Sources: Clippers want to sign coach Ty Lue to extension - ESPN

The LA Clippers are planning to pursue a contract extension with coach Tyronn Lue that will allow him to avoid entering the final year of his deal in 2025-26, sources told ESPN on Friday.

Lue is expected to be a target in the Los Angeles Lakers' coaching search and perhaps other looming vacancies.

The Clippers are trailing the Dallas Mavericks 3-2 in the Western Conference first-round playoff series, with Game 6 set for Friday (ESPN, 9:30 p.m. ET). However, the outcome of this postseason has no bearing on the Clippers' desire to keep Lue as the franchise's long-term coach, sources said. LA was 51-31 and the fourth seed in the Western Conference this season.

The Clippers have been without All-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard for most of the series with right knee inflammation, but the organization's goal remains to re-sign free agents Paul George and James Harden alongside Leonard, sources said.

The Lakers offered Lue their head-coaching job in 2019, but he turned it down when the sides couldn't agree on terms, sources said. After a year on Doc Rivers' Clippers staff that season, Lue ascended to the head job and led the Clippers to the franchise's first Western Conference finals berth in 2020-21.

The Clippers — who've suffered through numerous injuries to star players in Lue's tenure — have advanced to the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. The team has the NBA's sixth-best record since 2020-21 under Lue at 184-134, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Lue has spent much of his Clippers tenure adapting lineups and schemes to work around injuries to his stars. This season, Lue had to adjust a week into the regular season when the Clippers traded for Harden just three games into the season.

After the trade, the Clippers