Navigating an Uncertain Clippers Summer - 2026 Offseason Preview

On the Clippers' upcoming offseason, key player decisions, weighing cap space path vs being over the cap, and the case for trading Kawhi Leonard independently of the Aspiration investigation.

The Clippers just endured one of the most volatile seasons in recent history. They were expected to compete for a playoff spot with one of the oldest rotations ever assembled. Instead, they flopped out of the gate and started 6-21. They then pulled off one of the better in-season turnarounds in recent memory, finishing just over .500 despite making trades that arguably made them worse.

Their season also started on the wrong foot for off-court reasons. The Clippers are currently under NBA investigation for potentially circumventing the salary cap to pay Kawhi Leonard millions of dollars under the table. They have cooperated and consistently denied the allegations, but their short-term plans remain up in the air as they await the results. Their long-term outlook is also at stake if the league ultimately imposes penalties such as lost draft picks or even voiding his contract.

Either way, the Clippers have plenty of flexibility and ways to upgrade the roster. They’ll likely operate like a team with nothing to lose, partly because they already have little incentive to rebuild since they don’t control their own draft picks through the end of the decade. At the same time, they’ll need to balance that aggression with some risk mitigation in case they do face a worst-case outcome.

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Salary cap situation

The Clippers are entering the 2026 offseason with a very fluid salary cap situation. They have 14 players under contract totaling $171.8 million in salary, including the 5th overall pick in the 2026 Draft. They’re far enough below the $209.1 million first apron to use several roster-building mechanisms to improve the team. That will likely remain the threshold they operate around, since they don’t mind paying the luxury tax.

Teams operating above the salary cap and below the first apron can increase payroll quickly with additions. They can use expanded trade exceptions to take back more salary in a trade than they send out, acquire a free agent via sign-and-trade, use the $15 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception, and use the $5.5 million bi-annual exception. They would also be able to sign a player waived midseason who was earning the $15 million mid-level exception or more, which is something they’ve benefited from recently.

The Clippers are also in a position to open cap space instead. They have players on team options who, if declined, could leave them far enough below the $165 million salary cap to create meaningful room. They have until the end of June to decide whether they need that cap space, since that’s when those team option decisions are due.

They would still be able to use expanded trade exceptions and acquire free agents via sign-and-trade after using their cap space, but they wouldn’t have access to the bi-annual exception. Their $15 million mid-level exception would also shrink to the $9.3 million room mid-level exception, which can be used to sign a player for up to three years and $28 million. It can also be used to trade for a player earning up to that amount or less, as long as he has no more than three years left on his contract.

The Clippers positioned themselves for maximum cap space in the 2025 offseason by limiting all of their free agent signings to two-year deals. Most either came with a team option in the second year or, in James Harden’s case, a partial guarantee that still gave them significant flexibility if waived. They could have created as much as $50 million in 2026 cap space to pursue an All-Star.

That plan probably changed at the trade deadline. Their acquisition of Darius Garland, while giving them a better player than one they could realistically have signed in free agency, also wiped out a meaningful chunk of their cap space. They can now generate up to $30 million, but doing so would also require renouncing the cap holds for all of their free agents. Not only would they lose several players on team options to access that room, but they would also be sacrificing the Bird rights to Bennedict Mathurin and John Collins.

The issues with pursuing cap space are the same for the Clippers as they are for most other teams this summer. The opportunity cost of creating $30 million in room, which isn’t all that much by today’s standards, may not be worth it. Most of the best free agents are also guards. The Clippers already have a crowded backcourt, assuming they retain Mathurin and use the 5th overall pick on a guard.

There is a path to creating maximum cap space while retaining Mathurin, but it would likely require trading Leonard. Moving off his $50 million salary for major savings could give them even more room while still factoring in a new starting salary for Mathurin. That would make sense if they want to pursue a top unrestricted free agent like Austin Reaves or make a competitive offer sheet to a top restricted free agent like Jalen Duren.

The possibility of a Leonard trade remains separate from whether they operate as a cap space team. But even if they do move him, they’re unlikely to create the type of savings needed to make that scenario possible. It would likely require a complicated multi-team deal where they take back minimal salary, or sending him to a cap-space team like the Lakers, where they wouldn’t need to take back anyone. That path also seems unlikely, since they’d presumably want good players in return to remain competitive.