Clippers’ Decline: How Past Trades Drained Their Future
Past trades have stripped the Clippers of their future picks, leaving the team stuck between crisis and disappointing results
This week, Tyronn Lue attributed the Clippers’ struggles to the roster’s physical fragility and the lack of production from the bench. A fair point, but there’s an even more alarming number: when the Big Three – Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Ivica Zubac – share the floor, their net rating is -6, compared to last season’s excellent +14.
And it isn’t a supporting-cast issue: the fourth man is the excellent Dunn, and the fifth is either Collins or Bogdanovic. Yet the results are disastrous: 28th-ranked offense, 26th in rebounding despite their size and double-big lineups, 29th in assists, and an extremely slow pace. The defense is even worse: in November alone, they posted the NBA’s fourth-worst defensive rating, almost always with Leonard available.
Even earlier, through the first 14 games, they already ranked 18th in points allowed. In such a context, rebuilding would be the natural path. But there’s an insurmountable problem: the Clippers traded away all their first-round picks until 2030 in past deals, gifting the Thunder and 76ers a bright future while their own present continues to crumble.