The Los Angeles Clippers have had as good of an offseason as they could have from a player addition standpoint. They were already a deep team to begin with, but they added veterans Chris Paul, Bradley Beal, and Brook Lopez to supplement the team's Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Ivica Zubac core. Moreover, the Clippers beefed up on the interior, addressing their longstanding rebounding woes and reliance on small-ball by bringing in John Collins.
The Clippers arguably made the most improvements to their roster this offseason, although the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets also did make major moves to bolster the team. However, the Clippers are facing off-court troubles once more; Leonard and the Clippers are currently being investigated for some cap circumvention amid allegations of under the table payments, and there could be severe punishments if the league finds them guilty.
Nonetheless, this article is going to focus on the Clippers' on-court product for next season. The only players locked in as starters for the Clippers next year are Harden, Leonard, and Zubac; as long as they are healthy heading into training camp, they are going to walk into head coach Tyronn Lue's starting lineup.
The two other spots, however, are up for grabs. And considering the Clippers' depth, they may as well mix and match depending on the opposition. But two starters from last season could very well kiss those starting jobs goodbye.
Clippers face Kris Dunn and Bradley Beal starting lineup decision
For the Clippers, Dunn is a very good starter to have alongside someone like Harden. Dunn is a defensive pest who never lets up, and in a regular-season setting, his offensive shortcomings won't be as devastating to a team like the Clippers who have all the offensive talent in the world anyway. Dunn is the Clippers' defensive backbone on the perimeter; the Clippers allowed four fewer points per 100 possessions whenever Dunn was on the floor last year, so the numbers back up the claim that he improves the roster in a big way.
However, there are a lot of things that go into managing a locker room full of players filled with so much pride regarding what they accomplished. Merit can only go so far in the NBA when a player has name value and a track record of All-NBA level play.
With the arrival of Beal, Dunn is most likely going to shift to the bench. Beal still has some upside as a player, and he can score the basketball much better than Dunn can even with both of his arms tied behind his back. But even though Dunn has earned so much goodwill among the Clippers brass for his incredible defensive play since he was brought in last year, Beal's cachet as a player will make him the favorite to win the starting shooting guard gig out of training camp.
Beal also had some sour experiences coming off the bench for the Phoenix Suns last year, and he will be raring to prove that he's not as finished as many believe he is after multiple serious injuries.
It remains to be seen, however, if Lue rolls with a Harden-Beal backcourt for prolonged stretches. They aren't the most defensively adept duo, while Leonard is no longer the defensive beast of yore to cover for other average to below average defenders in the starting lineup.
Nonetheless, Dunn might lose his starting lineup spot to start the year, but it's not like he has to do much to regain that eventually. Beal is as big of an injury risk as they come in today's NBA, as he hasn't played in over 60 games in a year since the 2018-19 season. In fact, he's missed a total of 142 games over the past five seasons, so Dunn simply has to keep his head down and not take his inevitable demotion to the bench as a slight.
Derrick Jones Jr. may not be favored for a starting spot anymore
All throughout the Leonard era, the Clippers have been reliant on wing players moving up a position to fill the four spot. They value the versatility on both ends of having a wing player defend bigger forwards, especially if it can give them many advantages on the offensive end.
Through the years, Leonard, Paul George, Marcus Morris, Nicolas Batum, and Robert Covington, among others, have been the Clippers' primary power forward options, and this preference of theirs did not change last year when they deployed Derrick Jones Jr. as the starter at the position once Leonard returned to action come December.
This, however, puts so much pressure on Zubac to clean up on the interior, both from a rim protection and rebounding standpoint. Against most teams, Zubac can handle his own. But some teams tend to overpower the Clippers on the boards due to their lack of size, and this has been a recurring theme for years.
The Clippers fanbase has been clamoring for the front office to bring in a legitimate power forward for years to shield Leonard and other combo forwards from the bigger matchups and the physical toll those exact. And they got exactly what they wanted this offseason when they brought in Collins via trade in exchange for Norman Powell.
Collins came off a strong 2024-25 season in which he averaged 19.0 points and 8.2 rebounds on 53/40/85 shooting splits; the Utah Jazz initially planned to move away from him and give minutes to their youngsters, but he was so good that Utah had to leave him out of action towards the end of the season because he was reducing their odds of getting a top pick.
Collins can space the floor, and he can attack mismatches. He is an athletic lob threat who can shoot from beyond the arc. He's not the perimeter defender that the Clippers' previous options at the position were, but his size alone already gives him utility on the defensive end.
He is going to be the training camp favorite to win the starting power forward spot, relegating Jones to the bench. But Lue is not fixed in his ways anyway; he can definitely play around with starting lineups depending on matchups, although one has to think that Collins' better offensive game makes him favored in most matchups.
