Is it really happening? Are you sure?

Maybe watch the second half again and double-check.

For the first time in the franchise’s pathetic (I’m allowed to say so, I’m a Clippers fan) 50-year history, the Clippers are going to the Western Conference Finals. It’s even ok to acknowledge that the extent to which we’re celebrating this victory with a bit of disbelief is a little bit sad–a byproduct of spending years supporting the kind of organization that doesn’t compete for championships.

In the last decade, Doc Rivers was at the center of a movement to redefine what it meant to be a Clipper. And to be clear, while I still harbor quite a bit of resentment over Rivers’ catastrophic coaching job during last year’s playoffs, his cultural redefinition of the franchise was unquestionably for the better. Long before he overplayed Montrezl Harrell, Doc did something much more fundamentally necessary for LA to become a winning organization: he came in and treated players and staff with respect. In other contexts, it may have been nothing groundbreaking, but in an organization plagued for decades by its historic piece of shit owner Donald Sterling, it was downright revolutionary. Rivers brought legitimacy to a franchise that had long been anything but legitimate. Free agents, assistant coaches, and front office staff from around the NBA carousel started actually wanting to take jobs with the Clippers.

And make no mistake–Doc Rivers won games. The only time in franchise history that the team had finished above .500 three times in a row before Rivers’ arrival was under another Doc–the famous Dr. Jack Ramsay–from 1974-76 as the Buffalo Braves before their westward move. Rivers’ first year with the team was their third straight above .500, and they’d beat that mark in all 7 of his seasons, extending the run to 10 this year under Ty Lue. The only other coach to survive 7 seasons at the helm of the Clippers in team history is Mike Dunleavy, who managed to finish above .500 and make the playoffs once in those 7 campaigns. Even though Doc inherited a Lob City core of talent that had already been to the second round of the NBA playoffs under Vinny Del Negro, the organization itself was still in shambles under Sterling, hamstrung by his ownership in terms of both resources and reputation. By steering the Clipper ship through the transition from Sterling to Steve Ballmer, and critically advising the new-to-the-NBA Ballmer on how to build a top-flight organization in his early years, Rivers was the linchpin of a process that took the Clippers from a joke of a franchise that occasionally lucked into 2 or 3 successful years of talent before squandering it to a legitimate, respectable operation that could sustain success long-term.

The problems the Clippers ran into under Rivers, namely his inability to adequately assess and adjust tactically on the fly during playoff series and that inability’s damaging effect on his roster’s belief in the gameplan, were problems that could never have existed in the team’s first forty years of existence. Managing playoff series is only a valuable skill if your team is not just in the playoffs, but in the playoffs with a legitimate chance of winning. And it’s only valuable if you’re there regularly–when you make the postseason 4 of your first 25 seasons in Los Angeles, playoff game management isn’t at the top of the wish list. And while it’s fair to assign Rivers his portion of the blame for Lob City’s failures and eventual breakup, it’s also fair to note that without a coach of his stature as the face of the franchise, Chris Paul and/or Blake Griffin could have easily forced their way off the team in 2014 during the Sterling fiasco, sending the Clippers back to purgatory and making that core a 3-year aberration of Clipper relevance rather than an actual era of sustained winning. Blame Doc for second round collapses, but acknowledge that we’d otherwise have been worried about Draft Lottery ping pong balls.

That rather lengthy lead up feels necessary to say that I’m about to say: it is shocking how drastically what it means to be a Clipper has changed in the less-than-a-year since Doc left. And the changes have been beautiful and necessary and cathartic, and yet they’re luxurious changes to first-world problems that would have never been relevant if Rivers hadn’t led the Clippers to the first world to begin with. Perhaps it’s just always a bit nicer to tell tales of a legendary figure franchise history in the past tense than live through learning his day-to-day imperfections in the present.

There would be no Kawhi Leonard/Paul George championship window for this franchise without Doc Rivers. The Clippers needed Doc Rivers at the helm for 7 years to make the Western Confernece Finals, and they needed to fire him last fall to make the Western Conference Finals. Life’s just funny like that sometimes.

