The LA Clippers entered the 2025-26 season with real championship ambitions, backed by a stacked roster featuring James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul, and Bradley Beal. But fate clearly wasn’t interested in letting both LA squads contend for the top spot in the West.
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The Clippers are sitting at 5–15, stuck in 13th place in the conference. Beal is out for the year after undergoing hip surgery, and the rest of this aging roster just isn’t performing anywhere near expectations. The good news is the season is still young. The bad news?
Well, there’s absolutely no indication that things are about to turn around. The Clippers’ season was the topic of conversation on the latest edition of Run It Back, where NBA veteran DeMarcus Cousins didn’t beat around the bush while weighing in on the franchise’s struggles.
Boogie felt like he had pinpointed the problem, and it’s not the players or the coach. He said that the blame should fall on executive Lawrence Frank.
“That’s the glaring issue that seems to keep getting overlooked in this scenario. When you think about the guys involved, when you think about the coach, he’s a champion. When you think about the franchise guy, he’s a champion,” said Cousins.
“And you look at this one dynamic that’s in the scenario that has never done anything in any position he’s been in to where he’s produced winning or championships. But he’s the decision maker who continues to change this team around every single year. They get worse and worse,” he added.
Frank, a former coach, has been tied to the Clippers in one role or another since 2017. Their peak during his tenure was a Conference Finals run in 2021. They’ve made the postseason in most of those years.
So it’s not fair to say Frank hasn’t had success in LA. But Cousins isn’t wrong, either. The Clippers’ ultimate goal has always been a championship, and they’ve consistently fallen short in that mission.
“He’s the decision maker that continues to change this team around every single year; they get worse and worse… It’s just not working.”
DeMarcus Cousins RIPPED Clippers executive Lawrence Frank
(via @RunItBackFDTV)pic.twitter.com/rUTr6CRFDS
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 1, 2025
“I don’t know how many more seasons we’ll have to go through before we start looking at this guy as the issue,” the former Golden State Warrior added. “It doesn’t go any further than him. I think a lot of things would be different if he weren’t at the head of the realm.”
Cousins feels bad for Leonard and Harden, considering how they don’t have many seasons left in them. “I do feel bad for the stars in James Harden and Kawhi Leonard. These are proven guys that have won season after season since they’ve come into the league. They’re proven winners. It just sucks to see them in this scenario so late in their careers,” he said.
The question is, removing Frank may not save the Clippers this season. It is still early, and if they put together a strong run, they can play themselves back into a decent position, either as a potential sixth seed or at the very least in the Play-In race.
Cousins is standing up for the players, which makes sense since he is a player himself. A change needs to happen one way or another, especially if the Clippers continue to rack up losses.
Their latest defeat came against a depleted Mavericks team led by 18-year-old Cooper Flagg. If they cannot handle one of the weaker teams in the West, how are they supposed to survive even a single round in the playoffs?
That said, Harden, Leonard, and CP3 have the experience and determination to let this season slip away without a fight. At least, that is what one would expect from a group with this much star power.
