Ty Lue is ready to prove naysayers wrong in 2024-25

Ty Lue is ready to prove naysayers wrong in 2024-25

The Los Angeles Clippers will be entering a new phase without Paul George next season.

After extension negotiations with George, 34, soured throughout last season, the star wing headed East by signing a four-year max contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. Now being a team that’s being written off without George, head coach Tyronn Lue is relishing the opportunity to prove any doubters wrong.

“When you lose a guy of Paul George’s stature, instantly people [think] oh, they can’t win or they’re not going to be competitive,” Lue told ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk last week. “But that just challenges me even more. OK, people are counting us out or people don’t think we’re going to be good. That right there just gives me an extra dose of [motivation].

“I can’t wait to prove everybody wrong.”

Los Angeles finished with the fourth-best record last season at 51-31, with Kawhi Leonard playing 68 games and Paul George playing 74 games. Throughout their five years together, health was always the biggest swing factor to their success. The duo only netted one Western Conference Finals appearance–the only conference finals appearance in franchise history– a insufficient outcome relative to what was expected.

“We never put our best team on the floor in the playoffs,” Lue said. “That’s when Kawhi’s at his best, PG’s at his best. That’s when I’m at my best. When you get to a seven-game series and you can pick teams apart offensively and defensively, we were never able to get to that point.

“These guys put the hard work in. We took different approaches to help guys stay healthy and it just didn’t work. We tried everything.”

With James Harden instead of George, the Clippers still have an uphill climb to be in any sort of Western Conference contention. The Thunder made dramatic improvements while the Denver Nuggets nor Minnesota Timberwolves are any slouch; who knows how a full season of Dallas’ revamped frontcourt looks, while Phoenix, New Orleans, Sacramento and Golden State are all looming. Houston and the Lakers–with one of the NBA’s top duos in LeBron James and Anthony Davis, albeit with a first-year head coach–belong in the conversation too.

To offer some perspective, the Clippers’ projected win total currently rests at 40.5; ESPN projected them to go over that win total, but still had them finishing as the No. 12 seed in the East at 43-49.

Lue is a mastermind; he’s an elite tactician. I don’t think the Clippers will be any slouch, but I also don’t like their roster relative to most of the West. With the addition of Jeff Van Gundy on the sidelines, I’m intrigued to see how this unit jells in 2024-25 in a very competitive conference.

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