Clippers Guarantee Final Year Of Tyronn Lue’s Contract

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue has a little more job security, or at the least more guaranteed money coming his way.

The Clippers have guaranteed the final year of Lue’s contract for the 2024/25 season, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times reports.

After the Pistons signed Monty Williams to a six-year, $78.5MM contract and the Spurs signed Gregg Popovich to a five-year deal worth over $80MM, Lee sought to add more years and money to his own contract, which was set to enter its final guaranteed year next season.

The Suns and Bucks showed serious interest in Lue during their head coaching searches but the Clippers didn’t grant permission for other teams to negotiate with Lue. Instead, they soon guaranteed the final year of his current contract.

A report in June indicated it was unlikely the Clippers and Lue would reach an extension agreement.

“I’ve got two years left on my deal, so you know I’m in a good position,” Lue told Greif. “I’m just happy to be where I’m at and go out there and have a good year this year and see what happens. But, like I said, I got two years left on my deal and I’m not really worried about an extension.”

Lue believes the Clippers need to be more attuned to collecting wins in the regular season, so that they can earn a better playoff seed and then get rest before the postseason begins.

“The biggest thing for us is making sure our players are healthy and making sure that we’re doing right by the players, but with that being said we’ve also got to take the regular season more serious as far as coming in and playing hard every night and winning games and playing games,” Lue said. “Our fans deserve that. They’ve been behind us for a long time and like I said, there have been some unfortunate injuries that we’ve had. That’s part of the game.

“When we are healthy and we are feeling good, then we’ve got to make sure that we’re trying to play every single night. But then most importantly, just try to get one of those good seeds where the last 10 games of the season, you’re not fighting and clawing trying to stay out of the play-in game. Those are games you can kind of rest and get your body ready for the playoffs.”