It’s common knowledge at this point that the Los Angeles Clippers are off to an inauspicious start.
It has indeed been an abrupt fall for Los Angeles so far in 2025, as the focus has now shifted from trying to build on another playoff appearance to simply trying to stay relevant in the Western Conference.
Yes, we’re only about a quarter of the way through the season, but the conversation can change quickly around a team after losing 13 of their past 15 games.
Yes, there are some excuses the Clippers can use to try to justify the poor start. Injuries? It’s hard to tread water when four key rotation players — Kawhi Leonard, Bradley Beal, Derrick Jones, Jr., and Bogdan Bogdanovic — have missed time for varying ailments.
Leonard has played well since his return while dealing with a minutes restriction after a sprained ankle, averaging 28.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game while playing just over 28 minutes per game in five contests. But Bradley Beal won’t be back after fracturing his hip last month, after playing just six games in his first season with the Clippers.
Bogdanovic has been considered day-to-day, so it could be just a matter of time until the sharpshooter gets back, while Jones Jr. is set to be reevaluated in a few weeks after spraining his MCL in mid-November.
With three of the four still out, the Clippers’ depth has been tested, and while rookie Kobe Sanders and third-year man Kobe Brown have played well, Nicholas Batum saw himself replaced in the starting lineup, while John Collins has played inconsistently so far this season.
The Clippers have some talent on paper, but whether it will be enough to right the ship remains a glaring question.
They sit at just 5-16 on the season after a lopsided loss in Miami on Monday and look perilously close to falling completely out of contention early in the season.
And given the Clippers’ problems this year and the age of the roster — the regular rotation, not including Beal, has an average age of 32.6 — a rebuild could be an option for the franchise going forward if the team’s woes continue.
Lawrence Frank Shouldn’t Lead the Clippers’ Rebuild
And if the Clippers do have to go into rebuild mode, President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank should be on his way out, given both the team’s failure to find success on the court and, frankly, the house of cards Frank built if things were to veer off course.
Again, the Clippers have been hit by injuries, and a dip in performance can definitely be expected. But a failure to provide the team with proper depth on the roster is starting to become inexcusable.
The Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Los Angeles Lakers all find themselves in a postseason spot after having to contend with unexpected injuries, but those three teams had enough depth to withstand injury problems.
For the Clippers, the strategy of relying on Leonard — who’s had well-documented injury issues throughout his career — and James Harden to save the day isn’t working.
Leonard’s having to work his way back, and while Harden has played extremely well at times, on other occasions, his inefficiency can rear its head and cause the offense to go into a standstill. Add his problems on the defensive end, combined with the rest of the team’s terrible perimeter defense, and the Clippers may not be able to dig themselves out of this largely self-inflicted hole.
The same goes for the bigs. Ivica Zubac has been a bright spot for the Clippers in 2025 as he’s proven to be a double-double machine and a solid defender. But he has no reliable help behind him, as free agent acquisition Brook Lopez has played below par to start the season and has seen his role reduced.
And even beyond the issues with the Clippers this year, fixing things may not be quick either.
Los Angeles currently has no picks in the 2026 NBA Draft, and the next first-round selection they’ll use is in 2027, meaning this might turn into a longer, relatively arduous process if things don’t turn around soon.
Of course, they theoretically could flip the script this month and find themselves back in the postseason picture. But the odds of that happening are incredibly low at this point, and the Clippers should have never been in this position anyway.
Properly run franchises shouldn’t have their entire fortunes staked in just three veterans, no matter how talented Leonard, Harden, and Zubac are.
They had no contingency plan in place in case things went haywire, and it just so happens that the Clippers are already in “break glass in case of emergency” mode early.
Time will tell if the team can turn the season around and get out of panic mode, but Frank may not be the right captain of the ship to ride them through the storm, especially if these tidal waves climb even higher.
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