Robert Covington feels like he has a lot to prove to the Clippers after being kept out of the rotation for nearly all of last season, writes Law Murray of The Athletic.
The 32-year-old forward appeared in just 48 games and averaged 16.2 minutes per night, the lowest total since his rookie season. He doesn’t understand why he spent so much time on the bench, adding that he hasn’t talked to head coach Tyronn Lue since the playoffs ended.
L.A. was Covington’s fifth team in four years when the Clippers acquired him shortly before the 2022 trade deadline. He became the primary backup at power forward and believed the fit was so good that he didn’t test free agency, opting for a two-year extension with L.A. instead.
Covington had a regular role at the beginning of last season while starting center Ivica Zubac was injured. But after entering health and safety protocols at the end of October, Covington didn’t see consistent playing time again. He was expecting to be traded before the February deadline, Murray adds, but he remained on the roster, although he was stuck behind Marcus Morris and Nicolas Batum. Even when Paul George and Kawhi Leonard were sidelined with late-season injuries, Lue didn’t insert Covington back into the rotation.
“I got a vendetta. It’s a bigger chip on my shoulder,” Covington said of his approach to the upcoming season. “Not playing that much last year really put me in a place — all right. I got to force them. So, come back, do what I got to do. They say this is the mentality of, you know, come back strong, get better. That way, it won’t be none of that. Won’t be no issues of, whatever the case. … It’s the way the year went. It wasn’t how I expected, but I said it’s come back, go to the drawing board, and get better.”
Covington addresses a few other topics in his interview with Murray. Here are some highlights:
On getting ready to enter another season with an expiring contract:
“It ain’t no difference. Only difference is that I didn’t play last year. I mean, that’s the only difference. I approach every chance, every opportunity like that —it’s no different. So my mentality don’t shift, I don’t get discouraged or anything. I got to do what I do. And I do what I do best. So I’m never going to stray away. Never going to stray away from anything of that nature. I am going to be who I am, and that’s just what it is.”
On whether there was anything to learn from spending so much time on the bench:
“I didn’t take nothing from last year. Last year didn’t go how I expected, so I didn’t take nothing from it. I just wash it away and start over, a new year. That’s just my mentality of it. … It’s nothing that could be talked about. I mean, I really haven’t had much feedback besides, you know, what I’ve been doing now. I haven’t talked about last year. I’ve put that behind me and focused on right now and moving forward. That’s what it’s all about. Can’t dwell on what happened last year, whatever the case may be. It happened. So I’m just gonna wash, move forward.”
On his early impressions of offseason additions Kenyon Martin Jr., Jordan Miller and Kobe Brown, along with other workout partners such as Bones Hyland and Brandon Boston Jr.:
“Those guys are going to be special. I like Jordan’s tenacity, his pressure on defense, I like his cutting off ball. I like the plays and reads he made. The other guys came up here and played really well. You know, BB is starting to get better. Bones is getting better. KJ is athletic as hell. He’s gotten so much better. It is great to sit up here and see them dudes sit up here and prosper.”
Their roster just doesn’t make any sense. They need to package a few of these wings together and get a true playmaker or a versatile center
Zubac is the best Center possible for their system. Doesn’t need the ball much, but still a walking double-double who can protect the rim and paint at a high level. And Russ is a good fit as a playmaker. He showed last season that his drive-and-kick game can still play up with actual shooters and cutters, which the Clips have a bunch of.
Zubac is not a versatile defender. Good rim protector but centers need to be able to close out on the 3 in the modern nba and Russ can’t shoot. Both can easily be upgraded and need to be if they want to compete with the top tier teams
What you’re talking about are major upgrades that the Clippers can’t afford. Realistically, unless the Clippers get Philly to send them Harden for peanuts and expired contracts, their roster isn’t changing much.
RoCo can small-ball when they need him to, and can switch to contest shooters. But otherwise, the Clippers tend to match up with wings and rely on their Centers to protect the paint. Which is why the have so many of them.
With Russ, the shooting isn’t bad enough to derail his role with the team, and they have Hyland behind him. He’s still got enough rim pressure and passing chops to elevate the Clips roleplayers.
Clippers run offense off the elbow ( w F”s) not outta a pgs hands
Only reason Russ had the ball so much was due to Kl/ Pg injs
If both healthy I highly doubt Russ even sniffs the closing unit at all. They are not looking fir Rw/ Bones (?) to run a prototypical Pg offense
Normally you’d be right about Zubac and his versatility but with the Clippers I don’t think it’s as necessary because when they are at full strength they have three of the best wing defenders in the league in Batum, Leonard and George.
If Covington didn’t learn anything last year, it’s no wonder he is no longer in the rotation.
It’s not like he’s a rookie or anything. I don’t have an issue with that take from him. He’s a better fit for the Clips system than Morris already, so it’s not like he has to modify his game to fit the roster.
The only thing to learn was that you can be better than Marcus Morris and Batum yet not get any playing time anyway. Roco was the exact same Roco he was in the past. It never made sense.
The two injury prone super stars,George and Leonard, are the ones with something to prove. Taking up 80 million plus in cap space playing half the schedule. Covington and company are what they were,mid level parts unless these two step up healthy.
Dudes weird af for not talking to the coach if it bothered him that he wasn’t getting minutes after the season. Unless hes afaid if he voices his opinion he gets traded which i dont think hes in control of that anyhow so he should at least be on the same page as his coach.
It ain’t Little League. There’s generally only one reason a professional HC doesn’t play a guy. He doesn’t believe the guy gives the team the best chance to win games. At this level, a HC shouldn’t have to explain that, particularly to a veteran player.
If a player wants to better understand a HC’s reasoning, perhaps he could initiate a discussion, but I don’t think that’s very often the case. I think players know how their HC thinks, and, whether or not they agree with it, I think they know they’re unlikely to win minutes via a coach-player debate. There are practices, and lots of chances to engage on the things that matter. A younger player that’s new to the team might create a different dynamic, but that’s largely about the player’s development going forward.
This was my point, but in fewer words. Guess it needed more precise explanation.
He should go to a different team