Lue is preparing for next season.
LA Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue recently appeared on the podcast All The Smoke. In it, he shared his advice to Clippers superstar duo Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
The Clippers were one of the favorites to win the title last season. With Leonard and George healthy, they also had a number of solid role players in Eric Gordon, Norman Powell, Robert Covington, Marcus Morris, and Ivica Zubac.토토사이트
The Clippers finished with a 44-38 record and earned a direct playoff berth as the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference. Their first-round opponent was the fourth-seeded Phoenix Suns, who were joined by Kevin Durant. The Clippers swept the Suns in Game 1, but then lost four straight to end their playoff run.
It was a hollow exit for the favorites. Looking back at the season as a whole, there were even more disappointments, not least of which was the fact that Leonard and George, the core of the team, only played 52 and 56 games, respectively.
Recognizing the problem, Lu gave the duo some advice this summer.
“I told Kawhi Leonard and Paul George this offseason that they should approach the regular season in a different way, and one of the things was to take the regular season seriously,” Lu said.
“If we take the regular season seriously, we’ll have an advantage in terms of who our playoff opponents are, whether we have home court advantage, whether we can rest up without having to play a play-in tournament, etc. Then we can prepare for the playoffs with confidence. They both understood that,” he added.
Leonard and George have two years left on their contracts. The final year is a player option, meaning they don’t have much time left to win a championship in a Clippers uniform. It will be interesting to see if they can hit the ground running next season and make a run at a championship.