Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN
LA Clippers coach Ty Lue has agreed on a new long-term contract that will make him one of the NBA’s highest-paid coaches, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank had been eager to secure Lue on a new deal, and negotiations with his agent Andy Miller of Klutch Sports reached a finalized agreement in recent days, sources said.
Lue’s deal delivers a significant element of stability for the Clippers franchise with some roster uncertainty looming this offseason. In his stops with the Clippers and Cleveland Cavaliers, where he won the 2016 NBA championship, Lue has established himself as one of the league’s most respected and sought-after coaches.
The Clippers are determined to keep Paul George and James Harden in free agency, and the organization moves into the new state-of-the-art Intuit Dome for the start of next season.
Lue, who had one year left on his contract, has gone 184-134 (.579) in his four seasons with the Clippers, which is the sixth-best in the NBA in that stretch, according to ESPN Stats and Information.
Lue led the Clippers to the franchise’s first Western Conference Finals appearance in the 2020-2021 season. As a franchise, the Clippers have suffered through numerous injuries to star players during Lue’s tenure. Kawhi Leonard and George have been in the lineup for only 45% of Lue’s games as Clippers coach. He’s gone 97-47 in those games, according to ESPN Stats and Information.
Lue has spent much of his tenure adapting lineups and schemes to work around injuries to his stars. In 2023-24, Lue had to adjust a week into the regular season when the Clippers traded for Harden three games into the season. After the trade, the Clippers lost six straight — including five with Harden in the lineup. Eventually, Lue and the Clippers turned around the season, including a 26-5 stretch that had them atop the Western Conference standings in early February.
Lue had to adapt again in April, when Leonard missed the final eight games of the regular season with inflammation in his right knee. Leonard missed Game 1 of the playoffs before returning for Games 2 and 3. Nevertheless, Leonard’s surgically repaired knee didn’t respond the way the team hoped it would and the Clippers were without him for the rest of a six-game series loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
Lue, who won an NBA championship as Cleveland’s coach in 2016, is 312-217 (.590) in the regular season and 54-37 overall (.593) in the playoffs in his stops with the Cavaliers and Clippers.