The Clippers Crashout and Where They Go From Here

On the Clippers 5-15 start, why history says they're unlikely to salvage this season, the case for trading the veterans for draft picks and young players, and the trade market for their top players.

The Clippers have been impossible to predict in the past two seasons. Many expected them to miss the playoffs after losing Paul George in 2024 free agency. That worked out to their advantage as not re-signing him gave them more flexibility to field a deeper roster. The result was a 50-win season, 14.5 more than their preseason odds, and a playoff appearance where they nearly advanced to the second round.

2025 has been turbulent for the Clippers, to say the least. They went into the offseason looking to build upon their successful 2024-25 season by getting deeper and bigger. But they also got older. The roster they put together had the oldest expected rotation in NBA history, and their play thus far has shown it.

The Clippers were expected to remain competitive this year. Instead, they’re off to a shocking 5-15 start and rank 24th in net rating. The most concerning difference between this season and the last is their defense. They went from the 3rd-ranked defense last season to 24th without losing any of their top defenders.

It felt like their defense should’ve at least remained in the top-10 after adding defensive personnel. They most notably signed Brook Lopez with their mid-level exception. He is now out of the rotation, having accrued three consecutive DNP-CDs. He hasn’t been able to make an impact defensively and is shooting just 40 percent from the field.

Depth and health have also been major issues for the Clippers. They’ve struggled to field a formidable lineup outside their starters. Their most reliable reserve, Derrick Jones Jr., is out for multiple weeks with a sprained knee.

The biggest difference between this and last season is the loss of Norman Powell for John Collins. They were able to replace Powell with Bradley Beal with the remainder of their MLE. The idea was that they probably didn’t expect Powell to replicate his production from last season, so Beal, at a discounted rate, would suffice. He was a non-factor to start the year and is now out for the remainder of the season with a fractured hip.

Powell was incredibly important for the Clippers last season and garnered All-Star consideration. He shot just under 42 percent from the three-point line for the season, averaging 7 attempts per game, and at one point was shooting above 44 percent on a high volume. He’s currently off to a hot start for the Heat, shooting at that rate.

The one silver lining for their season is that James Harden is still producing offensively at an All-Star level at Year 17. However, they’ve struggled to get scoring from other parts of their roster. In their five wins, four of them involved them scoring 126 points or more. Unless they pick things up defensively, they’ll need to rely on unsustainably high-scoring games to eke out a win.

The next 4-6 weeks will be critical for the direction of the Clippers franchise, and history is not on their side. 5-15 is a terrible start that will be incredibly difficult to recover from. Few teams that started this poorly made the playoffs, and even fewer had meaningful success.

The most notable were the 1978 Sonics, who reached the Finals after a coaching change, and the 2004 Heat, as Dwyane Wade progressed during his rookie season. However, the big difference is that the Clippers do not have the upside of a young player who could dramatically improve their fortunes.

Things could still get worse. One of the biggest stories of the season is the potential for the Clippers to convey a lottery pick to the reigning champions Thunder. They do not have control of their first-round picks until 2030 since they owe a 2027 swap to the Thunder, a 2028 first-round pick to the Sixers, and a 2029 swap to the Sixers.

And that’s before we get a resolution on their salary cap circumvention investigation. The Clippers could lose even more draft picks if evidence is discovered proving they used a shell company to pay Kawhi Leonard under the table. They could still trade future first-round picks starting in 2030, but that seems like a non-starter given the uncertainty of the situation.

It doesn’t seem like the situation on the court is going to get better without the means to make significant personnel changes. It’s getting to the point where they need to prepare for the worst scenario possible and explore trading their top players. It might just be over for this iteration of the Clippers.

Where does a team with few pathways to competitiveness and fewer paths to young talent turn to? It can’t be a full-scale rebuild since they won’t reap the benefits of their own draft pick. But they should bring in younger players they could build around. It’s possible the infusion of youth could result in a more competitive product.

Fortunately for them, they’ve already been preparing for this possibility by limiting their long-term salary obligations. They could pivot away from this group rather quickly. They need to start looking ahead to the next era of Clippers basketball.