

Age: 25

Years in NBA: 3

2021-2022 Key Stats: 9 points, 2 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 0.2 blocks in 22.7 minutes per game across 69 games (30 starts) on 45.3% shooting from the field and 37.8% from behind the arc.

Contract Status: $3.5M guaranteed for 2022-2023 and $7.6M total over the following two seasons.

Expectations

Amir Coffey is yet another player who will see a drop off in playing time this season. He will be solidly behind: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Norman Powell, and Marcus Morris; will likely be behind: Nicolas Batum and Terance Mann; and, competing with: Luke Kennard and Brandon Boston, Jr.

Last year, as noted above, Amir averaged almost 23 minutes per game; in 2020, he averaged just nine. The question for Amir, then, becomes how much his improvement as a player can out pace the talent that is returning to the lineup. On one hand, Amir is a well-rounded player who can fill several different gaps for the Clippers on any given night, from energy and defense to shooting and ball handling. On the other hand, his lack of excellence at any one skill means that there is no pressing reason to play him over the players listed above.

But one thing will definitely be different, in a positive way, this year for Amir: He won’t have make the drive to Ontario this year because he signed his first full-time, main roster contract this summer (three years, 11M). Moreover, the fact that the Clippers have committed to Amir for the next three years may incentivize them to continue developing him through on court experience.

Strengths

Amir Coffey can do just about everything on the basketball court to some extent: Last year, he shot a respectable 45% from the field last year, an impressive 37.8% from three (on 3.7 attempts per game), and 86% from the free throw line. What’s more, he’s starting to show signs of potential as a three level scorer. Along with his catch-and-shot ability, he is able to finish at the rim with his length and strength.

The most surprising part of Amir’s development during last season was his capacity to be the team’s best player on a given night. Although he only averaged nine points per game, he had two 30 point games, five 20 pointers, and was over 10 points twenty-three times total. Before last season, Amir’s career night was 21 points, which came during an overtime game in the bubble in which Amir played 49 minutes. His second highest performance previously was 15 points in a game for which Kawhi and Paul George did not play – last season was a big step up in responsibility and output.

Weaknesses

Amir is not special on defense, but he is mostly fine, from what I can tell. A glaring issue, however, is his rebounding: He only averaged three rebounds in almost 23 minutes per game last year. Before that, he averaged about 1 per game over nine minutes during his first two seasons. Rebounding in general was a huge problem for the Clippers last year, and Amir was not a big help.

Other than rebounding, Amir should continue developing his ability to take guys off the dribble. Looking through Amir’s tape from last year, it’s obvious that most of his scoring comes from the “system.” He’s either coming off of a screen or catching-and-shooting after he’s been left alone by a defender. Adding isolation skills—perhaps even a post up game—to his game will increase his value (although it’s not something the Clippers need in the short term).

Summary

By the end of the season, Amir might prove to be the best 12th-man in the league. He can do a little bit of everything, is always ready to contribute, and has experience adapting to a wide variety of circumstances. Hopefully, Amir will get the opprotunity to play on a nightly basis, but even that would be too much to ask for. Regardless, though, he has done everything the Clippers’ have asked him to do and will be part of their long-term future, so Clippers Nation should get used to him.

Clippers 2022-2023 Season Preview: Amir Coffey
Kenneth Armstrong

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Clippers have res-gined Amir Coffey to a 3-year, $11 million contract. The 25-year-old versatile wing was a restricted free agent after playing the last three seasons with the Clippers.

In today’s wing-focused NBA, this is a fantastic below-market contract for the Clippers. It’s likely that Coffey’s status as a restricted free agent–meaning the Clippers had the right of first refusal to match any offer from another team and retain him–coupled with Clippers owner’s Steve Ballmer’s notorious willingness to spend limitless cash on the team left the market rather calm for his services. As such, he was left negotiating with the Clippers and the team was able to secure a bargain. Getting the third year on this deal is really fantastic for LA, though, as it keeps a quality rotation player on the team on a cost-controlled deal heading into a three-year stretch where the luxury tax cost of keeping the team competitive around Paul George and Kawhi Leonard will be enormous. I was concerned that the Clippers would have to match a much higher offer for Amir, or even that they wouldn’t (even Ballmer’s platinum card has a spending limit somewhere, we just haven’t found it yet). This is a home run deal and it’s great news to have a fan favorite and homegrown developed talent staying in the fold.

