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Clippers 2024-2025 Player Preview: Amir Coffey
Our player preview series for the 2025 Clippers continues with Amir Coffey, their long-time reserve wing.
Basic Information
Height: 6’7
Weight: 210 pounds
Position: Small forward/Shooting guard
Age: 27
Years in NBA: 5
Regular Season Stats: 6.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.6 steals, and 0.5 turnovers in 20.9 minutes per game across 70 games played (13 starts) on 47.2/38.0/85.9 shooting splits with 60.4% TS
Playoff Stats: 2.8 points, 1.7 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.8 turnovers in 18.7 minutes per game across 6 games played (3 starts) on 31.8/27.3/0 shooting splits with 38.6% TS
Contract Status: In the last year of a 3 year, $11M deal, making $3.9M this year
Expectations
Expectations for Amir Coffey are very reasonable at this stage
of his career. He will come off the bench as the 8th to 10th
man in the rotation, play 18-22 minutes per game, and overall be a reliable
contributor. Amir will rarely have awesome games, but he also almost never
actively harms the Clippers, which means he’s overall well-liked by the
fanbase. Despite the starting lineup being somewhat up in the air, Amir is not
being considered as a potential starter, meaning expectations are not too high.
We all know what to expect from Amir, which is a good thing.
Strengths
Amir Coffey can do a bit of everything. He’s a career 37.3% three-point shooter (albeit on low 2.2 attempts per game volume), can handle the ball a bit, is capable of making plays for others (1.8 assists in 2022 season), is a competent defender across multiple positions, and is an excellent finisher near the rim. He’s not bulky for a guy of his size, but his height and athleticism means he can fill in at multiple positions and thus unlocks some different lineups. That type of versatility has real value.
Amir is also an overall steady player. He’s not always the most heads-up passer on the break, but will usually make the right pass and decision and does not turn the ball over. He’s also been largely healthy in his NBA career, with his lower games totals being more of a result of coaches going away from him rather than injury. On the Clippers, just being available a lot of the time is valuable, and that has been the case with Amir, especially in the injury-plagued 2022 season.
Weaknesses
The problem with being a jack of all trades is you’re usually a master of none. So it is with Amir Coffey, who is decent in many areas, but who you can’t comfortably say is a “good” defender, scorer, playmaker, or shooter at the NBA level. That is part of the reason why he has never had the firm confidence of the coaching staff – when the Clippers have been lacking in those areas, the coaches have usually turned to someone who is more of a proven specialist in those facets. The Clippers will need scoring and playmaking this year, and while Amir might add more of those qualities than say Nic Batum or Mo Bamba, he’s also not someone who the Clips can really turn to.
If you had to point to one thing that Amir struggles at, it’s rebounding. For a guy with pretty good size and solid athleticism, Amir just is not a good rebounder. He’s never cracked 3 rebounds per game on average and is usually the worst rebounder on the Clippers by percentage-based stats. Due to the Clippers’ roster construction issues over the past few years, Amir has frequently logged minutes in size-deprived second-units, and his challenges with rebounding have contributed to the Clippers’ struggles there. It’s not a deal breaker for a reserve, but the lack of rebounding from guards has been frustrating.
Summary
Amir Coffey is the fourth-longest tenured player on the Clippers
behind Zu, Mann, and Kawhi, and remains somewhere in the rotation going into this
season. However, his deal being on its last year and the Clippers being in a
transitionary phase means that Amir might well be on the move this season. If the
Clippers are disappointing, they could certainly flip Amir for a second round
pick or two, or a younger prospect with some more upside. It is of course quite
possible that the Clippers extend Amir (though this has not been rumored at
all) or re-sign him next summer, and Amir continues being a well-liked role
player, but chances have never been higher that he will be on another team in a
year’s time.