But just as Rivers inherited an insufficient definition of Clipper and drastically improved it, so did Ty Lue 8 months ago when he was named as Doc’s replacement. There’s no nice way to say this: Doc’s teams quit. Among his strengths, Rivers is brilliant at working with individual players to buy into and blossom within their roles. But collectively, his groups always lacked the faith in team concepts to handle pressure and emerge victorious. In addition to his famous record of 3 blown 3-1 series leads in his coaching career, Doc also blew 3 3-2 leads with the Celtics. In one of them–the 2010 NBA Finals vs the Lakers, Phil Jackson famously said in a timeout huddle (while wearing a microphone for the TV broadcast) that Doc’s Celtics “knew how to lose.” Despite leading by as much as 13 in the mid-third (which is like a 25-point cushion in today’s terms–seriously, the lead was 49-36 with 8 minutes left in the third), the Celtics ultimately lost game 7 of the Finals and watched the Lakers win the championship.

You can speculate as to the potential reasons why, but the laudry list of examples are too great of an indictment of Rivers to ignore. Even this week, Rivers’ new team in Philadelphia blew two massive leads and are now stuck playing for their lives in a game 7 against a vastly inferior Atlanta Hawks roster. Just look at this:

It’s not a secret that Rivers is a fatally stubborn coach (this is part of how he is so successful in earning individual buy-in–he and his players establish strong mutual trust in consistent minutes and role), and as playoff series (particularly in the second round, where every opponent is going to be at least some level of quality) wear on, you simply have to be able to win a basketball games multiple ways to win closeout and elimination games and keep your season alive. Doc was often insistent that rather than overreacting to what opponents were doing, he wanted his team to play their own game, confident that they were the better team and would emerge victorious. But that only works if the talent gulf between you and the opposition is vast enough that an astute opposing coach can’t find weak spots in your gameplan to pick at. Keep playing Montrezl Harrell at the end of the third quarter, and by game 5 Mike Malone is going to learn to take Nikola Jokic out for a brief rest in the mid-third so he can return fresh to feast against an undersized defender. The first thing you need in order to win is the belief that you are capable of winning, and it becomes particularly hard to maintain that belief if you reach the late stages of a series and begin to lose faith that your head coach is capable of putting your team in a position to win. No matter how well or poorly conceived, if the players on the court don’t believe in a strategic plan’s ability to be successful, it simply isn’t going to be. And when they don’t believe in a plan, and then it doens’t work, they’re gonna have an even harder time believing in the plan the next time around–especially when it’s the same unchanged plan that failed the night before.

The 2020 Clippers were a mentally fragile group. That’s not a commentary Paul George’s individual mental health, it’s a statement of the cohesion among the group when things got tough. The chemistry issue was too often framed as whether or not the players liked each other (some did and some didn’t, as is almost always the case when you put a group of 15 people together) and not with the following question: Do the players believe in the team’s ability to win? Basketball players, believe it or not, are human beings with doubts and emotions like the rest of us. If it was hard for us to watch games 5 and 6 against Denver and believe that Doc Rivers and Montrezl Harrell were suddenly going to figure it out and win game 7, imagine how hard it would be to muster up that belief from within the locker room. You try maintaining faith when you’re repeatedly busting your ass to build comfortable leads over a quality opponent just to watch a lazy defender give the game back to your opponent repeatedly.

When he stepped into the locker room this season, Ty Lue had to undo a lot of psychological damage accumulated under Doc Rivers. The Clippers still occassionally defaulted back to their quitting habits. Remember the afternoon of Sunday, December 27th? If you remember the date that a regular season game was played on, that’s a pretty significant game. But as the season wore on, the Clippers began to show a resolve that was entirely unlike them. They went 11-7 without Kawhi Leonard and 9-7 without Paul George prior to two rest/tanking games to end the season. Without both stars, they came back from down 18 in Miami in January to win–and then beat the Heat without either star again in February. Down 21 in the mid-3rd to Atlanta in March, Lue pulled his starters and put in an all-bench lineup that would come all the way back to win behind 21 points from Terance Mann and 20 points from Luke Kennard. In a tight standings battle in April, Paul George stepped up with back-to-back 30-point games against the Phoenix Suns and Portland Trail Blazers, and two weeks later with Leonard sidelined, George had 8 points in the final 2 minutes to bring the Clippers back from down 6 in Portland to win the game.