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NBA Free Agency: Clippers re-sign Amir Coffey to 3-year contract
Lucas Hann

According to Andrew Grief of the LA Times, the LA Clippers have extended a qualifying offer to Amir Coffey, making him a restricted free agent, while declining to do so for Jay Scrubb and Xavier Moon, who will both become unrestricted. Spotrac’s Kieth Smith was the first to report on Coffey’s qualifying offer.

With the $2.1M qualifying offer extended, Amir Coffey will now enter restricted free agency. Since the Clippers have Coffey’s bird rights, they are now able to match any offer sheet he signs with another team to retain him using their right of first refusal. Their willingness to do so will depend on the price point and what else the team is up to in the coming days. As it now stands, Coffey is far down an incredibly deep LAC depth chart on an incredibly expensive roster with a luxury tax bill for 2022-23 that will make even Steve Ballmer blush. If another team offered Coffey their non-taxpayer mid-level exception worth $10M+ next season, it’s possible that even the seemingly-infinite-spending Clippers would balk at paying several times that in tax penalties to keep around their 13th man. But other teams have no guarantee that they won’t just be wasting their time should Ballmer be willing to match. And if roster moves bump him up to 11th on the depth chart, and the offer sheet is $6M, it becomes both much more financially palatable to Ballmer to keep him and a bigger on-court loss to let him walk. Amir was a quality rotation player in over 1500 minutes last season, starting 30 games as the team went the entire season without Kawhi Leonard and much of it without Paul George. With those two star wings healthy again, Coffey will have to compete for second unit minutes with more established players likeNorman Powell, Luke Kennard, and Terance Mann, with few options for reprieve by sliding over to point guard (Reggie Jackson, John Wall) or power forward (Marcus Morris, Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington).

However, restricted free agency itself can serve to depress or entirely eliminate a player’s market, especially if teams feel as though pursuing a player is futile because their offer sheet will get matched at any price they are comfortable with. Restricted free agents do get lured away–it seems as though the Knicks will give Jalen Brunson a 4-year/$110M offer sheet this week that the Dallas Mavericks will decline to match–but they far more often stay home. Take, for example, Montrezl Harrell’s restricted free agency when he was a Clipper: Trez was coming off of a great season and surely plenty of teams would have been interested in signing him, but they were hesitant to go over the mid-level exception due to his limitations as a player and knew that the Clippers would match mid-level offers. In the end, Harrell never even signed an offer sheet, negotiating a 2-year, $12M deal directly with the Clippers. If teams feel that the Clippers will simply refuse to let a quality player walk away for nothing, luxury tax be damned, then they might be entirely unwilling to pursue Coffey (who, while a very solid and versatile player, isn’t going to be at the top of free agency boards the way Jalen Brunson is).

Lastly, interested teams could always buy off the Clippers’ right of first refusal by negotiating a sign-and-trade transaction. If they can agree to terms with Coffey but are worried that the Clippers will match their offer sheet, they could offer the Clippers an asset to sign-and-trade Amir to them instead. This can also scare teams off if they have similar players on their free agent target lists that they wouldn’t have to give up additional assets to acquire, but a team might surrender 1 or 2 second-round picks if it meant securing Coffey’s services without concern over the Clippers’ matching ability. Without getting too into the weeds, it’s worth noting that the base year compensation rule limits what Coffey can count for in trade salary matching in such a deal (it doesn’t limit what he can make, just what the Clippers can bring back), so it’s most likely that the team would either just get draft picks back (or perhaps a young prospect on a cheap deal). They could also make a deal work by absorbing a higher-paid player into one of their existing TPEs even though a one-for-one swap for Coffey would be illegal on its own.

As far as Scrubb and Moon go, the Clippers’ decision to pass on making them restricted isn’t wholly unexpected. Xavier Moon brought good vibes as a fill-in emergency point guard last year, both during COVID outbreaks and late in the year after Eric Bledsoe had been traded. But it always seemed likely that the team wouldn’t have a need for him this year, as Jason Preston will be available after missing all of last season due to injury and the team will look to invest as many depth guard minutes as they can into the 33rd pick from the 2021 NBA Draft. If the writing was already on the wall for those reasons, the rumored signing of veteran point guard John Wall cemented Moon’s departure by making point guard minutes even harder to come by.

