By far the most disappointing team of the 2025-26 NBA season has been the Los Angeles Clippers. After an eventful offseason, which appeared to have put them in position to compete yet again in the Western Conference, they have failed to live up to expectations. Unfortunately, the light isn’t too bright at the end of the tunnel either.
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Last season, the Clippers won 50 games. They made several additions such as Bradley Beal, Chris Paul and Brook Lopez. On paper, it seemed like a competent team. Instead, they formed the oldest roster in league history with no future assets. Now that the team is 7-21, their future is looking more bleak than it ever has.
To make matters worse, the Clippers don’t even own their first-round pick for this season. The reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder has the rights to LA’s unprotected first-round pick due to the infamous Paul George trade.
It’s hard to see how the Clippers find their way out of this hole. Seven-time NBA champion Robert Horry even took a slight dig at the Clippers while analyzing their options.
“I guess you got to find more trees to cut down or something,” Horry said on Spectrum Sportsnet. “It’s just so much going on over there.”
The former Lakers forward took a shot at the Clippers by referencing their ongoing controversy involving Kawhi Leonard. Earlier in the season, investigative journalist Pablo Torre reported that the Clippers circumvented the salary cap to sign Leonard through a partner company, Aspiration.
Aspiration ‘specializes’ in environmental work such as planting trees. Leonard allegedly received sponsorship payments in the millions for doing absolutely nothing. Horry suggests that more trees need to be cut so the team can funnel more money to circumvent the cap to add more talent to this roster.
As this team is currently constructed, it’s hard to see how they can climb out of this hole. They can’t bottom out and tank because they don’t own their draft capital. They also won’t receive much young talent in exchange for their aging stars. The blame could go anywhere, but Horry believes it’s on the front office.
“You can’t blame the coaching staff; they didn’t get rid of Ty Lue [assuming the Clippers were to fire him]. They didn’t get rid of Norman Powell. There’s a problem [from the top],” Horry said.
President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank certainly has his hands full. It won’t be easy to turn this ship around, especially with all these eyes waiting to see what will be the Clippers’ next move.
