Anonymous NBA Scout Not Sold on Clippers’ New Era With Darius Garland, Brandon Ingram: ‘Just Not a Big Fan’

Darius Garland is the best player on the Clippers remaining after the Kawhi Leonard trade. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

• Editor’s Note: For the upcoming Sports Illustrated 2026–27 basketball preview magazine that will hit newsstands in October, SI spoke to anonymous scouts around the NBA about all 30 teams.

It’s been quite an eventful September for the Clippers, you could say. But with the NBA’s punishment for cap circumvention handed down and the Kawhi Leonard trade executed, the hubbub will finally die down—giving us all the opportunity to look forward to what this season will look like in Los Angeles as the franchise moves forward from another scandal.

For the 2026–27 season, the roster will be led by veterans Darius Garland and Brandon Ingram. The pair have plenty of NBA experience and four All-Star selections between them. Joining them this season will be Keaton Wagler, the sixth pick of the 2026 NBA draft out of Illinois who may end up the highest-drafted Clippers player for some time in light of the harsh penalties imposed by the league for the Leonard situation. Los Angeles also added Max Strus and Rui Hachimura this offseason while bringing back Bradley Beal; Brook Lopez’s team option was picked up so he’ll be holding down the middle yet again.

What kind of team does that add up to? One that will be “interesting” if anything, an anonymous scout told Sports Illustrated.

“The Clippers are going to be interesting to watch,” the scout said. “(But) I’m not sure there will be any easy answers for them.”

Ingram marks the biggest offseason addition as the centerpiece of the Leonard trade, coming off his second All-Star campaign in which he averaged 21.5 points per game as the Raptors’ primary scorer. Entering his 10th NBA season, though, the book is out on his strengths and weaknesses.

“I'm not a big Brandon Ingram fan,” the scout told SI. “I know he had some good games last year, but he backed into the All-Star Game and he has a lot of flaws. I'm just not a big fan of him. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I don't think he's the kind of guy you can just run all the actions for, get him all the shots. He's a more complimentary guy just because you look at him, you see his size and his length. I’m not really sold on him.

“The bigger the matchup, probably, the better for him. The bigger guy that's guarding him, I think it's a more favorable matchup for him. He can get into his actions out of the corner, and it's harder for guys to stay with his shiftiness. ... If he's the focal point, I think it's going to be trouble (for the Clippers), because now you're actually putting energy into determining how to best guard him, how to shut him down. If he was the third or fourth option, maybe that would be a way for him to thrive. But if you go into that scouting report and you're worried about Garland and him, I think it's going to be tough for (Ingram) to put the team on his back and win a game.”

• Anonymous scouts break down the Pacific Division: Lakers | Warriors | Kings | Suns | Clippers

Speaking of, Garland was acquired in exchange for James Harden at the deadline last year. The 26-year-old point guard is a jitterbug of a scorer with tremendous handles, but he’s the smallest player on the floor more often than not—which makes defense a battle for himself and his teammates.

“Garland can get downhill; he can play in the pick-and-roll,” said the anonymous NBA scout. “I think he's a big liability on defense because of his size. I don't think his offense is good enough to make up for that in terms of being a winning player. He's been hurt a lot, which is not a good sign either when you're a small guard.

“Pick-and-roll, he's going to need a good screener. He's going to be a score-first guy in the pick-and-roll, so a big body screener would be great for him. If they don't have that, I think it's going to be trouble for him, too, to get his own shot and do enough offensively to carry them.”

This time last year, that big body would have been Ivica Zubac. But he, too, was traded halfway through the year. In his wake the Clippers are set to enter the year with Lopez as the only established talent at the center position. At 38 years old, can he still get the job done?

“Lopez was that kind of guy. But what is he now?” the scout said to SI. “He definitely is a smart guy and a big body. He's not going to roll. Can he play enough minutes where it's enough reps or enough possessions in a game to make a difference? I don't know.”

Offseason recap

Kawhi Leonard is gone, and Brandon Ingram has arrived. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

• Who’s in: Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, Max Strus, Keaton Wagler, Rui Hachimura
• Who’s out: Kawhi Leonard, John Collins, Bennedict Mathurin, Nic Batum

The big story of L.A’s offseason was obviously the NBA finding the franchise guilty of cap circumvention and doling out discipline that will include five first-round picks stripped from the Clippers between 2028 and 2033. But the roster turned over quite a bit besides that, coming after two big midseason trades that sent former cornerstones to different teams.

• NEXT: Anonymous NBA Scout: Here’s What Will Give the Lakers ‘Trouble’ This Season

The Leonard era is over, Collins is gone after a one-year stint and Mathurin (acquired as part of the Zubac trade) wound up walking for nothing in free agency. Between the draft, free agency and trade market, the Clips added four brand-new rotation players (possibly five if Dick gets run) who will soak up quite a few minutes next season for head coach Ty Lue.

The NBA’s penalties make Los Angeles’s future quite uncertain indeed. This season will be when the organization figures out which players should be prioritized in the long-term.

SI’s prediction for the 2026–27 Clippers

• Record: 30-52

The Clippers have lost a ton of talent in the last 12 months, and the organization’s structure was thrown into disarray by the cap circumvention investigation, which resulted in a year-long ban of owner Steve Ballmer from all NBA-related activities and a six-month suspension for basketball operations Lawrence Frank. Incalculable bad vibes aside, that combination of factors doesn’t exactly set the organization up for success this season.

• NEXT: NBA Championship Power Rankings: How Kawhi Leonard Trade Impacts Raptors’ Outlook As Contender

L.A. is set to tumble down the standings the moment one of the top-six rotation players gets hurt—whether it’s Garland’s toe issues acting up again, Ingram dealing with foot or ankle injuries once more, or age finally coming for Beal and/or Lopez. And even if every little thing goes right, the roster doesn’t have the talent or depth to finish with more than 40 wins. Given things haven’t gone right for the Clippers lately (or ever), a bottom-five finish in the West feels like a safe bet.

The franchise has to take its medicine after the disastrous Kawhi era, and this will be the first dose.

---

Listen to SI’s NBA podcast, Open Floor, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.