Clippers Need to Stop Deluding Themselves and Blow It Up

It's time to hit the reset button in Los Angeles.

Oct 24, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden (1) and forward Kawhi Leonard (2) Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks (3) in the second half against the Phoenix Suns at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Clippers are at rock bottom.

It's debatable which singular moment signified that -- whether that'd be getting thoroughly routed in Miami, sending franchise legend Chris Paul out the door the way they did, or the calamity of a defeat that was Thursday's loss against the Rockets -- but they're at rock bottom nonetheless.

They're now at 6-19 on the season, have lost eight out of their last nine games, and are steadily falling out of playoff contention by the day as a 9 1/2 game deficit stands between them and the number six seed in the Western Conference, otherwise known as the last guaranteed playoff spot.

And the way things are going, it doesn't look as if the Clippers can turn it around anytime soon.

Yes, they're only three games out of a play-in tournament spot, which would give them at least a path to the playoffs if they come out on top there, but at this point, there are two questions:

Can the Clippers play consistently well enough to earn their way into that tournament? And would it even be worth it to try?

For the most part, the same problems that the Clippers faced in November are still at hand. Sharpshooter Bogdan Bogdanovic returned from injury on Saturday after missing eight games with a hip injury, but Derrick Jones, Jr. remains out and won't be back until later this month at the earliest.

The team's difficulties putting together a complete 48-minute performance still plague them, as there have been multiple times this season where they have a quality first half followed by a letdown in the third quarter, or they come out slowly and have to dig themselves out of an insurmountable hole -- a la Miami.

As good as Bogdanovic and Jones, Jr. can be in their roles, it's unrealistic to think that the healthy return of that duo could flip the switch for the Clippers.

Ivica Zubac continues to play well, as do James Harden and Kawhi Leonard after the latter's return last month, but the team simply doesn't have enough depth to sustain a quality push back up the standings at this point. And even if they managed to get into and finish first in the play-in tournament, the best-case scenario under that route would see them having to play in a tough 2-seed vs. 7-seed matchup.

The path to fixing things this season looks very bleak at best, and it's about the time for the Clippers to entertain trade offers for almost everyone on the roster -- with the one exception being Zubac.

In order to get better over the long term, the team needs to get younger and also accumulate more draft picks. As of this writing, the Clippers don't have a first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, nor do they own any picks in 2028.

Trading Harden could likely get them a first-round pick in 2026 and/or some younger players as well, and dealing Leonard probably gets the team a quality return despite his well-documented injury concerns.

Yes, from a purely mathematical standpoint, the Clippers still have a chance to flip the script in 2025. But adding realism to that equation brings one answer.

Given their ever-faster freefall, it's time for the Clippers to blow it all up and rebuild for 2026 and the years ahead.