What's wrong with the Clippers? Discussing the disastrous start of the most disappointing team in the NBA

The Los Angeles Clippers' disastrous start to the season continued on Thursday night with a 129-101 loss to the Orlando Magic. Losers of three in a row and nine of their last 10, the Clippers have sunk to 12th place in the Western Conference at 4-11. 

Despite all of the off-court controversy surrounding the franchise, owner Steve Ballmer and star forward Kawhi Leonard, there were high expectations for the Clippers this season. They added a number of veterans in the offseason, including Bradley Beal, Brook Lopez, Chris Paul and John Collins, and had hopes of building on last season's 50-win campaign, which ended with a disappointing first-round playoff exit.

Nothing has gone to plan. Leonard has been limited to six games due to foot and ankle issues, Beal has been ruled out for the season with a hip injury and Derrick Jones Jr. is now sidelined for at least six weeks with a knee sprain. Instead of contending for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, the Clippers are now in a scrap just to make the Play-In Tournament. 

To make matters worse, they owe their 2026 first-round pick to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. At this point, the rest league is cheering for the Clippers to get it together -- at least enough to avoid handing the Thunder another top-five or top-10 pick. 

Can the Clippers turn things around? Let's take a closer look at their biggest issues and potential hope for the future with a Clippers roundtable.  

Which is more to blame for the Clippers' poor start: their offseason moves or injuries?

Jack Maloney: When the Clippers -- the oldest roster in NBA history -- got boat raced by the Jazz -- one of the youngest teams in the league -- on opening night, everyone initially dismissed the result as a one-off. A month later, it's clear that was a major warning sign. While so many teams have embraced youth and speed and athleticism, the Clippers went the opposite direction this offseason and now look out of place in this fast-paced era. And while the injuries are now piling up, they've struggled even when their best players have been healthy. James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac have a minus-10.5 net rating in 145 minutes together. 

James Herbert: Their offseason moves, sadly. What looked on paper like a deeper, sturdier roster has been, in reality, an awkward hodgepodge of vets. I thought Bradley Beal could thrive in the role Norman Powell played last season. I thought John Collins and Brook Lopez could work well together. I thought the Clippers' second unit would dominate. I was so, so wrong about all of it. Kawhi Leonard's absence hasn't helped matters, but last season's team was much better than this, both with and without him.

Jasmyn Wimbish: I'd say it's the injuries. Bradley Beal entered the season already injured, which contributed to his incredibly slow start after getting a knee scope in May. Kawhi Leonard has only played in six games, so you're not going to get an accurate depiction of what this team can do. And now they're going to be without Derrick Jones Jr. for six weeks. It's hard to get off to a great start when so many key guys are out.

Robby Kalland: Injuries certainly haven't helped, but the entire concept of this roster was that it was deep enough to handle some absences. To this point, that hasn't been the case. Kawhi being in and out is something you have to expect at this point, but the biggest issue is their efforts to replace Norman Powell in the aggregate simply haven't worked out. We don't know exactly when Beal got hurt, but even when he did play he was not impactful offensively. Brook Lopez and Chris Paul have looked really old, and while John Collins has been OK, his impact on both ends has been less than ideal. This was always the risk of building the league's oldest team, but it's been jarring to see how every single guy they've brought in has basically been the worst case scenario version of themselves.

James Harden is 10th in the league in minutes and his usage rate and points per game are higher than they have been since his last full season in Houston. Can he keep this up?

Maloney: Harden has plenty of experience as a one-man band, which is what he's unexpectedly turned into this season, so he won't be fazed by the workload. In some ways, he probably welcomes it. But I think the bigger question is whether he can remain this efficient while continuing to play this way at 36. He's leading the league in pull-up 3-point attempts per game (8.1) and shooting 36% on them, and is ninth in the league in free throw attempts per game (8.2) and making 91.3% there. The latter is the key number to watch in terms of his efficiency. His free throw rate (.473) is as high as it's been since 2022 and it's hard work getting to the line. What happens if he starts settling for even more jumpers? 

Herbert: He can keep up the minutes, the usage and the points per game, sure. But this is far from ideal and asking him to maintain this level of efficiency -- entering Thursday's game against Orlando, he had a true shooting percentage of 62.4 -- is a bit much. The degree to which the Clippers are relying on Harden is alarming. They obviously miss Leonard, and they must miss Powell, too.

Wimbish: The Clippers really have no other option other than Harden producing at this same level until they're whole. Unfortunately, depending on Leonard's health, that may not be for the entire season. It's not really about can Harden keep this up, it's how successful will the Clippers be with this model? So far, it's not giving them the results they're wanting. And it's not as if they're not getting help from anyone else, because L.A.'s bench is generating the seventh-most points of any second unit in the league.

