NBA: Top 5 moves that raised teams’ title ceilings

No. 4: Tyronn Lue hired as Clippers’ head coach

Any time you fire a coach with a championship pedigree in Doc Rivers you are taking a risk. When your replacement happens to have also won an NBA Title, you feel a bit better about that.

Tyronn Lue was absolutely what the Clippers needed to take the next step as an organization. He helped coach the Clippers to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in their history, despite facing two 0-2 deficits in the first two rounds.

In the playoffs, his mid-series adjustments were crucial to the Clippers’ turnaround. Facing an 0-2 deficit in their first-round series, Lue decided to insert Reggie Jackson into the starting lineup. Jackson then averaged 18.2 points per game on 46.2 percent field goal shooting the rest of the series and the Clippers won four of the next five games.

Facing the same 0-2 deficit in the next series, Lue inserted Batum in the starting lineup at center, making Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert decide whether or not to come out to defend the 3 or stay in the paint. The Clippers proceeded to shoot 41.8 percent from 3-point range in the next four games, all wins, to steal the series from the Jazz despite star Kawhi Leonard having a season-ending injury in Game 4.

The Clippers ended up falling short in the Western Conference Finals to the Suns four games to two, but put up a tremendous fight, losing Games 1, 2, and 4 by a combined 11 points. In the end, the Clippers simply were gassed after losing their best player and playing 19 playoff games in 39 days.

Doc Rivers infamously blew a 3-1 lead for the third time as head coach last year and is now 34.1 percent in Game 7’s. Tyronn Lue, on the other hand, is undefeated in game 7 (4-0) and only lost three games facing elimination (10-3). Lue was the spark the Clippers needed.