I think that the Clippers would have likely taken Scrubb back on a two-way deal again for a third season next year, but Law Murray of The Athletic reported that Scrubb wasn’t on board with the arrangement and wanted to try to make the 15-man roster instead. Such is his right: after two years on two-way deals, players are eligible for restricted free agency but only with a qualifying offer for a full NBA deal. If his team doesn’t extend that QO–and the Clippers didn’t–the player enters unrestricted free agency. It’s unclear where Scrubb will end up next year, whether it’s with the Clippers or another NBA team, in training camp or on a two-way, or somewhere in the G-League or Europe, but he will get to choose. The first step: showcasing himself in Summer League with the Clippers in Las Vegas, but with the flexibility to join any team on a two-way deal or in training camp afterwards instead of being locked in to the Clippers.

Clippers extend qualifying offer to Amir Coffey, not Jay Scrubb or Xavier Moon
Lucas Hann

With the 2022 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors concluded, the league will officially shift to a place where the Clippers have already been for quite some time: the off-season. On the surface, the Clippers actually have very little work to do–10 of the 15 players who were on their NBA roster last season are under contract for next season, and retaining the four potential free agents who the team is interested in keeping (sorry, Rodney Hood) should be relatively straightforward. It helps, of course, that they signed Robert Covington to a 2-year, $24 million dollar extension earlier in the off-season to avoid him being a free agent as well.

That framework allows the Clippers to explore some upgrade possibilities this off-season, rather than simply trying to scrape together a roster for next season. Including a few guys who aren’t yet 100% secured for next year, the team has 12 proven rotation-caliber players. It’s a testament to the team’s depth that they were one of the deepest teams in the NBA last season while missing Kawhi Leonard for the entire 2021-22 campaign and Paul George for over half of it. Those injuries created a playing time void that was filled by guys like Terance Mann, Luke Kennard, Amir Coffey, and newcomer Robert Covington, all of whom acquitted themselves well as significant rotation players. Then there’s deadline acquisition Norman Powell, who hardly played for LAC due to a broken foot but figures to be a major part of their plans going forward. All things considered, it seems essentially impossible to keep everyone happy with their role for a full, hopefully mostly healthy season, putting a little pressure on the Clippers to find some kind of consolidation trade that nets them one higher-value player (either due to starpower or age/upside/contract/skillset) in exchange for two or more of their current guys. And if (when?) they make such a trade, the ripple effects will be significant down the roster. That means that the number one item on the Clippers’ agenda right now has to be…

1) Searching For The Big One

The Clippers probably are a “third star” short of being the best version of themselves. I don’t think they need a better third-best player to win a title, but I certainly don’t think it would hurt. He doesn’t necessarily have to be a high-volume scorer, either–Golden State’s Steph Curry/Klay Thompson/Draymond Green combination and Boston’s Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown/Marcus Smart trio both contain a player not as known for his offensive prowess. But both Thompson and Smart (for my money, the #3 on each team) are head-and-shoulders ahead of anyone on the Clippers’ roster not named Kawhi Leonard and Paul George (the same is true for the third-best player on the 2021 champs, Jrue Holiday). You can say that the Clippers have a better star duo, and that will certainly have to be true for them to win the 2023 title, and you can say that they have superior depth as well. But depth just doesn’t matter as much on the biggest stage. In a pivotal NBA Finals game 5, Boston played a 7-man rotation while the Warriors went with 8. I love Amir Coffey, but Amir Coffey being a better 11th man than Nik Stauskas and Damion Lee wouldn’t impact a potential LAC-BOS or LAC-GSW series.

In the pursuit of a championship, the Clippers’ extreme depth is most certainly expendable in exchange for even marginal upgrades at the top of the rotation, getting just a bit better in the roles that play 40 minutes in must-win games. Rather than spending a ton of time zeroing in on potential targets, let’s take a look at where the current Clippers fall in the “building a trade package” calculus:

• Untouchable: Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. We aren’t going backwards here, folks.
• Untradeable: Nico Batum, Isaiah Hartenstein, Amir Coffey, Jay Scrubb. Personal preferences aside, pending free agents can’t be traded, and outgoing sign-and-trades as part of a package to bring back a bigger name seem pretty unlikely (although with Amir an outgoing S&T could be possible).
• Tough Pills to Swallow: Reggie Jackson, Norman Powell, Terance Mann, Robert Covington, and Ivica Zubac. Powell is the team’s third-best player and apparently doesn’t have a ton of trade value due to his 5-year contract (since the Clippers got him for next to nothing a few months ago). Jackson and Zubac are both important starters without replacements on the current roster. Mann is a homegrown prospect, fan favorite, and franchise legend. Covington had a stellar half-season with LAC and just signed an extension… at the exact dollar amount that allows him to be traded this off-season without a waiting period. All of these guys would hurt to lose, but if the right deal came along you’d say a tearful goodbye.
• Expendable: Luke Kennard and Marcus Morris. Both of these guys have given the Clippers good play, but when you look at LAC’s extreme depth they’re the most expendable players who you could see other teams really wanting. Between Powell, Mann, and Coffey, Kennard is expendable as a backup wing, and Morris is the logical odd man out in the PF conversation with Covington and Batum.
• Assets/Sweetener: 2027 1st round swap, 2028 1st round, 2029 1st round swap, 2022 pick #43, 2023-2026 LAC 2nds, 2028-2029 LAC 2nds, Brandon Boston Jr. In addition to the future picks, Boston would be a nice acquisition for a rebuilding team that can invest minutes in his development.
• Filler: Jason Preston, Rodney Hood S&T, Xavier Moon S&T, TPEs. Preston seems unlikely to be traded since the Clippers like him as a prospect but he hasn’t actually performed on the court to garner interest around the league. The Clippers could technically use non-bird rights to S&T Hood or Moon to slightly above-minimum deals to help with salary matching, but it’s unlikely that those slim margins would make or break a deal. Their TPEs can’t be added together or added to player salaries to make trade math work, but they could use them to absorb smaller undesirable contracts from a trade partner to add value to their offer.

I’m not going to get too into the range of options for the Clippers here because it’s so wide-open. Almost any player could fit in a lineup built around Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, and I could see anyone else moving to the bench if the right big name came in at their position. This gives LA’s front office the flexibility to go after the best player they can get on the trade market, almost regardless of position. One thing to keep in mind: targets essentially have to be players already under contract. Acquiring a signed-and-traded player places a hard cap on that team’s cap sheet for the year, and the Clippers are well over that threshold. It’s hard enough to see them cutting enough money to get under it, let alone getting far enough under it to then add a substantial new contract without passing it again.

2) Core Re-Signings

One of the downsides of having such a wide-open hunt for a talent upgrade on the trade market is not knowing what the ripple effects will be on the rest of the roster. However, after extending the contract of Robert Covington, I think that in pretty much any scenario the Clippers will also look to ensure that Nico Batum (player option) and Ivica Zubac (team option) are back on the team next year (unless they pick up Zubac’s option and/or extend his deal as part of the aforementioned big trade).

Batum is only due $3.3M on his player option for 2022-23 after taking a steep pay cut last summer to allow the Clippers to use their taxpayer mid-level exception elsewhere (Justise Winslow). It helps, of course, that he’s made over $160M so far and is still getting paid $9M by the Charlotte Hornets through next season, with that amount partially reduced if he gets a lucrative deal from a new team. It also probably helps that he struggled under the pressure and criticism of meeting the expectations of his massive contract and Charlotte, and that he would probably rather not be in a position to have his contract be a big expiring that the team might want to trade down the line. Either way, I’d expect him to decline his player option–with the Clippers having his early bird rights, they can now give him a contract starting at up to about $12M and running up to 4 years in length. I would guess that a compromise is in order: a multi-year deal in the 8-12M range that gives him financial security after the Charlotte checks stop coming. A reunion seems highly likely.

The Clippers have a team option for Ivica Zubac worth $7.5M next season, which gives them an abundance of options. They can always just pick up that option and worry about his next contract next summer, or they can negotiate an extension, or they can decline his option with a handshake deal for a larger, longer contract in place for when free agency opens. If he ends up being a part of a trade, they would have to pick up his option and flip it, with an extend-and-trade being unlikely due to financial constraints (he can only get a 5% raise, which he shouldn’t accept). Even if the Clippers acquire a big-name center via trade, declining Zubac’s option outright to let him walk in free agency seems unlikely. He would of course be a candidate to be a part of that trade, but if he wasn’t, it would be preferable to keep him as the backup and save the taxpayer mid-level (which is probably going to Isaiah Hartenstein) for another position.

3) Rotation Re-Signings

While I feel pretty sure that Batum will be back with the Clippers next season and Zubac will either be on the team or a part of a major trade package, the same can’t be said for LAC’s two rotation free agents who are a little lower on the priority list: Isaiah Hartenstein and Amir Coffey. Both had phenomenal seasons for the Clippers last year and there’s no reason to believe that a divorce is inevitable, but their departures are certainly possible.

