The season has barely gotten going, and the Clippers already feel like the world is ending. Five straight losses, just two wins in their last fifteen games, next to last in the West, and a complete lack of even a clear idea of how to climb out of this hole. While Los Angeles is helplessly drowning in its own mistakes, the defending champion from Oklahoma City just smiles: it is the Thunder who own the Clippers' unprotected first-round pick in the 2026 draft. And the lower Tyronn Lue's team sinks, the wider that smile gets.
The Miami Blowout as an X-Ray of the Entire Crisis
The 123–140 loss to Miami is not just another line in the "L" column, but a distilled essence of all the Clippers' problems. The start actually seemed tolerable: yes, they were down 12 after the first quarter, but in the opening minutes of the second period the Sailboats pulled themselves together, erased the deficit and even took the lead. It looked like just a little more – and they would find their rhythm.
Instead, a nightmare collapse followed. The Heat switched into steamroller mode and went on a 32–4 run. A relatively workable 42–44 deficit turned into a humiliating 74–48. After that kind of stretch, the winner was obvious long before the final buzzer, and the remaining time became a painful formality.
Tyronn Lue on Thin Ice: A Team With No One to Lead
The atmosphere around the Clippers stopped being a normal working environment a long time ago. Veteran Chris Paul, playing the final season of his career, posted a cryptic image before the game with the word leeway – "freedom of action." And the question immediately arose: freedom for himself? For his teammates? Or a hint that it is time to give the coach some freedom too – in the sense of letting him go?
After a recent 110–114 loss to Dallas, Tyronn Lue frankly admitted:
"We’ve tried a lot of different things. We’ll keep experimenting. But right now we don’t have any kind of next step."
It sounds like a verdict: the coach simply no longer understands what else he can grab onto.
That was on full display against Miami. Just a minute and a half after halftime, Lue pulled his entire starting five – Harden, Dunn, Leonard, Collins and Zubac – off the floor at once. Chris Paul and the youngsters checked in: two Kobes (Brown and Sanders), Cam Christie and rookie Yannick Conan Niederhauser. A true "hockey line change," clearly born of desperation rather than some brilliant master plan.
That didn’t work either: Miami’s lead ballooned to 38 points. And only to keep things from turning into complete humiliation, Lue was forced to bring almost all of his starters back – everyone except Harden – for the fourth quarter.
Kawhi Shines in the Dark, Harden Pulls Them to the Bottom
Kawhi Leonard did everything he could that night. In the fourth quarter alone he scored 19 points, trying at least to make the loss look a little less ugly. Over the season as a whole he has a nearly royal stat line: about 51% from the field, 43% from three and an incredible 98% at the free-throw line. The only, but huge, downside is that he misses roughly half of their games.
With James Harden it is the exact opposite: he looks healthy and available, but the team’s game falls apart with him on the floor. Against Miami his plus-minus was a horrific –39 in just 20 minutes. Only two made field goals, three assists and a constant feeling that the offense built around him is collapsing. The most telling fact: when Kawhi was on the court and Harden was on the bench, the Clippers were +33. That kind of contrast can no longer be written off as a coincidence.
Still, putting everything solely on Harden and Leonard’s health would be too easy. The truly terrifying part is that the team has completely fallen apart defensively. Just last season LAC were third in the league in defensive rating; now they’re drifting around 27th. And over the summer the club didn’t lose a single core defensive player. In just a few months, their defensive identity has simply evaporated.
The Norman Powell Mistake: An Underrated Engine of the Offense
On offense, the losses are much more tangible. The biggest ghost haunting the locker room right now is Norman Powell. Last season he was the Clippers’ most consistent performer: coming off the bench, without a flashy status, but with rock-solid production. In the summer they traded him to Miami for John Collins, hoping to strengthen the frontcourt. In the backcourt they planned to insure themselves with Bradley Beal, but his season essentially ended before it even began.
In his first meeting with his former team, Powell delivered a lesson. Thirty points, 12-of-18 from the field, 6-of-10 from deep – and not a single free throw attempt. In other words, he was scoring from everywhere without needing contact or help from the referees. His three-pointer at the end of the first half put a big exclamation mark on the Heat’s killer run. Another three early in the third quarter finally drove Lue over the edge – it was right after that shot that he sent his entire starting five to the bench.
After the game, Norman did not hide his surprise:
he said he never would have thought the Clippers could be sitting at 5–16. In his words, it’s up to his former teammates to figure that out now – it’s no longer his problem.
In the meantime, Powell has essentially been reborn in Florida. In Miami he has become one of the team’s primary scoring options, leads the club in total scoring and fits perfectly into Erik Spoelstra’s offensive philosophy. The Heat are firmly in the top three of the East, while the Clippers are crawling near the bottom of the West. It is symbolic that this divergence in paths began largely with that Norman trade.
A Lottery Gift for the Champion: Why the Entire NBA Fears the Clippers Pick
One of the most fascinating storylines of the season is the ominous possibility that defending champion Oklahoma City could land a very high lottery pick in the 2026 draft. And not just one. The Thunder also own future picks from Philadelphia and Utah, though they only convey if those picks land no higher than fifth and ninth, respectively.
But the crown jewel is the Clippers pick that Oklahoma City acquired six years ago in the Paul George–for–Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trade. That pick is completely unprotected: even if it comes up No. 1 in the lottery, it still goes straight to the Thunder. According to Basketball-Reference, the probability of that happening is already about 7.4%. And there is better than a 50% chance that the pick lands in the top seven.
So it’s no surprise that, as ESPN insider Tim MacMahon puts it, "the league is in a panic because Oklahoma City has the Clippers’ pick. I’m serious… Teams look at that and think: ‘What is going on? Are the Thunder really going to get a lottery pick?’" Front offices see a championship-caliber superteam, a 20–1 start, one of the five best net ratings in NBA history – and on top of that the possibility of adding another star-caliber rookie on a cheap contract. Maybe even more than one.
The 2026 Draft as a Gold Rush
Pouring even more fuel on the fire are the expectations surrounding the 2026 draft. According to draft expert Kevin O’Connor, this generation of prospects already looks even stronger than initially expected. And that’s with the biggest names only just beginning their college seasons.
O’Connor offers a striking example: if Cooper Flagg hadn’t entered the draft this year and instead ended up in the 2026 class, then in the eyes of some general managers he would probably go no higher than third and might drop to fifth or sixth. That’s how deep and rich the upcoming "talent market" looks. No wonder more and more of the league’s bottom teams are deliberately losing to improve their lottery odds.
And only the Clippers are losing "just because": they have effectively given away control of their first-round picks through 2030. There is not even the slightest compensation for their current collapse – all of the potential dividends have gone to Oklahoma City along with that fateful pick.
A Team Without a Future: Where Is the Bottom for the Clippers?
For Los Angeles, the combination of factors right now paints the harshest possible picture. Tyronn Lue’s basketball no longer works – there is no former structure on either end of the floor, and the decisions being made look more like desperate improvisations than deliberate strategy. General manager Lawrence Frank’s roster management also appears to have failed: the trades and bets on veterans did not produce a true title contender, but they did cost the club control over its own future.
There are stars, but no system. There are big names, but no healthy, sustainable lineups. The team is hovering near the bottom of the standings, and their first-round pick belongs to the reigning champion. The Clippers seem to have lost both their present and their future – and they keep slowly sinking, while Oklahoma City continues to climb, watching their fall from above.