The team knew they would never face the same kind of real pressure or adversity again until they got back to the playoffs, but they still gained confidence in themselves and each other as the season wore on. It wasn’t without speed bumps, but they gained belief that they could contribute in their roles and that they could win any game, no matter the situation they found themselves in. Virtually everyone on the roster had moments where they stepped up and delivered when the team needed them, right down to Yogi Ferrell signing on as an emergency guard late in the year and having 8 points and 4 assists in the fourth quarter of a win over the Grizzlies. Luke Kennard doesn’t come in cold in game 7 vs Dallas and have 11 points if he doesn’t save the day vs the Hawks in the regular season. Reggie Jackson doesn’t step up to confidently fill a high-volume offensive role in the playoffs if he doesn’t have the support of his teammates as he hits a gamewinner in isolation over the Detroit Pistons. Terance Mann can’t hit 7 threes to close out the Jazz if his teammates haven’t been encouraging him to shoot all year.

There was always a chance that the Clippers would make the Western Conference Finals this season by more or less running it back and doing the same thing with a few tweaks; a competent backup center, a new veteran point guard. But that just didn’t happen. Serge Ibaka missed much of the season with a lingering back issue before finally being shut down for the postseason after surgery. Rajon Rondo has found himself sometimes outside the rotation and a negative presence when he is on the court. And the Clippers didn’t follow the same script and get a little luckier with injuries, shot-making, and opponents. The Clippers became fundamentally un-Clippery. The fragility and rigidity and letdowns and collapses that defined the team under Doc Rivers were all completely undone and rebuilt as exact opposites in 8 months under Lue.

In fact, they got unlucky. Down 0-2 to the Dallas Mavericks in a truly breathtaking display of outrageous shooting variance in the Mavs’ favor, the Clippers had to head to a hostile road environment with their season on the line. The real advsersity was here, fast, and a group of known quitters were thrust into the spotlight. The Mavericks, and 18,000 fans, were licking their chops. The Clippers fell behind 30-11… and came back to win. And then they blew the Mavs out in Dallas in game 4. After a disappointing game 5 loss in LA, they came back from down 9 to grind out a win in an elimination game 6 and then emerged victorious in game 7. Two tight losses to the Utah Jazz to open the second round left LAC in another 0-2 hole… and they responded by blowing out Utah twice in games 3 and 4. Then, when Kawhi Leonard suffered a knee injury late in game 4, the Clippers had to rally around Paul George–the scapegoat of their 2020 failure and the NBA media’s favorite punching bag–for a road game 5 against the team with the league’s best record. The Clippers endured 17 made Jazz threes in the first half and ultimately pulled away to win behind George’s massive 37/16/5 line. And last night, as we all just jubilantly witnessed, the team took a haymaker from Jordan Clarkson in the second quarter and fell behind by as many as 25 before going on to win the game by 12 points behind a 39-point performance from Terance Mann that I still can’t quite believe happened.

ESPN commentator Mark Jackson said at one point near the end of the game that it would have been very easy for the Clippers to quit. They were down 25, Utah was making demoralizing, tough shots over good defense, they’d get another shot at advancing on Sunday, they were playing without their best player. I had already said after game 5 that it wasn’t fair to expect the Clippers to close out the Jazz without Kawhi, and that the season could be considered acceptable if the Clippers lost this series in 7 games. But to stage a 25-point comeback in the second round to advance to their first Western Conference Finals just one season after blowing double-digit leads in three straight potential closeout games was not just a breakthrough for the team or a successful achievement of a goal–it was a complete rebuke of who they were a year ago, a poetic 180-degree turn from fragile to teflon. It is no truer for anyone than for Paul George, who has taken constant criticism that he wasn’t good enough to be a second star next to Kawhi Leonard and yet stood up in the face of his inconsistent playoff track record and delivered two gutsy leadership performances to take the Clippers to the Western Conference Finals as a the only All-Star in the lineup.

