The LA Clippers are not in the position coach Ty Lue would have wanted them to be at this point in the NBA season. But here they are, 6-18 in West. And there’s a domino effect at play in LA. The most prominent of the dominoes that have fallen is veteran Chris Paul, who had returned to the Clippers for what was to be his retirement season.
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With the Clippers having a history of mistreating their veterans, serious backlash was bound to follow, and Lue is in the middle of it. Former Clipper star Blake Griffin has claimed that CP3 was ghosted by Lue after the exit. Meanwhile, an old video of Lue throwing an expletive aimed at CP3 has also resurfaced.
Needless to say, this has been a rather bad week for the head coach. And former Clippers star Paul Pierce has asserted that Lue should find a home in Cleveland.
The former NBA champion was responding to Kevin Garnett’s question about Kawhi Leonard. Pierce said that the Clippers’ Leonard experiment had come to a rather premature end. He also spoke about how the franchise had messed up when they traded Shai-Gilgeous Alexander in 2019.
“Damn, if they had kept Shai right now, how would they be looking? Shai, Kawhi, and whoever! That was one of the all-time … that was a blunder right there. So they are kicking … Shai is going to be winning multiple MVPs and titles,” said Pierce.
Garnett then asked if Lue was going to survive this debacle. Pierce didn’t answer the question but claimed that the coach needed to pack his bags.
“I said this the other day. You know who could use Ty Lue right now? Cleveland. He needs to go back to Cleveland. Because the Cleveland team is underachieving right now,” Pierce stated, adding that even though the Cavaliers won 64 games last season, they simply don’t look the part this year.
“You bring in a championship coach now, to get them over the hump. Like when Detroit brought in Larry Brown, you have got to bring in… I think he’s a very good coach, and he’s just had bad breaks every year. He needs a healthy team and a young team that’s ready to go,” he reiterated.
The two franchises could certainly trade coaches. Although why Kenny Atkinson would want to wade into the murky waters in LA would be the real question.
