Clippers’ Ty Lue is candid about ‘having a great time’ with LeBron James

Although Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue has a lot to figure out with his current team, he will always cherish the time spent with Cleveland Cavaliers. Before taking over his former organization on Sunday, Lue initially wanted to focus on the Clippers job, but opened up about “amazing” championship years with the Cavs.

“It started with LeBron (James), being the best player in the world, but just watching him do it every day,” Lue said in his pregame news conference Sunday at Rockets Arena. “When you go through shooting, he’s at full speed. When you go through plays and just trying to work on execution, he’s at full speed, getting everybody to do it at full speed.”

“It was a breath of fresh air just knowing you had the best player in the world. But he understands how important execution is, he understands how important it is to bring other guys with him.”

From 2016 to 2018, Lue and his The Cavs led by James set franchise records and went to the NBA Finals in every playoff. Along the way, there was familiarity with the core, with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love rounding out a big three that consistently complemented the talent around them and rarely traded away.

“We could run our stuff four or five years straight and then we could call a play from two years ago that our guys knew,” Lue said. “And so, just the preparation, just the endurance with Kirie and K-Love and how they sacrificed, but the understanding was to win whatever we had to do. It was a great time. The fans were amazing. The organization was great.”

Lue then credited then-Cleveland general manager David Griffin and vice president of basketball operations Trent Redden for giving him his first coaching opportunity. He was hired midseason on January 22, 2016, after the Cavs parted ways with David Blatt despite being the best team in the Eastern Conference at 30-11. As his leading assistant from the 2014 season to that point, Lue mentioned Sunday that he thought Blatt “did a great job.”

Granted, Lue has felt the pressure every year with James on the roster, noting his streak of back-to-back Finals appearances dating back to his days with the Miami Heat.

“But that’s not a bad thing, because if you have pressure, that means you have a chance to win a championship,” Lue said. “And so, going to four straight Finals, having a chance to win a championship and just seeing LeBron do it, that was huge for me because it kept me on my toes. I had to be on my toes for everybody. If me and him (were) on the same page and talked and got past the defense, (if) he hears one word that’s wrong, what’s going to come back to him. He knows.

“So he just kept me sharp. Having that first opportunity with him really made me who I am today.”

After an 0-6 start amid James’ decision to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, Lue traded with the Cavs he stopped abruptly in the 2018-19 campaign. He finished with a 128-83 regular season record and went 41-20 in the playoffs. Lue spent one season on the sideline with the Clippers as an assistant to Doc Rivers before being promoted to head coach ahead of the 2020-21 season.

From that point on, Lue compiled a 239-179 record with LA, leading the organization to the Western Conference Finals in his first year. Unfortunately, since then, the team has not advanced past the first round of the postseason. Additionally, the Clippers made the playoffs in four of the five years under his watch.

Lue’s experience with James and the Cavs left an indelible mark on his career and life, and he used it to become a better coach in the current situation.

“When I first started coaching, I thought I was going to be a sitting coach and just cross my legs and let it play out,” Lue said. “But as I saw in the first few games, it doesn’t work that way. I have to change and understand that you can’t do everything we did in Cleveland with your other teams. You don’t have the same personnel. You can’t play the same style of basketball. You can’t expect the same from everybody.”

“The biggest thing for me was being able to adapt and change my style of play to the team and personnel that you have.”

Hopefully, like The Clippers are going through a rough start to the 2025-26 seasonLue can draw on his knowledge from the past to help them get out of their rut.