Maybe the Clippers could have strung together a couple more 50-season wins and playoff appearances without hiring Doc Rivers. There’s enough talent in the NBA that sometimes short-lived success falls in the laps of the most inept organizations, like the Clippers in the early 90’s or 2006. But without him, they never would have built a legitimate, respectable organization capable of recruiting top talent and sustaining success over a decade-long span. Doing that meant changing what it meant to be a Clipper, and Doc Rivers did that.

Maybe this Clippers core with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George could have lucked into a Conference Finals appearance this year under Doc Rivers if some injury luck and good matchups aligned to present them a path without much adversity. But they never would have built the kind of team-wide system of tactics and trust that could endure the extreme stress of outlier opponent shooting, large deficits (in both series and individual games), and an injury to Kawhi. Doing that meant changing what it meant to be a Clipper, and Ty Lue did that.

I enjoy this new definition quite a bit. I can’t wait to see what they show us next, and even if it’s an unceremonious exit from their first-ever Western Conference Finals there’s a lot to appreciate about a Clipper team that is more worthy of its fanbase’s pride than any team that has come before it–not just becuase of what they accomplished, but how they went about accomplishing it.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

The Clippers made the Western Conference Finals by changing what it means to be a Clipper
Lucas Hann

Check out the LA Clippers News and Updates Podcast, as I discuss the Clippers’ decision to hire Ty Lue as their next head coach, along with Chauncey Billups as associate head coach and Larry Drew as an assistant coach.

LA Clippers News and Updates is a new show on the 213Hoops podcast network, designed to give short, rapid reaction episodes whenever there is breaking news regarding the Clippers. This way, instead of waiting several days for next week’s hour-long discussion of the news, you can get bite-sized breakdowns of the news delivered to your phone as it happens.

The newest episode is out now and will be available here on Apple Podcasts and here on Spotify as soon as those platforms refresh their RSS feed. The episode is live now here, on Spreaker.

In it, I break down the Clippers’ decision to hire Lue, Billups, and Drew, as well as do a bit of examination of each coach’s record and give my assessment of the three hires. Interestingly, it won’t be any of the three’s first stint with LAC–Drew played point guard for the team in the 80s, Billups was briefly a Clipper near the end of his career, and Lue was an assistant coach under Doc Rivers twice, first in 2013-14 and then in 2019-20.

I hope you guys enjoy LA Clippers News and Updates, and give some comments and feedback on the format as I get the show underway this off-season and shape what it is going to look like moving forward. Please subscribe on whatever podcast platform you use, and if you leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts I’ll give you a shoutout on an upcoming episode!

Be sure to also check out the newest The Lob, The Jam, The Podcast to hear Cavaliers podcaster Justin Rowan’s take on Ty Lue’s coaching abilities during his time in Cleveland.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Podcast: Clippers Hire Lue, Billups, Drew
Lucas Hann

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the LA Clippers have hired Ty Lue as their new head coach on a 5-year deal contract.

Former Clippers point guard and broadcaster Chauncey Billups will join his staff as a lead assistant, The Athletic’s Shams Charania added. The LA Times’ Brad Turner also reported that Larry Drew will join Lue’s staff.

Lue, a former NBA point guard, was a Clippers assistant coach during the 2013-14 season and again last year. In the interim, he spent 3 seasons as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, winning over 60% of his regular season games, making the NBA Finals in all three of his playoff runs, and winning the 2016 NBA Championship as a rookie head coach.

Despite a national reputation as a “player’s coach”–a designation regularly used to downplay the tactical abilities of Black coaches–and some concern that Cleveland’s success had more to do with Lebron James than Lue’s coaching, observers close to the Cavaliers team have a very high opinion of Lue’s command of offensive X’s and O’s, defensive game planning, and willingness to experiment and adjust over the course of a playoff series. That’s all in addition to, yes, building foundations for strong relationships in the locker room that allow him to hold stars accountable, most famously calling out Lebron James at halftime of game 7 during the 2016 NBA Finals.

