Last offseason, the Los Angeles Clippers’ title window seemed to close, as Paul George left them for nothing in free agency to join the Philadelphia 76ers. But the Clippers got back on their feet quickly, adding valuable role players in Nicolas Batum, Kris Dunn, and Derrick Jones Jr. to re-tool into a formidable foe.
Unfortunately, even with their efforts, they couldn’t make it past the first round. So, in an attempt to avenge their shortcomings, they’ve reinvented themselves once more — adding Brook Lopez, John Collins, Bradley Beal, and most recently, Chris Paul this summer.
But are their additions enough to truly compete for a title in 2025-26?
What It Takes To Win An NBA Title
In today’s NBA, teams need three things to win big: talent, depth and fit. Just look at which teams went to the Finals last year.
The Indiana Pacers had Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam as their top dogs, and role players who perfectly complimented their strengths and weaknesses with Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and Myles Turner. Off the bench, they touted a deep cast of characters in T.J. McConnell, Ben Sheppard, Bennedict Mathurin, Jarace Walker and Obi Toppin, among others.
The Oklahoma City Thunder were led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams, and flanked them with heavy hitters: Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso, Luguentz Dort, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Jaylin Williams, Aaron Wiggins and Kenrich Williams.
What Do The Clippers Have?
After taking a little while to get his feet wet, Kawhi Leonard showed us last season he can still be a top-10 player when fully healthy (11th in Estimated Plus Minus). James Harden isn’t the MVP candidate of his glory days, but he’s nonetheless a reliable contributor and borderline All-Star (32nd in EPM). Ivica Zubac keeps getting better and better, too (second in Most Improved Player Voting). He’s about as close to an All-Star as one can get without actually being one.
Depth is what really makes this Clippers team dangerous. Along with Zubac, they now have Lopez and Collins to man the middle (Collins can also play the four). They have Jones, Batum and Dunn as defensive-minded wings, with Beal and Bogdan Bogdanovic as complementary creators to provide an extra offensive punch.
Those are 10 guys who have been starters or considered starting-caliber players the last few years. And they still have room to add another contributor on a veteran’s minimum deal (Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Malcolm Brogdon and many other useful role guys are available).
On the surface, it all seems to fit together nicely. Harden, Leonard, Dunn and Zubac fared well in their minutes together last year. According to PBP Stats, the Clippers’ net rating was plus-9.9 per 100 possessions in 519 minutes with those four on the court. While Beal didn’t work out as a max contract star on the Phoenix Suns, he should be able to mime Norman Powell’s duties as the starting two guard on a reasonable deal.
Jones will offer relief to Dunn or Leonard; Bogdanovic can do the same for Harden or Beal. Head coach Tyronn Lue would be wise to monitor Batum’s minutes in the regular season before elevating him into a larger postseason role (he was excellent against the Denver Nuggets in the first round).
Lopez will ensure the Clippers always have a starting-caliber center on the floor and gives them their first real pick-and-pop threat in quite some time (37.3 percent from three last year). Collins offers increased lineup versatility, affording Los Angeles the luxury of upsizing (when he’s at power forward) or downsizing (when at center).
What Is Stopping Them?
Age, for one thing, is a hurdle. Of the 10 players discussed, the youngest one is Collins, who turns 28 before the season kicks off. Seven of these rotation options are on the wrong side of 30. How much more gas in the tank do elder veterans like Lopez (37) and Batum (36) really have?
There’s also the availability issue. Any time there’s an ensemble of veterans, the risk of injury is present. But that is particularly the case with the 2025-26 Clippers. Their best player is Leonard, who’s only managed to complete just one of the last five seasons unscathed. Will his body allow him to lead them to victory?
Outside of age and injury concerns, this roster forecasts to be a sticky one. Harden is a tremendous distributor (90th percentile Passer Rating, per Thinking Basketball), but other than him, this team lacks strong ball movers.*
*Beal should be an improvement over Powell. Last season, he was in the 43rd percentile in Passer Rating. Meanwhile, Powell was in the 28th.
After Harden, the team’s best passer may be Dunn. Even he’s just in the 65th percentile in Passer Rating and he’s not really someone who should initiate offense anyways. Do the Clippers have enough playmakers to beat elite playoff defenses?
The addition of Chris Paul certainly helps address one of the Clippers main weaknesses and gives them the potential to make a deep postseason run. A healthy version of the Clippers projects to be formidable, deep and cohesive. However, if things shake out right — something which has pretty much never happened to this troubled fanbase — they could break through and make their first truly great playoff run in franchise history.
