The Los Angeles Clippers remade their roster around their trio of stars this summer, adding Brook Lopez, John Collins, Bradley Beal and Chris Paul to put a number of capable veterans into their rotation. In the process, however, they have pushed out a player who did a lot for the franchise over the past few seasons.
One of the high points of an up-and-down half-decade for the Clippers came in January of 2022. The Clippers were playing without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and fell behind by 35 points. Then LA came roaring back to steal the win, the largest comeback in franchise history, led in scoring by third-year guard Amir Coffey.
Coffey joined the Clippers on a two-way contract after going undrafted and has spent his entire six-year career with the franchise. His role has been yanked around depending on the roster around him, but he has continued to provide solid production, be it as a fill-in starter or a backup guard on a team that was always dealing with injuries.
Last season was his best. He averaged a career-high 9.7 points per game on elite efficiency, shooting 40.9 percent from deep and 89.1 percent from the free-throw line. He is a solid defender and has the size at 6'7" to match up with multiple positions. He would have made sense to bring back in another reserve role, especially if his market stayed down near the minimum.
That is not what happened.
The Clippers cannot bring back Amir Coffey
The Clippers have been wheeling and dealing this summer. They flipped Norman Powell for John Collins, taking on money, and then added Bradley Beal to replace Powell. They signed Brook Lopez to a two-year contract and agreed to a new deal with James Harden.
Add it all up, and the Clippers could only offer one more veteran minimum to fill out their roster. That could have gone to Coffey, but instead the team is bringing back franchise legend Chris Paul. That move makes a lot of sense, as the Clippers needed another ball-handler, but it leaves them thin on the wing - and with no money left under the first apron to address that.
Coffey, therefore, must find a new landing spot. A number of teams should be interested in his services; he isn't going to turn into a star, but he can admirably fill a role for another team.
The Clippers have to hope they don't regret investing so heavily in either end of the roster and ignoring the center. They have Kawhi Leonard, of course, but he won't play every game and will need to slide down to power forward some of the time. The same goes for Nic Batum, who is much more of a 4-sometimes-5 than a small forward at this point in his career.
That leaves Derrick Jones Jr. to fill the gap, and otherwise someone will be playing out of position one way or the other. Amir Coffey was often that player to step up in years past; now that he will be seeking a home elsewhere, the Clippers need to find other solutions moving forward.