Yesterday, Cavaliers podcaster Justin Rowan joined myself and Robert Flom on 213Hoops’ The Lob, The Jam, The Podcast to discuss Lue’s candidacy–and Justin made a compelling argument in favor of Lue that Clippers fans will want to check out. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcasting platforms.

• Where Are They Now: Sindarius Thornwell
• Clippers Make Multiple Back End Roster Moves
• Clippers to Sign Chris Paul
• Clippers 2025 Summer League Game 5 Thread
• Clippers 2025 Summer League Game 4 Thread

As Lue steps up the Clippers coaching ladder, he will be replaced as lead assistant from outside the locker room but inside the organization, as former NBA point guard and current Clippers broadcaster Chauncey Billups will move to the bench. After a stellar 17-year career that included the 2004 NBA Championship and Finals MVP award with the Detroit Pistons, and a brief stint with the Clippers in 2012 and 2013, Billups retired several years ago and has worked in television while flirting with coaching and front office openings around the league.

Larry Drew, who is joining LAC’s staff as an assistant coach, was also an NBA point guard, playing during the 1980s. His career included a two-year stint with the Clippers in the very early years after the franchise’s move to Los Angeles. Drew has been a longtime NBA assistant, working with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1992-1999, Detroit Pistons from 1999-2000, Washington Wizards from 2000-2003, New Jersey Nets from 2003-2004, and Atlanta Hawks from 2004-2010. In 2010, he became the Hawks’ head coach and saw the team to a 126-101 record in 3 seasons, making the playoffs each year and advancing out of the first round once. He then took the Milwaukee Bucks’ head coaching job and was fired after a 15-67 record in his first season.

Drew moved from Milwaukee to Cleveland, where he was an assistant coach under David Blatt and later associate head coach under Ty Lue, coaching the team to an 8-1 record during Lue’s two-week medical leave in 2018. He then became the Cavaliers’ interim head coach in 2019, after Lebron James’ departure and the team’s separation from Lue, coaching them to a 19-57 record.

The hiring of Lue and Billups follows an interview process that saw the Clippers bring in top assistant coaches from around the league, including Darvin Ham from Milwaukee, Mike Brown from Golden State, and Wes Unseld Jr from Denver.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Clippers Hire Ty Lue as Head Coach, Billups as Lead Assistant
Lucas Hann

According to Sixers beat writer Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Clippers assistant coach Ty Lue has interviews with the Philadelphia 76ers, New Orleans Pelicans, and Houston Rockets regarding their head coaching vacancies.

Lou toured the Sixers’ facilities Tuesday, Pompey said, and will meet with Pelicans executives in LA later this week before interviewing with the Rockets next week. Pompey also reported that the Clippers reached out to Lue Monday afternoon after firing Doc Rivers, considering Rivers’ top assistant a potential replacement.

Lue is the most obvious choice to inherit Rivers’ role on the Clippers, given his familiarity with the organization and roster and his championship resume as both a player and head coach. However, some factors could make it a less than ideal marriage. First, the Clippers were clearly dissatisfied with their coaching staff last season–would promoting Rivers’ right-hand man bring the level of change that Steve Ballmer desires? Second, Lue is a top candidate for vacancies around the league, and the Clippers could have to compete with other opportunities with less baggage and other perks (the Clippers can certainly beat out other teams’ financial offers, but do they want to offer a 5-year deal? Will another team give Lue better job security or a say in roster decisions?). And third, Lue and Rivers have a very tight bond–he may not be comfortable taking over the job after the Clippers dismissed the man he’s called a “father figure.”

During the 2016 All-Star weekend, Lue, then the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, said “everything I do is Doc Rivers-driven. He’s taught me a lot. Whenever I need advice, I will always talk to Doc.” He went on to say that the two were in almost-constant communication during the years they spent apart, texting to bounce ideas off of each other. It would be hard to imagine a Lue staff that didn’t feature Rivers’ input: “I could be with the Lakers and I think he would still help me out and give me advice.”

That’s not to say that he isn’t a candidate for the Clippers’ job–he clearly is, but a strong relationship with Rivers, and Ty Lue taking interviews around the league, could be hints that the replacement process won’t be as straightforward as some assumed.

