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It’s getting late early for the Clippers.
Less than a month into the season, the team has a 4–9 record with two of its star players already out with injuries. And the Clippers could be down a third starter from opening night after Derrick Jones Jr. injured his knee in Sunday’s loss to the Celtics.
“It’s tough,” Clippers guard James Harden said of Jones’ injury after Sunday’s loss. “It’s like one after the next. You just try to continue to keep your head on straight, focus on what you can control and just go out there and come away with wins. Hopefully guys will start coming back sooner than later.”
Kawhi Leonard played in the first six games before spraining his right ankle and foot in a loss to the Heat on Nov. 3. Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said on Wednesday that the team has consulted three doctors on Leonard’s injuries and that there’s no timetable for his return.
“Everyone has concurred in terms of what it is,” Frank said on Wednesday. “It is just going to take a period of time to get the inflammation down and start to ramp back up on the court. So, he is doing two- to three-a-day treatments, and it is just going to take a little time.”
The Clippers entered the season with the oldest roster in the NBA, with an average age of 30.7. On Thursday, Clippers coach Ty Lue told reporters the team was going to put its younger players in the rotation going forward–a telltale sign of the team’s struggles and not an announcement a title contender tends to make so early in the season.
The team has just two recent first-round picks on its roster in Kobe Brown (2023), and Yanic Konan Niederhauser (2025), neither of whom have contributed much this season, or, in Brown’s case, the past two years.
Lue’s declaration came a day after the Clippers lost Bradley Beal for the entire season due to a hip fracture. Beal was signed to a two-year, $11 million deal after being bought out of the final two years of his five-year, $250 million contract with the Suns. Beal was part of a group of aging All-Stars that were signed over the summer to put around Leonard including 40-year-old Chris Paul, and 37-year-old Brook Lopez.
Despite featuring so many credentialed scorers, the Clippers offense ranks among the NBA’s worst. The Clippers are averaging 112 points per game, 25th in the league, with an offensive rating of 113.9, which is 21st.
Paul is barely playing despite being healthy and Lopez is averaging just 6.7 points per game in 15 minutes per game. A year ago in Milwaukee, Lopez averaged 13 points and 31 minutes per game.
Hanging over the entire organization is the NBA’s investigation into Leonard’s alleged “no-show job” with Aspiration.
The Clippers are 1–6 since Leonard got hurt and are 11th in the Western Conference standings. While it’s early in the season, the Clippers face an uphill battle to get back into the playoff race with so many contenders in front of them.
Lue has kept an upbeat attitude when asked about the team’s early issues, but acknowledged before Sunday’s game in Boston that the injuries have been frustrating.
“You think you have stuff in place on how you want to play and what you want to do and injuries play a big part of that,” Lue said of Leonard’s absence. “We have to just keep figuring that out until he’s back.”
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