Kalland: I think it's dependent on whether this is going to be a playoff team or not. Ideally for the Clippers, he won't have to do quite as much if they can get Leonard back on the floor and I don't think the full Harden-centric approach will cut it for a contender. However, after what he did last year, playing 79 games at an All-Star level, I'm generally a believer in the Harden Renaissance. Without Powell, it's clear he's going to have to do most of the heavy lifting in terms of backcourt creation. I expect his numbers by the end of the season to dip closer to where he was last year in terms of both scoring and efficiency, but I do think he is still capable as an offensive engine. I think what we've seen to start this season is proof he probably can't be the only engine of a truly good team, but he'll eat up as much usage as is asked of him.

The Clippers are in the bottom third in both offensive rating (22nd) and defensive rating (24th). Which side of the ball is a bigger concern?

Maloney: They would look better on both ends if they could stop turning the ball over every five seconds (16.7% turnover rate, 28th in the league). Not only are they failing to get a shot up on nearly one-fifth of their own possessions, the turnovers are leading to easy baskets for their opponents. They allow more points off turnovers (22.9) than any other team and are 29th in opponent fastbreak points (18.8). Even if they clean up the turnover issue, though, defense remains the bigger concern given their age. 

Herbert: Defense. The rest of the league is playing faster and the Clippers look old and slow. This is most apparent in transition, where only the woeful Wizards have been worse this season, per Cleaning the Glass. Beyond that, they don't force many turnovers, their point-of-attack defense is rough (whenever Kris Dunn isn't on the floor, anyway) and they give up way too many second-chance points. Jeff Van Gundy must be losing his mind.

Wimbish: I kind of alluded to this in the previous question, but it's the defense. The Clippers are allowing 118.8 points per 100 possessions as the seventh-worst defense in the league. So it doesn't really matter how many points they score if it means they can't stop anyone from scoring on the other end. Having Leonard healthy would certainly mask some of those issues, but he doesn't magically make the entire team younger so that they can keep up with these teams that can get out in transition and run.

Kalland: Defense. This team is getting run ragged and they're losing the possession battle badly every single night. Their offense, as has long been the case for Harden-led teams, wants to dictate the pace and play methodical basketball. That only works if you can get stops and keep teams from playing at tempo, and to this point their defense has shown a complete inability to get stops. They're horrific in transition despite Jeff Van Gundy's "Get the f--k back" shirts and aren't a whole lot better in the halfcourt. Combine that with getting lit up from the three-point line -- the product of slow rotations -- and you have a recipe for disaster that is hard to see getting better with such an old roster. They just look a step slow in a league getting faster and faster, and while I think they have shot-making talent that can improve the offense some, even when Kawhi is back I have a hard time seeing the defense making the needed improvements.

The Clippers are currently in 12th place in the Western Conference and do not own their 2026 first-round pick. Will they make the playoffs (-145, per DraftKings)?

Maloney: They'll have to get there through the Play-In Tournament, but yes, it's possible. The three teams directly above them are the Grizzlies, Jazz and Trail Blazers. None of those teams are juggernauts and all would be better off missing the playoffs. In Utah's case, their first-round pick is top-eight protected, so they'll need to make sure they fall down the standings. Plus, the Clippers have the sixth-easiest remaining schedule of all Western Conference teams. 

Herbert: It's far from guaranteed, but there's more than 80% of the season left and the play-in tournament makes this much more realistic than it would be otherwise. Merely sneaking into the playoffs, however, would not exactly be something worth celebrating for this team. The Clippers won 50 games last season and they came into this one hoping to build on that.

Wimbish: As bad as the Clippers have been, they're only six games back of the No. 6 spot in the West. There's definitely light at the end of this dreary tunnel, and the fact they don't own their pick in next year's draft should serve as motivation to sneak up high enough. The Clippers are built to contend, but injuries have always been their undoing. If they're healthy, this team is capable of stringing some wins together and climbing up the standings. But that's never been something they can bank on in the Kawhi Leonard era.

Kalland: They can. It'll have to be from the play-in because they're already six games out of sixth, but if they have Kawhi and Harden healthy for the tournament, they could certainly win a game or two and get in. Once in the playoffs, I think they'd be handed a gentleman's sweep by any of the West's top teams. But given all they need to do is get ahead of Utah and Memphis to make the play-in, I don't think it's going to be an incredibly difficult task to give themselves that chance.