Hartenstein was only with the Clippers for one year on a minimum-salary deal, severely limiting their options to retain him. The good news is that due to their robust depth, there should be no concern about using the taxpayer mid-level exception on a backup center (as long as backup C is still where the need lies, depending on how trades shift the depth chart). That deal would start at $6.4M and could last for up to 3 years with 5% raises for a total of just over $20M. To me, that seems like a perfectly reasonable deal. In fact, you could probably even keep Hart for a shade less and save a few bucks to give the 43rd overall pick a 3-year contract out of that taxpayer MLE. If Hartenstein does leave, whether it be for money, role, or another reason, that contract should be enough to give the Clippers a nice selection of alternative backup centers, a player pool that Robert Flom broke down recently.

Coffey is easier for the Clippers to retain, since he’s a restricted free agent with full bird rights, but perhaps harder to justify since he’s unlikely to be a top-10 rotation player for them next year and the luxury tax bill is mounting. It’s really going to depend what the market is for him around the league, and if teams are going to try to test Ballmer’s willingness to spend extra tax dollars on an 11th man. Sometimes, it works out where lower-caliber restricted free agents just get no interest around the league and re-sign on the cheap (see Montrezl Harrell a few years ago). Sometimes teams overpay to pry away a player they know a team doesn’t want to pay. For example, if the Clips can’t think their depth out via trade and Amir is going to be the 12th man next year, are they really going to match a 10M deal that will cost Ballmer another ~40M in luxury tax penalties? Lastly, sometimes teams try to get a guy while avoiding overpaying by negotiating a sign-and-trade and providing compensation to get around the right of first refusal. It would really be a bummer to lose Amir, but if the Clippers are stuck between letting him walk for nothing, paying $50M for an 11th man, and getting a couple 2nds via S&T, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them choose the latter.

4) The Fringes

Once that’s all settled, there honestly won’t be much to do. Current NBA roster rules state that you get 15 full-time NBA players plus 2 two-way contracts. If you operate under the baseline assumption that the Clippers don’t make a trade and re-sign/retain Batum, Zubac, Hartenstein, and Coffey, then whoever they select with the 43rd overall pick will take the 15th roster spot. They’re expected to keep Jay Scrubb around for a third two-way year, while Xavier Moon is a bigger question mark–one presumes that the now-healthy Jason Preston will get any and all spare PG minutes. The Clippers could look for someone at another position and/or younger than Moon, who is 27.

So, the “run it back” plan means the only changes to the Clippers’ roster this summer would be pick 43 replacing Rodney Hood and maybe a new undrafted free agent/g-league guy replacing Xavier Moon. Working backwards from that, you can figure the rest out: if they make a 2-for-1 trade and everything else goes according to plan, there will be one extra slot for a minimum salary guy; if they make a 2-for-1 trade and keep Batum/Zubac/Hartenstein but lose Coffey, there will be two, etc. But before zeroing in on targets for these depth spots, we need to know where in the depth chart they are after the dust settles from any trades.

The Clippers’ 2022 Off-Season Checklist
Lucas Hann

The Clippers let a big first-half lead slip before coming back to take the win over the Lakers in the closing seconds, 105-102. Sound familiar? It was a lot like their last contest, only longer. Read on for this full recap of the Clippers’ victory over the Los Angeles Lakers:

Summary

Basketball is a game of runs reviews; a tale of two halves; role-player heroes; adventures in transition; and more. Here’s what you need to know:

— The lead story of this game was going to be about two disparate halves. But the officials turned the last 30 seconds of game-time into 30 minutes, so let’s talk about that first.

With 24.5 seconds remaining and the Clippers leading 103-102, LeBron James landed out of bounds while trying to pass the ball away. Robert Covington intercepted the ball but his first gathering dribble was called out of bounds. In real time, it seemed clear that LeBron’s foot was on the floor before he’d gotten the ball away, but it was fast and it was close, so we’ll be fair.

Tyronn Lue challenged the call on the floor.

The officials watched the replays. For more than 10 minutes.

Eventually, they realized what most everyone else knew and awarded the Clippers the ball while resetting the clock to 25.6 seconds. The Clippers inbounded the ball to a gassed Reggie Jackson in the backcourt, who dribbled sideways for a while before drawing an apparent bailout foul with 17 seconds on the shot clock. Close one. The Lakers challenged.

Many more minutes later, the officials rescinded the foul and gave the Clippers a side-out with a single second to advance the ball into the front court. Nic Batum passed to Reggie way back near their own defensive baseline. Reggie crossed half-court four seconds letter. Lakers’ ball.

