The 2024-2025 NBA season is here! We analyze the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and fantasy prospects for all 30 teams. Enjoy!
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
End 2023-24
Off-season moves
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Additions: Derrick Jones Jr., Nicolas Batum, Kris Dunn, Kevin Porter Jr., Mo Bamba, Cameron Christie
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Deductions: Paul George, Russell Westbrook, Mason Plumlee, Daniel Theis, Brandon Boston Jr.
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Complete roster
The big question: which Kawhi Leonard will they get?
Kawhi Leonard hasn’t completed a playoff run with the Los Angeles Clippers since 2020, his first season with the team, when he was just shy of a second NBA Finals MVP appearance as a 28-year-old.
Looking back, it’s remarkable how well the Toronto Raptors handled his injury during their 2019 title run. He joined them with what the San Antonio Spurs called ‘right quadriceps tendinopathy’ – a condition that cost him all but nine games in the 2017-18 season. He tore his right ACL in the 2021 playoffs, missed the entire 2021-22 season and couldn’t keep the knee healthy over the past two postseasons.
We cannot emphasize enough how much of an impact Leonard’s chronic knee problems have had on his career. It’s been eight years. When healthy, Leonard is one of the best two-way wings the game has ever seen. It’s as if he’s programmed to dominate both sides of the room, complete with the personality to match. He defeated LeBron James’ Miami Heat and Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors on his way to two rings.
Only the program remains defective. Even now, Leonard is not healthy. An inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee cost him his selection spot at the Olympic Games in Paris. The Clippers will manage the soreness in his knee throughout training camp in hopes that he can start the season on opening night.
“Making sure we stay healthy in those important moments,” Leonard told reporters at media day.
There may never be “big moments” if Leonard can’t carry the Clippers. Paul George is no longer a safety net. He left his hometown team for the chance to compete for a championship on the Philadelphia 76ers. Anyone could interpret that as a vote of no confidence in the Clippers’ own ability to compete.
The Clippers have one-time MVP James Harden on a new two-year contract worth $70 million. He’s 35 years old, hasn’t made an All-Star team in either of the last two seasons and doesn’t seem to think he’s any different as a player despite playing for the fourth team in four years. For anyone hoping he would relinquish control of the offense, Harden told reporters at media day, according to The Washington Post’s Ben Golliver: “It’s definitely going to involve a lot of me. There was talk when I was in Houston… “You can’t win like that.” You just saw a man [Luka Dončić] Last season I made sure the final played exactly the same way I did.”
Played. As in the past tense. It’s been six years since Harden’s heliocentric brand of basketball had a contender. Only the Clippers seem to agree that this is still a winning strategy. They replaced George with a cast of complementary characters – including Derrick Jones Jr., Nicolas Batum and Kris Dunn – whose contributions to a championship-caliber team are entirely dependent on their team’s two headliners.
How good are the Clippers with Leonard and Harden at the top? They also looked formidable with George for about six weeks last season, until the wheels fell off again after the All-Star break. That was the moment to blow this experiment to smithereens. But the Clippers are opening a new arena, and they didn’t want to limit the selection to the studs, so they gave us this patchwork instead.
At best
The Clippers nursed Leonard through a relatively healthy season. Harden turns back the clock and acts as an offensive hub, targeting Leonard or carrying the load in his absence. Role players line up behind them. Ivica Zubac comes fully forward, protecting the edge on one side and working around it on the other. Head coach Tyronn Lue gets what he normally does from a roster – more than the sum of its parts – and the Clippers enter the playoffs as a playful first-round opponent (with a ceiling for the second round).
When everything falls apart
Leonard’s chronic knee pain never ends. Harden is trying to do too much, and it’s taking a toll on his aging hamstrings. They lose the rest of the roster, and even Lue can’t convince them there’s anything left to play for. The Intuit dome is empty. They are headed to the lottery, where the Oklahoma City Thunder own the rights to their draft pick. And they’re staring at the prospects of paying another $86 million to Leonard and Harden for the 2025-2026 campaign, when OKC also has the right to their pick.
Fantasy twist
Zubac is the sleeper I love on this team. He is an underrated big man who has built a strong bond with Harden. Zubac had the third-most assists of Harden last year, despite his scoring numbers dropping to his lowest since 2011-12 and a majority of those dimes coming from passes near the rim and from four to fourteen feet, which speaks to the efficiency from Zu . The Clippers’ frontcourt depth is limited, so he could be one of the better centers available after the ninth round.
Leonard’s knee is already an issue that needs to be addressed. Leonard has a first-round lead when healthy, but due to the injuries I dropped him to the fourth round in my rankings. — Then Titus
Schedule
The latest news about Leonard prompted oddsmakers to remove future odds for the Clippers. For good reason.
