LOS ANGELES – Before the newest Clippers took the court as Clippers for the first time, they went to dinner with their new head coach to get know one another – and come to find out, Norman Powell, Robert Covington and the Clippers already have a lot in common.

“Well, Chauncey ran a lot of my stuff in Portland,” said Coach Tyronn Lue with a chuckle, noting that his good friend and former assistant Chauncey Billups borrowed plenty from his playbook as he set out as a head coach for the first time this season.

“Me and Chauncey, we run a lot of the same stuff,” Lue said. “Pretty much the same system, especially early offensive stuff. And so they just talked at dinner last night … ‘We understand what we’re looking for.’ The biggest thing is those guys getting comfortable and understand who they’re playing with on the floor and picking and choosing their spots.”

What’s more, Lue’s familiarity with Powell – who arrived in L.A. with Covington on Saturday, the day after the trade that sent point guard Eric Bledsoe, forward Justise Winslow, guard Keon Johnson and a 2025 second-round pick to Portland  – extends past the playbook.

The coach said he got to know Powell, the 28-year-old wing who starred at UCLA, through Kyle Lowry – Lue’s pal and Powell’s former Toronto Raptors teammate. What’s more, Lue said, he and Powell both live in Las Vegas in the offseason.

MANNING THE POINT

While the Clippers’ newest additions were beginning a not-too-steep acclimation process, so too was Terance Mann. Without Bledsoe on the roster, the third-year wing was going to be tasked with playing backup point guard – as he had as a rookie.

Last season – Mann’s second – was a breakout campaign for the versatile 25-year-old. He earned a two-year, $22 million extension with his performance throughout the season and in the postseason, when his 39-point eruption in Game 6 of the Clippers’ Western Conference second-round series lifted the Clippers into their first Western Conference finals appearance in team history.

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Mann said he prides himself on being able to handle a variety of roles and responsibilities, offensively and defensively, but Lue said last season that he thought Mann’s giant step was attributable to the fact he didn’t have to handle the point any longer.

“With Terance, the biggest thing is just turning him loose, just letting him be a basketball player,” Lue said last March. “Not trying to make him a point guard, even though he has great passing ability. I think if you go to the NBA from college never playing the position, I think he did a lot of thinking on the floor, just trying to play mistake-free basketball.

“Now we’ve got him off the basketball, he’s able to rebound and push and attack off the second side, he’s able to create and just play basketball and play free and I think that’s helped with his development as well.”

This time around, Lue said the second-string point guard duties wouldn’t entirely fall on Mann, that he’d share the role with Powell and Amir Coffey.

“Doc had him playing backup point guard when he was here,” Lue said. “So he has some experience doing it, so we’re just gonna have to help him out, it’s gonna take a little time for him, we understand that, so we gotta be patient.”