Fortunately for the Clippers and their place in the standings, Carmelo Anthony missed the go-ahead three-pointer, Reggie Jackson splashed two free throws, and LeBron heaved a literal last-second miss to seal the season-series victory and playoff-seed tiebreaker for the Clippers

As long as it took you to read that, rest assured that it took much longer to happen.

— Let’s talk actual basketball things, of which the Clippers were much better in the first half than in the second.

After a cautious post-All-Star-break start for both teams, the Clippers’ offense cranked into motion, eating when either LeBron or Dwight Howard was off the floor.

Luke Kennard connected on 4 of 6 threes, a couple coming from Highland Park, to record 14 of his 18 points before halftime. He was a man in motion, encapsulating a first-half team effort that crackled with defensive intensity and crisp ball movement, neither of which were matched by the creaky Lakers.

For 24 minutes, the Lakers’ offense failed to get unstuck. They attempted 11 wayward threes before finally connecting on their 12th. Their offense mostly consisted of Dwight Howard rebounds. His first-half double-double, on the way to 14 and 16 for the game, helps explain how the Lakers trailed by just 10 at the half while being outshot 51% to 38%.

Two very different teams came out for the third quarter. The Lakers discovered their urgency. The Clippers, whose current roster leaves little room for margin, failed to execute to the same level.

Half-time wasn’t the exact turning point — the Lakers had already begun clawing into the Clippers’ largest lead of 16 in the second quarter — but the third quarter clarified that the game had indeed turned. Law Murray of The Athletic observed that the Clippers’ 16-point third-quarter shortfall represented their worst mark for any quarter this season.

Much of the Clippers’ struggles were in transition, going in both directions. Officially, they lost the fast-break battle by just 5 points, but that hardly accounts for missed opportunities. And the Lakers made the most of theirs, executing their open-floor chances to build both rhythm and crowd enthusiasm. It was here that the difference in available playmakers really became apparent.

The fourth-quarter was more closely contested, teeter-tottering as Brian Sieman is fond of saying. But it was the identity of the key contestants that made it really interesting.

— With Reggie Jackson faltering under the weight of his playmaking burden, the Clippers needed somebody to step up. Terance Mann and Amir Coffey did.

Terance was the leading Mann, coming through with timely buckets and pacing the Clippers with 19 points and 10 rebounds. His energy is game-breaking, and tonight he showed a real feel for the moment, taking over at critical junctures to break the Lakers’ rhythm.

Coffey provided the fourth-quarter buzz — pats self on back — tallying 12 of his 14 points in the final frame. He still has his adventures in transition, but he brought the necessary downhill element to force cracks in the Laker wall.

Even for the Lakers, it was the secondary players who largely carried the night. LeBron was listed as questionable yesterday, but started and played a game-high 36 minutes. He struggled under heavy defensive attention, recording a game-high in points with a pedestrian 21 on 33% shooting. The Clippers made him pass early, and the lack of incisive opportunities is reflected by his 3 meager assists against 6 turnovers.

With LeBron neutered, Carmelo Anthony and Talen Horton-Tucker managed a heavier load. (Yes, Carmelo is a role player now.) Carmelo did his thing from the low-post while also homing in from beyond the arc. He scored 18 off the bench with 4 made threes.

Horton-Tucker put forth one of his better efforts of the season, scoring all 16 of his points in the second half. Much to the relief of the Lakers, he looked dangerous off the bounce and connected on both of his three-point attempts.

— Reggie Jackson scored 17 points in another high-usage role. He added six assists but turned it over five times. He was conspicuously spent by the fourth quarter.

Robert Covington finished plus-19 in just 20 minutes. He scored 10 points and was an absolute wrecking ball on defense. He probably should’ve played more.

Ivica Zubac won’t put this game on his CV. He was bullied by Dwight in the first-half and played sparingly in the second after drawing an early fourth foul. Isaiah Hartenstein played 28 capable minutes in his stead, matching Reggie for the team-high in assists.

Marcus Morris Sr. scored the Clippers’ first 6 points and made a tough go-ahead jumper in the final minute. He didn’t do a lot offensively in between.

Russell Westbrook scored 18 points in 33 minutes and didn’t turn the ball over once. Laker fans will still find ways to be mad at him.

Austin Reaves only scored 6 points but made 2 blocks, including a power swat on Reggie Jackson. He did positive things all night after earning a starting nod.

Thanks for reading this recap of the Clippers’ win over the Lakers. Stay on the lookout for more game coverage and analysis and an episode of TLTJTP soon.

