The LA Clippers have done an impressively poor job at predicting when a player is going to fall off. The epitome is Brook Lopez, but, like every team, LA has had wins, and its biggest in recent memory is Amir Coffey, who joined the Milwaukee Bucks in the middle of the offseason as one of their newest members.
It is like the Clippers and Bucks made a swap of declining veterans, as Coffey has vindicated Lawrence Frank for not res-signing him, when most teams would have sent a reasonable check his way after the 2024-25 regular season.
On the Bucks, Coffey has steadily regressed from a viable bench player to a reserve who receives a few minutes nightly for one reason: to stay in game shape in the event Doc Rivers is forced to rely on him. Hence, he is Rivers’ top talent on the third string.
The LA Clippers were right for making a tough call on Amir Coffey
Amir Coffey might be wondering how his last season with the LA Clippers went well, 9.7 points in 72 games, to the first change of scenery in his career, which has been a disaster, on the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks have played five games in December. Coffey, on the other hand, was only involved in three of them. However, Doc Rivers did not really involve him, as the veteran wing has played only 11 minutes combined.
Moreover, the Clippers did not re-sign Coffey because they recognized his defensive instability and concluded the problem was not their system but the player. There is no excuse why he was not at least the average defender in LA last season; their best defensive season in years.
The Bucks wanted to be proven right in assuming Coffey and the Clippers could not agree on a fair price, yet the real reason was that Lawrence Frank saw an inevitable regression.
Thus, Frank took a gamble on what his mind was telling him, as he may have been heavily tempted to keep Coffey around on the minimum, given that he was a Clipper for six long seasons.
That said, two negatives would not have equaled a positive, as Coffey’s atrocious defense and the Clippers’ current disappointments would have led to a failure story, worse than the one already in place, that would live for years to come. Therefore, Frank was right in letting him walk to another contender.