"Chris Paul's bizarre Clippers release reportedly fueled by awful relationship with coach Ty Lue

"Chris Paul's bizarre Clippers release reportedly fueled by awful relationship with coach Ty Lue originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

To say that the Los Angeles Clippers’ season has been disappointing would be a massive understatement. From the reports of Kawhi Leonard getting a no-show job to circumvent the salary cap to the team dropping 14 of their last 16 games, including five in a row, to now parting ways with Chris Paul in the middle of the night.

Paul shared on Instagram Stories that the team told him to go home. He won’t be a part of the team going forward, and he’ll now have to find another organization for his final season in the league.

According to a report by ESPN insider Shams Charania, this wasn’t much of a surprise. If anything, his leadership style had robbed plenty of people the wrong way, including coach Tyronn Lue.

Chris Paul and Tyronn Lue weren’t on speaking terms

“Chris Paul and his leadership style clashed with the Clippers, sources tell ESPN. Paul has been vocal in holding management, coaches and players accountable, which the team felt became disruptive. Specifically: Ty Lue was not on speaking terms with Paul for several weeks,” Charania reported.

Paul has always been known for his strong leadership. He’s the type of player who’s going to hold everybody accountable and tell it as it is, and that has ruffled some feathers throughout the course of his career.

He reportedly didn’t get along with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan during the early days of the Lob City era, and the latter bumped heads with James Harden in Houston.

Harden is back in the locker room, but it’s hard to believe the Clippers would’ve ever agreed to bring Paul back if he wasn’t on board with that.

And, with the team falling to 5-16 for the season and the 13th spot in the Western Conference, it only makes sense that a future Hall of Famer who’s been a winner wherever he’s played tries to shake things up in the locker room.

With Kawhi Leonard struggling to stay on the floor and everything that has transpired, it’s hard to envision a way to salvage this Clippers’ season, and they don’t even have any incentives to tank because the Oklahoma City Thunder own their first-round pick from the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trade.

As for Chris Paul, there should still be a market for him in the final stretch of his career, even if his 2.9 points and 3.3 assists per game on 32.1 percent shooting haven’t necessarily been impressive.