Clippers' Season Is Over. It's Time to Blow It Up

The Los Angeles Clippers can't delay the inevitable: it's time to end this era of Clippers basketball.

Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

When the Los Angeles Clippers stumbled out of the gate this season, head coach Ty Lue was preaching patience. Bradley Beal and Kawhi Leonard would return and the Clippers would go back to being a formidable force in the Western Conference. Now, Beal is out for the season. Leonard has been back in the lineup for the last final games and the Clippers have yet to win. Despite being as healthy as realistically possible for the oldest team in NBA history, the Clippers are 5-16 and have lost all hope for the 2025-26 season.

One would think that a group full of proud veterans would be able to put a stop to bleeding and at least get a win against the likes of the Grizzlies and the Mavs. Instead, Lue is pressing all the buttons but the Clippers continue to look despondent out there.

Clippers Are a Bad Team Even With Kawhi Leonard

The worst part of it all is the fact that the Clippers are a bad team even with their best players on the court. With James Harden, Leonard, and Ivica Zubac all on the floor, the Clippers have a -10.2 net rating. In the 463 possessions together, that trio allows 127.1 points per 100 possessions, which would be the worst defense in league history, per Cleaning the Glass.

The most commonly used Clippers lineup this season is Harden-Kris Dunn-Leonard-John Collins-Zubac. In 174 possessions, this group has a net rating of -6.6. That is arguably the best five-man group the Clippers could reasonably put out there with their current roster construction. The fact that their ideal lineup is a disaster on both ends of the floor suggests how far they are from being a competitive team.

Harden's floor-raising is not helping this team right now. Leonard's individual offensive efficiency is not carrying over to team success. Zubac can't seem to be able to anchor this defense like last season.

There are no injury excuses any more. There is nothing to point to in the future that will miraculously turn this season around. This core isn't getting younger, either, so there is no point in hoping for internal development. Leonard and Harden are already playing as well as one could expect from them at this stage of their careers.

This leaves no other option but to blow it all up. Yes, the Clippers owe their first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft and one might think that should disincentivize them from tanking. At this point, however, it is less about tanking and maximizing draft lottery odds. It's more about kickstarting the new era of Clippers basketball. There is clearly no future with Leonard and Harden as the centerpieces of this franchise. Seeing what they can get for each player on the trade market at the deadline and starting over is the only path forward.