MARK FEW WANTED Ty Lue to get some fresh air away from basketball at the Olympics. He kept trying to coax his fellow Team USA assistant coach to venture outside their Paris hotel this summer.

"He's in his comfortable little box," Few told ESPN earlier this month from the Summer Games. "I try to get him outside and get him to grow and see the rest of the world out there."

Lue, though, was broadening his horizons on basketball. When Lue wasn't coming up with schemes as Team USA's defensive coordinator to slow down Serbia's Nikola Jokic or France's Victor Wembanyama, he was also learning from some of the game's best coaches.

Over the past two summers with Team USA, Lue took note of head coach Steve Kerr's mastery of movement and ability to command a locker room with a measured voice -- traits that helped Kerr win four NBA Finals titles with the Golden State Warriors. Lue picked up on assistant Erik Spoelstra's trademark intense preparation that led to two titles with the Miami Heat. And Few got Lue, who thrives at making adjustments game to game, to see coaching through a one-and-done tournament approach that made Gonzaga an NCAA powerhouse.

Lue also spent an increasing amount of time with Jeff Van Gundy, who will now return to an NBA sideline for the first time in 17 years as Lue's top lieutenant and defensive coordinator with the LA Clippers.

Lue and Van Gundy, who has long been a Team USA staff member, dove deep into the Clippers over four dinners in France. They reviewed playsets, pick-and-roll and transition defensive schemes. They crunched the numbers on Van Gundy's research to improve the team's rebounding.

And when they weren't breaking French bread and X's and O's together, Lue and Van Gundy were found sitting side by side on several of the team's train trips to games.

"They were obviously so dialed into helping us with [USA Basketball]," Few said. "But then they'd be meeting on the side, eating or riding [together] somewhere. "Sometimes I would sit in and listen to them [talk Clippers] a little bit ..."They're both just basketball grinders, man."

After helping Team USA win gold, Lue (who led the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA title) says he is as energized as ever heading into his fifth season as Clippers head coach. He'll need to be at his best with All-Star forward Paul George now with the Philadelphia 76ers, and Kawhi Leonard's late-season knee injury -- which led to his replacement on Team USA's Olympic roster -- casting some doubt over whether the two-time Finals MVP can remain healthy.

After building a perennial contender around George and Leonard for the past five years, now the Clippers will try not to miss the postseason for just the third time in 14 seasons.

"When you lose a guy of Paul George's stature, instantly people [think] oh, they can't win or they're not going to be competitive," Lue told ESPN last week. "But that just challenges me even more. OK, people are counting us out or people don't think we're going to be good. That right there just gives me an extra dose of [motivation].

"I can't wait to prove everybody wrong."