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Clippers vs. Lakers Recap: Game of Reviews
Thomas Wood

According to the LA Times’ Andrew Greif, the Clippers have extended a qualifying offer to Amir Coffey, making him a restricted free agent. This gives the Clippers the right of first refusal to match any offer Coffey agrees to with another team and retain his services.

Coffey had a really nice second two-way contract year with the Clippers in 2020-21, playing 9 minutes per game in 44 of the team’s 72 games, including a handful where he made significant contributions when thrust into the spotlight due to absences in front of him in the rotation. However, a lot of his success stemmed from hitting 41% from three–a major outlier on a small sample size–and he is probably more of a 12th/13th man combo forward for regular season depth and energy than he is a full rotation player. With the Clippers’ current roster crunch and the trades for Keon Johnson and B.J. Boston (who is taking over Coffey’s previous two-way roster spot) in Thursday’s NBA Draft crowding the wing depth in addition to Kawhi Leonard occupying a spot while injured, it become a bit trickier to find a roster spot for Amir while also adding a more proven second string small forward and ensuring adequate depth at other positions.

For those purposes, his qualifying offer being extended isn’t really a meaningful development. It’s still entirely possible that he doesn’t end up on the team next year, since his qualifying offer is only a one-year minimum-salary contract with around $85k guaranteed. The Clippers can also unilaterally withdraw his qualifying offer up until August 13th, making him an unrestricted free agent. And if he were to sign that QO before they withdrew it and they ended up not having space to include him in their plans, then again the guaranteed salary is only $85k–not even a blip on the radar for LAC’s financials. But even without any significant commitment or downside, the extension of the QO does still signify that the Clippers consider Coffey to at least be an option for them in some scenarios. Maybe they think he’s a fallback option for a minimum-salary role if they strike out on some free agent targets, or they consider him a suitable depth piece if trades materialize that consolidate the Clippers’ guard logjam and free up an extra roster spot. Either way, I just want to be realistic for the Clippers fans who love Amir–while the QO keeps the door open for a return to the Clippers, I’d still have to lean towards it being unlikely given their draft strategy and roster situation.

Clippers Extend Qualifying Offer to Amir Coffey
Lucas Hann

Dr. Shap and Mike Jaglin discuss the continued absences of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Nicolas Batum as the injured Clippers had their 4-game winning streak snapped as they fall to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.

Check out the podcast here! Be sure to rate and review us five stars on whatever platform you listen to us on, and give us feedback in the comments below!

Podcast: Injured Clippers Fall to Jazz
Shapan Debnath

With the season just two days away, here’s the season preview for Amir Coffey, who is set to make a number of garbage time appearances for the Clippers a year after earning a two-way contract in summer league a year and a half ago.

Basic Information

Height: 6’7″
Weight: 210 lbs
Position: SG/SF
Age: 23
Years in NBA: 1
Key Stats: In 18 appearances as an undrafted rookie on a two-way contract, Coffey played 8.8 minutes per game and averaged 3.2 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.8 assists while shooting 42.6% from the field and 31.6% from three
Contract Status: Entering his second year on a two-way contract with the Clippers. Eligible for conversion to a minimum-salary deal mid-season (when his pro-rated deal would fit into the Clippers’ hard cap space). Eligible for restricted free agency next summer.

Expectations

Coffey is probably a bit overrated by Clippers fans who were excited to see an undrafted free agent from the summer league roster make the team and contribute in spots, but that’s only natural. Realistically, all the Clippers need from Amir is what you’d typically expect from the 15th man on the roster–adequate performances in limited minutes either in garbage time or extreme emergency depth situations.

Heading into last year, Coffey was basically the Clippers’ 16th man, though he ultimately played more than Mfiondu Kabengele, who was on the 15-man roster but was not as needed for emergency minutes positionally. After the team lost Jerome Robinson and Derrick Walton in trades and added just one player, Reggie Jackson, on the perimeter, Coffey became a de facto third stringer on his two-way contract and was one of the 15 Clippers brought to the Orlando bubble despite not having been drafted or given a guaranteed contract. The team had 7 bigs and thus needed a perimeter third-stringer from Coffey’s two-way slot.

