Tyronn Lue has done a questionable job all season as Los Angeles Clippers coach, and now one of his former players has seen enough.
The Clippers, without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, lost again on Saturday to the Phoenix Suns to fall behind 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs. Despite having better options at his disposal, Lue opted to start and close the game with veteran striker Marcus Morris Sr., who had been largely out of duty since March (in a potential front office decision).
As was the case for much of the year, Morris struggled on both ends of the court. He finished with 19-of-1 overall, shot 3-of-13 from the field (including 1-of-8 from three) and couldn’t stay ahead of the Turtles on defense (let alone Kevin Durant).
Despite all this clumsiness, Morris ended up playing for 25 minutes, nearly twice as strong as the other available forwards to the team – Nicholas Batum (six minutes) and Robert Covington (eight minutes) – combined.
After losing 112-100, former Clipper Patrick Patterson tweeted a small shadow at Lue. Patterson, a powerful forward who played under Lue in 2020-21 (and barely saw the court at the time), accused Lue of continuing to show “nepotism” and said that “things haven’t changed yet”.