The Clippers enter the 2025-26 season with a better and deeper team than they had last year. They have issues to overcome to be clear contenders, but they remain in the conversation as title contenders.
Every team in the league has someone who is most closely watched by fans and the media. That person is usually the team’s superstar — the one who has to prove the most for his team each season and who continues to perform at a high level.
In the case of the Clippers, though, who have an array of stars and players who are looking for one more shot at a title, it’s not the players who have the most to prove.
Tyronn Lue Has to Break Through
The Clippers’ best and most impactful player, most would agree, is Kawhi Leonard. It’s clear that with injuries, few games played last season, and doubts, Kawhi will have to prove that he is still a top-10 player in the league.
However, Kawhi is not the one who has to prove the most for the Clippers this season — that would be head coach Tyronn Lue.
Lue has been the Clippers’ head coach for five seasons. In those five seasons, his team has never been below .500. The problem lies in the playoffs, where his winning percentage drops dramatically. Lue has only had one season, the 2020-21 season, with a winning record in the playoffs.
Clearly, not all the blame lies with the coach. The Clippers have been a very disadvantaged team in the postseason in recent years. However, Lue has disappointed on several occasions when things depended on him.
Problems with Long Rotations
One of the most criticized aspects of Ty Lue in recent seasons has been his handling of long rotations. When the team has more than 9 or 10 useful players, Lue tends to overthink and move the pieces around too much. Considering that the Clippers’ rotation this season has 11 useful players, this could continue to be a problem.
The best example of this mismanagement was in the 2023 playoffs against the Suns. With Kawhi out after the first two games, Lue tried multiple combinations with Marcus Morris, Robert Covington, and Bones Hyland coming in and out of the game plan without continuity. The result was a team without chemistry, which reached the fourth quarter competitive but without clear answers to close out games.
Difficulties Managing Egos
Another recurring criticism is Lue’s management of egos within the locker room. With the arrival of Harden in 2023, the Clippers experienced weeks of utter chaos. Ty Lue was unable to convince Harden, Kawhi, George, or Westbrook to accept smaller, complementary roles.
The consequence was immediate: the team started with a worrying 0-5 record with Harden, and during the first few weeks, the offense was among the worst in the league. At every press conference, Lue repeated the same message: “Everyone must sacrifice.” But the reality is that he failed to make that happen. With Beal, Paul, Harden, Kawhi, and even Zubac this season, Lue will be challenged again.
James Harden: “I don’t need to make a statement.”
“I was aggressive. And it’s not that I’m not capable of doing it, it’s just this is my role for the team. Now if you want me to [score] tonight, I can do that as well. I don’t think a lot of players can do that.” pic.twitter.com/Q3XhIp34EK
— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) May 2, 2023
Static Offense in Close Games
In recent years, a pattern has also repeated itself on offense: When games get tough, Lue’s offense becomes too predictable. Instead of complex sets or collective systems, the solution has often been to default to Harden in isolation or Kawhi in the mid-range.
In a loss to the Nuggets in January 2024, for example, the team only had 18 assists compared to Denver’s 27. In the fourth quarter, they went four possessions in a row without moving the ball. This is a clear sign that Lue’s offense lacks fluidity in decisive moments.
Tyronn Lue responding to @ChrysNBA on movement/lack thereof in Clippers half court offense:
“We’re not a movement team. We’re the oldest team in the league playing… we got to play a certain style of basketball every night.”
Then T Lue went through checklist of offense. pic.twitter.com/2mUO6wt6Ur
— Law Murray ❓ (@LawMurrayTheNU) March 24, 2023
Underutilized Role Players
One of Lue’s biggest sins has been failing to take advantage of the talent he has had on the bench. Players such as Robert Covington, Terance Mann, and Amir Coffey spent long stretches of the season without playing time, even when they could have filled gaps in the team.
Covington’s case was the most obvious: In the 2022-23 season, he finished with one of the team’s best defensive ratings, but he averaged just 16 minutes and disappeared completely in key games.
The impression Lue leaves is that when the roster is loaded with stars, role players lose importance even though they can make a difference. With a roster as deep as this upcoming year’s, he cannot default to a reliance on his stars.
Unless Tyronn Lue is able to manage egos in the locker room well this season, make clear and defined rotations without constantly changing them, and make good use of role players, the Clippers won’t have a chance to bring a ring home to the Intuit Dome.
This season, the spotlight in LA will not just be on the superstars on the court, but on the conductor of the orchestra on the bench as well.