For his part, Rivers is reportedly immediately engaging with teams who have head coaching vacancies, and there’s reportedly been significant mutual interest with the Sixers as well. The Sixers could name a new head coach by the end of the week, although Rivers’ dismissal threw a wrench into those plans by introducing an unexpected high-profile candidate, and Lue will not have completed all of his interviews by that point.

While the Houston Rockets are scheduled to talk to Lue next week, it has also been reported that they will interview Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Stephen Silas and Denver Nuggets assistant coach Wes Unseld Jr. With the Rockets having one of the league’s most notoriously cheap owners in Tillman Fertitta, some expect the team to go with a first-time head coach who wouldn’t demand as high a salary or as many guaranteed years as Lue. Last year, the Los Angeles Lakers chose Lue as the top candidate for their head coaching vacancy but the two sides reached an impasse when Lue held firm for a five-year contract and the Lakers refused to offer more than 3.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Report: Ty Lue has interviews in Philly, New Orleans, Houston
Lucas Hann

Doc Rivers’ departure from the LA Clippers is the latest in a series of moves across the NBA that have contributed to one of the wildest coaching carousels in memory. With so many head coaches on the market and jobs open, here are 10 NBA head coaching candidates that the Clippers could consider to replace Rivers.

There are any number of qualified candidates across the NBA, WNBA, NCAA, international, and NBA G-League ranks who could potentially emerge as a serious candidate for a head coaching vacancy, and even narrowing the list down to bigger names and serious contenders leaves us with far more than 10 potential candidates for head coaching jobs in the near future. Here’s a run-down of NBA head coaching candidates, ranked according to a combination of my preference and likelihood that they’ll land the job:

“Oh Hell no”: Former Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd.

Honorable Mention: Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Stephen Silas, New Orleans Pelicans associate head coach Chris Finch, Michigan Wolverines head coach Juwan Howard (who has said he isn’t pursuing NBA jobs), Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Jerry Stackhouse, former Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni, former Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy.

10. Gregg Popovich: Like I said, we’re starting with the least likely. It’s hard to imagine Pop anywhere other than San Antonio, as he has been the Spurs’ head coach since 1996 and won 5 NBA titles, including the 2014 championship where Kawhi Leonard won his first NBA Finals MVP. Undoubtedly one of the greatest coaches in the history of the league, Popovich is 71 years old, still in place in San Antonio, and there’s no indication that a departure is forthcoming–but after rumors floated that the Brooklyn Nets could attempt to lure him for one final contending project before his retirement. Now that Brooklyn’s vacancy has been filled by Steve Nash, could the Clippers make a play? It’s very unlikely, but Steve Ballmer is the kind of owner who likes to make unlikely things happen when he gets his mind set on them–look no further than the team’s star pairing of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, or his purchase of the Inglewood Forum to clear the way for a new LAC arena.

9. Udonis Haslem: After winning titles with the Miami Heat and becoming a franchise legend with 16 seasons on the roster, Haslem has scarcely played in recent seasons and provided locker room leadership as a glorified assistant coach. He’s played just 7 minutes per game in 81 total games over the last 5 years, and saw over half of his 44 minutes this season in the Heat’s final bubble game as they rested players. The Heat are currently in the NBA Finals for the sixth time in Haslem’s tenure, having won the 2006, 2012, and 2013 titles. During this run, he’s been credited as being an anchor of “Heat culture,” and has frequently been seen on TV leading timeouts during the playoffs. It’s unlikely that a team–especially in the Clippers’ position–would hand the head coaching job to someone who was technically an active NBA player this year, but if LAC needs leadership and an improved locker room culture, surrounding Haslem with more experienced assistants (like Alvin Gentry and/or Nate McMillan) could make for a workable staff.