This year, he’ll basically pick up right where he left off–the Clippers only have 14 players on their roster and are unable to fill their final roster spot due to the hard cap. With six bigs on the team, and fellow two-way wing Jay Scrubb out for most of the year, Coffey again finds himself in a legitimate third-string role by default. Even better (for him), it looks like coach Ty Lue is primed to play Terance Mann at backup point guard and Nicolas Batum at backup power forward, potentially further clearing out space for Coffey to get emergency minutes. In their projected opening-night depth chart, he’s the team’s third-choice shooting guard and small forward (though Reggie Jackson and Patrick Patterson would almost assuredly come in before him in an emergency and slide other players into the wing positions):

Amir will only be called on for second-string minutes if the Clippers really fall on hard times and are missing like three players from their rotation (maybe if a couple of guys are out and Kawhi sits for load management?), but the way Lue has the lineup built right now really sets Coffey up nicely for plentiful garbage time minutes.

On his two-way contract, Amir can appear on the active roster (meaning even if he doesn’t play, it counts) for 50 of the Clippers’ 72 games, so look for him to be available either nightly or almost nightly until the trade deadline, when the Clippers will likely fill out their roster, either by adding a wing ahead of Coffey or converting him to a full-season contract.

Strengths

Coffey is a super-athletic wing who can score from all over the floor, though his efficiency and decision-making can leave a lot to be desired. At his best, he’s using his quickness and length to get to the rim while bringing heightened energy on the defensive end in short spurts of minutes. His offensive toolkit is probably best suited to playing in transition, where he can use his handle and athleticism in the open floor to get to the basket before the defense is set.

Weaknesses

Amir’s weakness is that he’s not really that good at any of the stuff I just mentioned. His speed offensively in transition is great, but he struggles to find the brakes–he isn’t great at slowing down and making reads in the half court, often leading to rushed or contested drives and pull-ups. As a spot-up shooter, it’s a bit of a mixed bag–he shot 32% in the NBA last year, but 40% in the G-League, though both on small samples. Over the course of his three-year collegiate career, he made just 32.8% of his attempts from deep, including 30.4% in his highest-volume year as a junior. As is the case with so many fringe NBA prospects, his ability to consistently make open shots will be crucial if he ever wants to earn rotation minutes as a support player. While he’s used his physical tools to bring defensive energy in limited NBA minutes, and that’s a good sign, the broader scouting report suggests that he’s far more interested in the offensive end of the floor, which makes me skeptical of how his defense would hold up if he were ever needed for meaningful minutes against real rotation-caliber NBA players.

Summary

Coffey’s readiness to see real NBA minutes is likely overstated by a lot of Clippers fans, but he was a competent emergency/garbage time third stringer last season and there’s no reason to doubt that he can start to build on that this season as the NBA’s expansion of the active list from 13 to 15 provides him with more opportunities to suit up and sub in if games get out of hand. The 23-year-old undrafted wing will have to take some important steps forward to have a career with the Clippers long-term, but he’s positioned himself well to get opportunities to prove that he belongs on the 15-man roster sooner rather than later.

Clippers 2020-2021 Season Preview: Amir Coffey
Lucas Hann

After suffering a shorthanded defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night, there are no major updates on the Clippers’ injury report vs the Pelicans.

According to an update from Clippers PR, the team’s superb bench duo of Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams remain out. While starting point guard Patrick Beverley had his “questionable” designation removed, reserve wing Amir Coffey is now considered questionable with a left hip pointer.

Williams is undergoing a 10-day quarantine following a controversial trip to pick up a to-go order from a strip club while away from the Orlando bubble on an excused absence to attend a funeral. He is expected to be back with the team for their Tuesday game against the Phoenix Suns.

Harrell, on the other hand, has been away from the bubble for two weeks, since July 17th, and has yet to arrive back in Orlando and begin his re-entry quarantine, which is expected to last four days. Montrezl is dealing with a family situation, so while there’s no real update on his status, all we can do is hope for the best for him and his loved ones.

Patrick Beverley played just 16 minutes in the Clippers’ first game after being listed as questionable due to his re-entry quarantine from a family emergency of his own. Hopefully as Beverley ramps up to game speed he can play more minutes, but it’s important for the team to be patient with players to avoid fatigue injuries.

The new addition to the Clippers’ injury report vs the Pelicans is rookie guard Amir Coffey. Coffey, who was signed to a two-way contract by the team after going undrafted last summer, ended up coming to Orlando ahead of first-round pick Mfiondu Kabengele. On Thursday against the Lakers, he was Rivers’ chosen depth piece in Williams’ absence, playing 5 minutes ahead of fellow rookie Terance Mann and veteran Rodney McGruder. Hopefully Coffey’s hip pointer is minor enough that he can play unencumbered and continue to grow as a player.

Clippers Injury Report vs Pelicans: Harrell, Williams out; Coffey questionable
Lucas Hann