Underrated 2025 Free Agents: Amir Coffey Is The NBA's Best Kept Secret

Forbes

28-05-2025

INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 04: Amir Coffey #7 of the LA Clippers celebrates his basket and a ... More foul from Dyson Daniels #5 of the Atlanta Hawks during the first half at Intuit Dome on January 04, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by) USER IS NOT PERMITTED TO DOWNLOAD OR USE IMAGE WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL.NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by)
With the 2024-25 season nearing its conclusion, it is time to start looking ahead to the offseason. In this article series, we will take a look at under-the-radar options in the 2025 Free Agency Pool. For the sake of simplicity, we are going to focus primarily on unrestricted free agents.
In their grueling seven-game series with the Denver Nuggets, the Los Angeles Clippers played nine guys meaningful minutes. None of those minutes were allocated to Amir Coffey, though. Heck, Coffey didn't even check in during garbage time, making him the only active player not to see a single second of action in that series.
So, why on Earth is Coffey being coined as 'The NBA's Best Kept Secret?"
Before the All-Star break, Coffey was a fixture in the Clippers' rotation – averaging 25.9 minutes per game (51 games). However, after a busy trade deadline, Coffey started to fall in the depth chart, getting just 20.1 MPG after the break (21 games). He averaged a season-low 18.9 MPG during the month of March.
This wasn't because Coffey was bad. Rather, the reinforcements the Clippers added were just really good (his untimely knee injury didn't help matters either). All nine of the guys who played ahead of him were consistent starters/high-level bench players as recently as 2023-24.
Specifically, the Clippers had a logjam on the wings. Kawhi Leonard and Bogdan Bogdanovic were obviously going to play. And then they also had to fit in Kris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr. – the former being one of the best perimeter defenders on the planet (99th percentile Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus), and the latter was fresh off starting every playoff game for the 2024 Western Conference Champion Dallas Mavericks. That's all without mentioning Nicolas Batum – one of the most reliable complimentary players of the last decade-plus.
As for not playing garbage time, that was likely a sign of respect from head coach Tyronn Lue and his staff – not wanting Coffey to pick up an unnecessary injury that could mitigate his earning potential in free agency.
Being stuck in one of the most crowded wing/forward rooms in the entire league shouldn't be held against Coffey. When he did get an opportunity, he proved to be a quality two-way role player in his own right.
In his career, Coffey has taken 800 3-pointers and converted on 38.4% of them. He's also hit 83.7% of his free throws. Those are two promising indicators of his aptitude for spacing the floor for his high-usage teammates.
Coffey is also a good midrange shooter (78th percentile efficiency in 2024-25), which gives him a legitimate counter to when teams try to deploy the fly-by closeout against him. This makes his lack of a true drive game far more palatable.
Defensive impact metrics like DEF EPM don't look too fondly upon Coffey. However, Coffey is an athletic wing with good size (6'8), and it seems that he excels in areas that are harder for stats like EPM to pick up on.
According to BBall Index, Coffey's 2024-25 season ranks in the 96th percentile in their database in Off-Ball Chaser Defense (chasing guys around off-ball screens) and the 93rd percentile in Overall Coverage Versatility.
Amir Coffey.
He may not generate a ton of steals or blocks, but it does seem like Coffey is a valuable team defender. At the very least, he is an average defender for his position.
Imagine how much better off a team like the Los Angeles Lakers or Golden State Warriors would have been with a wing they could trust to hit shots and be a neutral on defense. A player like Coffey would have easily garnered 15-20 minutes of playing time per game on either of their playoff rotations.
Based on reporting around the situation, it seems improbable that the Clippers will try to retain Coffey, which means that he'll be a free agent in every sense of the term this offseason.
By using my formula for estimating production value, Coffey looks like a player who should get roughly 2.7 million dollars in 2025-26. That is right around the veteran minimum for a player of his level of experience (2.9 million).
There is a chance that a team that really sees the vision with Coffey offers him something close to the Bi-Annual Exception (5.1 million), but given how he fell out of the rotation and how tight money is under the new CBA, it seems unlikely that he signs for much more than that.
Regardless, Coffey is a low-end starter/high-level bench player that one lucky team is going to land for pennies on the dollar. Now, it's all about which NBA team identifies this diamond hidden in the rough first.