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Their core might be aging, and the Oklahoma City Thunder's reign of terror may only be beginning, but the Los Angeles Clippers front office deserves plenty of credit for always landing on their feet. One of the most well-run organizations in the NBA, the Clippers are giving the Kawhi Leonard-led squad perhaps their biggest chance yet since 2021 to compete for an NBA championship considering all the moves they made this offseason — including signing Bradley Beal from the buyout market after a tumultuous past two seasons with the Phoenix Suns.
The Clippers roster is so stacked with depth across multiple positions. They can run a legitimate ten-man rotation, even when the postseason begins. What the Thunder (and the Indiana Pacers, the 2025 NBA Finals runner-up) showed was that having as many playoff-viable players on the roster around a superstar (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) and an All-NBA-caliber player (Jalen Williams) is the recipe for success in today's NBA.
Clippers fans have not known hope like this in a while. And provided that the Clippers manage to avoid their typical pitfalls, then they might be in for a dream season.
Here are a few bold predictions for how the 2025-26 season shakes out for the Clippers.
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Kawhi Leonard plays in only 50 regular-season games, is saved for the playoffs
As much as the Clippers fanbase would want to see Leonard tear it up in the regular season, play in at least 65 games to qualify for postseason awards, and all in all get off to a massive revenge tour, the reality is that Leonard is already 34 years of age and will only need the utmost care from here on out to preserve his body for when it matters the most.
Last season, Leonard played in only 37 games after getting a late start to the season after undergoing knee issues yet again to begin the campaign. And it looks as though the Clippers have stumbled upon the best plan to keep Leonard healthy for the playoffs without sacrificing his game sharpness.
They pushed the Denver Nuggets to seven games in the first round, with Leonard having an absolutely massive Game 2, although it was clear that the 34-year-old wasn't able to kick it into high gear in the playoffs like he usually does.
In this hypothetical, Leonard won't be facing any injury issues that will keep him out for months at a time. The Clippers will simply let him take it easy. In fact, they can afford to. They have such a deep team, and even when Leonard is sitting, LA now has Beal to be Harden's secondary scorer.
John Collins also gives the Clippers more size and positional versatility, which will help lessen the defensive burden on Leonard, who was typically tasked to play the four for prolonged stretches.
The Clippers have to accept the reality that Leonard's body is not what it once was, and he was already very injury-prone to begin with. There's no reason to put him in further harm. Bet on LA looking to keep him healthy, even sitting him out in games that aren't even part of a back-to-back set, to give themselves the best possible shot at winning it all.
Bradley Beal bounces back to fringe All-Star form
To say that Beal underperformed when he was on the Suns would be an understatement. He was supposed to be the final piece to a championship-winning team. Instead, the Suns learned the hard way that putting together talent doesn't mean that a squad will coalesce into a championship-caliber one.
Beal found himself being marginalized on the Suns' offense, as he had some overlap in terms of skillset with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. It got to the point where the Suns felt it was for the best if Beal were to come off the bench. Considering what the Suns gave up for Beal and what they're paying him, using him as a sixth man was not the best use of resources.
But now that Beal is on the Clippers, he's quite the easy bounce-back candidate. For starters, he is now back to playing with an all-world playmaker in Harden, who makes everybody around him better thanks to his ability to create open shots. Beal was at his best playing alongside an All-NBA-caliber floor general (John Wall, Russell Westbrook) and that dynamic will once again be true for him in LA.
Beal is also replacing Norman Powell and filling in his role; Powell averaged nearly 22 points per game last season as a starter alongside Harden, and Beal definitely has the talent to average that many points (and perhaps even more), especially if Leonard were to be aggressively load-managed next season. He's still very efficient from the field after all, with a true shooting of 59.8 percent last season.
Beal also has injury question marks, but he'll be raring to prove that he can still make a difference for a winning team. And with the Clippers, that's exactly what he'll be doing.
John Collins averages a double-double for the Clippers
The power forward position has long been a question mark for the Clippers ever since Marcus Morris Sr. declined and faded away and Nicolas Batum slowed down. This required the Clippers to rely on Leonard, and even Derrick Jones Jr., to fill in the bulk of the minutes at the four last season.
But the Clippers were playing 4D chess, not checkers. They traded Powell to acquire Collins (perhaps knowing that Beal would be coming soon), finally addressing a long-standing urgent need at the position.
Collins helps relieve so much pressure from Ivica Zubac; Zubac not only has to anchor the paint for the Clippers, he also has to clean up on the glass. Zubac averaged 12.3 boards last season, and the Clippers collapsed every time he wasn't on the floor. They were 13 points better per 100 possessions (per PBP Stats) whenever Zubac was on the court. And their rebounding falters every time he's resting.
Collins will help so much in that regard. He averaged 8.2 rebounds last year for the Utah Jazz, and that was while playing in some supersized lineups alongside Walker Kessler and Lauri Markkanen.
The gap between Zubac and the second-best rebounder for the Clippers last season (Leonard for average per game, Harden in total) was huge. But that gap isn't as large anymore.
It might be a stretch to say that Collins will average at least 10 boards this season, considering that he hasn't done so since the 2019-20 season, but there's a chance he does — especially if LA utilizes him in lineups alongside backup center Brook Lopez, who isn't the best glass-cleaner.
Clippers make it back to the Western Conference Finals (at least)
The Clippers' core might be aging, but the front office deserves plenty of credit for squeezing as much juice from this roster as they can. And this upcoming season is shaping up to be their best possible shot at a championship yet, as they have the depth, the superstar talent, and the coaching to pull off the unthinkable.
The loaded Western Conference is no joke, however. But as things stand, they look like the favorite to win the Pacific Division, although they will be facing stiff competition in the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors.
They have all the makings of a team that will have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and provided that Leonard remains healthy, they can beat any team in the NBA — even the reigning champion Thunder and their playoff nemesis Nuggets led by Nikola Jokic.
And Clippers fans can hope that this team, at least, can make it to the Western Conference Finals for just the second time in franchise history.