8. Becky Hammon: If you can’t get Popovich, why not poach from his staff? Hammon is one of the best WNBA players ever, and has been a pioneer for women coaching in the NBA since joining the Spurs’ staff in 2014. Her CV speaks for itself more loudly than any endorsement could, but it’s clear that she has earned the respect of players as well, as Pau Gasol wrote that “Becky Hammon can coach NBA basketball. Period.” Hammon seems likely to be a NBA head coach someday, and will probably be the first woman to ever fill the role, but she’s gained little momentum in hiring conversations in recent years. While there’s no doubt that sexism creates significant obstacles for women in sports, it can also be fairly argued that a number of other, higher-profile assistants have compiled longer tenures. The notion of a “line” existing is a bit silly–Steve Nash getting hired to coach a contender in Brooklyn is just the latest example–but it does seem based on league chatter that Hammon is still a few years from being a true finalist for an opening.

7. Jeff Van Gundy: Due to his TV appearances, Van Gundy is a perennial rumored head coaching candidate who never seriously gains traction for any openings. JVG had a successful enough tenure as a head coach–a 57.5% winning percentage in 11 years, 9 playoff appearances, 7 series wins, and an NBA Finals Appearance–to get another job in the NBA… just not a good enough job to lure him out of the broadcasting booth. And the jobs that might actually have brought him back to coaching went to stronger candidates. Remember, for all the criticism that Doc Rivers has gotten with the Clippers, that Rivers has a better regular season and playoff win percentage with over twice as many games coached as Van Gundy in each category, and where Van Gundy has one finals loss, Rivers has two finals appearances and a championship to his name. Most importantly with Van Gundy, though, is that he hasn’t coached an NBA game since 2007, before the three-point revolution. It’s possible that a relationship could land Van Gundy an actual interview for this opening, but the Clippers should find a more creative option.

6. Chauncey Billups: If the Clippers don’t look to their own bench for a replacement (spoilers), they might look to their own broadcast booth. After retiring from the NBA in 2014, Billups announced this summer that he was finally ready to start pursuing head coaching vacancies around the NBA, and he immediately became a candidate for a number of vacancies. Remember how I said the notion of a “line” was a bit silly? Yeah. But it’s understandable why teams would want Billups, a future Hall of Famer who won NBA Finals MVP in 2004 playing point guard for the Detroit Pistons. Chauncey would bring leadership, championship pedigree, and the perspective of someone who was close to the team last season but not directly involved in the debacle that was the team’s coaching staff. Still, I think Chauncey is going to have a stop as a prominent assistant before getting a head coaching job–and if the front office highly regarded him as a coaching prospect, it feels like they probably would have found a spot for him on the staff last season instead of putting him on broadcasts.

5. David Vanterpool: One of the most prominent assistants in the NBA, Vanterpool played and coached under the legendary Ettore Messina in Europe, and then became an assistant coach for the Blazers in 2012 where he worked closely with Damian Lillard to help the young star blossom before moving to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ bench last year. Known for his defensive acumen and strong player development skills, Vanterpool is widely considered one of the NBA assistant coaches highest on head coaching lists–but is he a good fit with the Clippers? LA isn’t quite in a position where they’re in need of a coach who is willing to come in and work closely with young players and focus on development. This team needs a leader who can make adjustments over the course of a playoff series to get them to a title. If Vanterpool ends up on the Clippers’ shortlist, he’ll have to use his interview to prove that he has what it takes to win in big moments in addition to his stellar day-in, day-out reputation.

4. Sam Cassell: If the Clippers are open to hiring from within their own staff and consider Rivers’ assistants as potential replacements, Cassell figures to get an interview. A high-profile NBA point guard through the 90s and 2000s, including playing a crucial role on LAC’s 2006 playoff run, Cassell has been an assistant coach since retiring in 2009 and joined the Clippers’ staff in 2014. Cassell has only received fledgling head coach interest at this point, most notably for the current Houston Rockets vacancy. Sam was drafted by the Rockets and was on the team for their 1995 title run, siphoning minutes from starter Kenny Smith as the finals went on after a 31-point performance in game 2. While Sam should be a legitimate candidate for the Clippers, it feels hard to find an argument for hiring him over fellow assistant Ty Lue, who has significant playoff experience as a head coach.

