PLAYA VISTA, CA – The 2022-23 NBA season was a whirlwind for the LA Clippers, and not many had to endure more than Robert Covington. The forward, who re-signed with the team in the summer of 2022, came in expecting a significant role on a team expected to contend for an NBA Championship. Instead, Covington was relegated to a bench role that he struggled to find his way out of.
Robert Covington was traded to the Clippers with Norman Powell a week before the 2022 trade deadline. He closed the year out strong for LA, but that didn't translate into much playing time. Covington appeared in 48 games for the Clippers last season, playing just 16.2 minutes per game. He finished with three games playing over 30 minutes and 15 games under 10 minutes.
“Last year was last year,” Covington told ClutchPoints in an exclusive interview this week. “I don't even think about it no more. This year, I put myself in a position to be a different type of player and do different things on the court, make myself more viable, and just let everything fall into place. I guess nothing that I've done differently, but I just just added more. Just a little bit more.”
The offseason is usually a time for players to vacation and work on their game, but not for Covington. Without getting too far into the intricacies of his private life, the Tennessee State alumni opened up and admitted he spent the majority of his offseason locked into a custody battle for his daughter.
“Truthfully, my offseason was spent fighting for her,” Covington smiled, looking down at her as he carried her with his left arm. “I won the first part of my case with her. And that's where the majority of my time was spent. I got the verdict July 31st, worked in my favor. And ever since then, that was the biggest thing that I focused on this summer. Working out and preparing for July 31st. And then once that happened, smooth sailing from there, like it's been a weight lifted off of.”
Covington missed Day 1 of Clippers training camp in Hawaii due to personal reasons involving his daughter. He was able to complete whatever he needed to after Media Day and met the team in Honolulu for Day 2 of camp.
The 6-foot-7 forward also admitted that he moved his family to Los Angeles this offseason, and even had his brother help him train in preparation for the 2023-24 NBA season.
“For the majority of the summer, no, I wasn't focused on basketball. I spent most of my time preparing for this. And I worked out significantly. I worked out enough to keep myself prepared for what I needed to do. That way, when I came, I felt like I came into what I wanted to come here. I've been here since July 30th because of things with the court order and everything. But been working out. I've been at home, me and my brother. My brother, I moved with my family here. My brother's been helping me in training when I'm not here. I've been looking great, man. I've been looking great.”
Despite not playing the role or the amount he expected to last season, Covington remained a professional throughout the Clippers season. In a March interview with ClutchPoints, Robert Covington said he was okay with the situation and ready whenever the team needed him, crediting his vets like Elton Brand, Jason Richardson, Carl Landry, and Josh Powell for showing him the path.
This past offseason, an interview of Covington was released, and among the quotes in the piece was one that stated he and Tyronn Lue had not spoken once since the season ended.
Funny how y’all can twist something I said lol I was specifically talking about having a convo about what happened last year.
— Robert Covington (@Holla_At_Rob33) August 13, 2023
“Me and Ty are great,” Covington told ClutchPoints when asked to clarify if they had spoken and about the status of their relationship. “There was no issue. My reason why I didn't talk to Ty was because I was more focused on [my daughter]. I didn't really talk to nobody here. If I wasn't here, I really didn't have that much conversation, Like I said, because my focus was elsewhere.
“There's no issues with me and nobody on this team. It never was, man. Somebody, the guy tried to create a narrative talking about that me and Ty Lue never talk, and that I don't plan on re-talking. No, that's not the case. We're great.”
Entering training camp, President of Basketball Operations Lawrence hinted that we could see a competition for the final spot in the Clippers' starting five. As of right now, Russell Westbrook will start alongside Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and Ivica Zubac.
Robert Covington, Marcus Morris, Nicolas Batum, and Terance Mann are all very potential candidates to start for the Clippers alongside the other four.
“I'll just go out and do what I know,” Covington explained. “The best man's gonna win at the end of the day. What they see when we had this camp, best man gonna win when it comes down to it. We're all gonna compete, we gonna have a great camp, and we gonna do what we have to do. And then, Ty Lue's gonna have to make a decision.”
At the end of each season, Lawrence Frank and head coach Tyronn Lue assign a ‘laundry list' of things they want a player to improve on. With the legal battle nearing its end and in favor of Covington, he says he's able to completely focus on basketball once again.
“Everybody's been loving what I've been doing. The way I've been playing, the way I've been working out, I've gotten a lot of good feedback. Everybody's seeing a different me from last summer.”
What is it that everybody going to see, exactly?
“They'll see someone that literally, you see the confidence, you see the work ethic, you see all the positive things that they didn't see coming into last summer when I came back. There was a lot of uncertainty in my face, there was a lot of body language and everything that's different just because of the stuff that I had on my mind. It's completely different this year.”
The Clippers will tip off their preseason opener on Sunday, October 8th against the Utah Jazz at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. They'll face the Jazz again two days later on October 10th in Seattle, Washington. Their two remaining preseason games after that, both against the Denver Nuggets, will come on October 17th and 19th.
Los Angeles opens the 2023-24 regular season on Wednesday, October 24th against Robert Covington's former team: the Portland Trail Blazers.
“Last year was frustrating for a lot of reasons, but once I was able to get through all the stuff that I went through over summer and once I got ahold of this little girl, all that stuff went away.”
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