3. Dan Craig: Ok, here’s my left-field suggestion. Dan Craig, who lots of folks have probably never heard of, could be the kind of sneakily effective hire for the Clippers that Nick Nurse was for the Toronto Raptors and Erik Spoelstra was for the Miami Heat. Spoelstra, of course, started in Miami as a video coordinator and worked in the organization for 13 years before being promoted to head coach, where he’s become regarded as one of the best coaches in the league (if not the best). It only makes sense to look at the best’s right-hand man, and Craig followed a similar path to get to this point, starting with the Heat as a video intern in the 2003-04 season before working his way up through the video room staff, player development staff, and finally coaching staff. In a one-year detour, the Heat assigned Craig to coach their G-League affiliate–he broke the league record with a 40-10 finish in 50 games, won Coach of the Year, and won a championship. Craig hasn’t been mentioned a lot in rumors, but he should be the first call for any team looking for a young, innovative coach who can bring a slice of Heat culture after this awesome Miami run. The Clippers do love to surprise us.

2. Ime Udoka: While he isn’t still Popovich’s understudy in San Antonio, Udoka is seen as the most prominent Pop protege on the NBA’s coaching market. He sat on the Spurs’ bench from 2012-2019 after briefly playing for the team, and was widely thought of as the assistant most likely to inherit the head coaching position when Popovich retired until he departed to play a role on Brett Brown’s bench in Philadelphia last summer (he’s still likely to get mentioned for the Spurs job when Popovich retires). Ime has been a candidate for almost every head coaching opening this summer, and still has a strong shot of finding a HC job with so many openings remaining. He probably is going to go to a younger, middle-tier team, maybe in New Orleans, Indiana, or Oklahoma City, but he’s one of the most prominent first-time head coaching candidates on the market right now and would likely get the opportunity to impress the Clippers in an interview if they conduct a full, thorough search.

1. Tyronn Lue: The rest of this list is a combination of preference, intuition, and gossip, but Lue at #1 is hard to argue with. If you’re looking for a coach with championship pedigree, well, there’s two available, active coaches who have won an NBA title: Doc Rivers and Ty Lue. The Clippers just fired the first guy, and the second guy is already in the organization as Rivers’ top assistant. Before Rivers’ firing, Lue was almost a lock to leave the team this off-season as the top coaching candidate on the market. Now, he’s the heavy favorite to take over the new best opening in the league with the Clippers. It can be a little hard to get too excited over Lue’s great success on paper–three years in Cleveland with higher than 60% of his games won and 11 playoff series wins (1 championship and 2 finals losses)–because he had LeBron James on his team. When James left the Cavaliers, the team started the next season 0-6 and Lue was quickly let go. But while the context of James’ long track record of dominating the league is important, Lue wasn’t just some guy. He made a good name for himself as a head coach working with superstars, and was even able to confront James during games and go away from high-profile star Kevin Love when matchups required.

And while James is likely the best NBA player ever, he isn’t an automatic championship. During LeBron’s first stint with the Cavaliers, the team made just one finals appearance (a loss) in 5 years under Mike Brown. Even during his nearly-constant appearances since, James has lost the large majority of his finals series, winning three times: twice with the star-studded Miami Heat under Erik Spoelstra, and this title with Lue. We gotta give Ty at least some credit here.

If the Clippers conduct a full, honest search, Lue will have the most impressive credentials but could lose out to an impressive interview from another candidate. Remember, Lue is one of three guys who won a championship as a rookie head coach in the last several years (along with Steve Kerr and Nick Nurse). If the Clippers believe in their front office (as they do), they could try to add another name to that list with a first-time head coach. They could also choose to go away from Ty due to his prominent role in the team’s disastrous 2020 performance. But don’t take a delay as a sign that the team is seriously rejecting Lue–the Clippers very clearly went to significant lengths to make Rivers’ departure look amicable and mutual, and promoting his assistant immediately would be poor decorum in NBA coaching circles. It’s even possible that in lieu of a formal search, Lue’s hiring is a foregone conclusion, and he’ll be promoted in a couple of weeks (perhaps with a short list and some other interviews as a formality–or to find candidates to take on Lue’s former position as associate head coach, where former Clippers assistant and recently-fired Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry would be a stellar addition). We’ll just have to wait and see.

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10 NBA Head Coaching Candidates for LAC to Consider
Lucas Hann