The Clippers’ disastrous season has hit a new low.
On Wednesday morning, a little before 3 a.m. ET, Chris Paul, posted an Instagram Story: “Just Found Out I’m Being Sent Home” along with a peace sign emoji.
The Clippers were in Atlanta ahead of their Wednesday game against the Hawks when Paul was informed that he was being sent back to Los Angeles, according to multiple reports. Clippers president Lawrence Frank released a statement shortly after that the organization was “parting ways” with the 12-time All-Star.
Los Angeles has started the season with a 5–16 record, second-to-last in the Western Conference. But Frank put out a statement saying he was “grateful” for Paul.
“Chris is a legendary Clipper who has had a historic career. I want to make one thing very clear. No one is blaming Chris for our underperformance. I accept responsibility for the record we have right now. There are a lot of reasons why we’ve struggled. We’re grateful for the impact Chris has made on the franchise,” Frank said.
Moving off Paul will not help the Clippers from a financial standpoint. Los Angeles, which has $194.7 million on the books this year, is deep into the first apron. Paul signed a one-year veteran minimum deal in the offseason worth $3.6 million.
Reports began trickling out Wednesday that Paul had been feuding with team brass.
Ex-Clippers guard Lou Williams, who was on the team after Paul’s initial stint in Los Angeles, said on the Run It Back show said Paul had been “holding people accountable” in the organization to the point that he even had to apologize to the team for his criticisms.
“There was another scenario where he was critical of the front office as well and I think that was the one that broke the camel’s back, the straw the broke that camel’s back,” Williams said.
ESPN also reported that Paul’s leadership style “clashed” with the team, and was “not on speaking terms with head coach Tyronn Lue for several weeks.” NBA insider Chris Haynes reported that Paul requested to meet with Lue weeks ago, but the coach refused a meeting.
Frank then traveled to Atlanta to tell Paul that the team was done with him.
Despite the separation with the Clippers, Paul is still on the roster and will likely remain there for a few more weeks.
Because Paul signed a deal with Los Angeles in the offseason, he will only be eligible to trade starting Dec. 15. Due to salary cap rules, Los Angeles cannot waive Paul and sign a replacement player until early January, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
However, the Clippers cannot just waive Paul outright because they would drop to 13 rostered players, which they can only have for a maximum of 14 consecutive days. It’s likely the team exhausts trade partners for Paul until January, when they could waive him.
The Clippers currently have the fifth-best odds at the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, but their draft pick will be sent to the defending champion Thunder as a part of the deal that sent Paul George to Los Angeles.
Paul spent six years in Los Angeles in the early 2010s, leading the team to the playoffs in all six seasons, the only time in franchise history it made the playoffs more than three consecutive times.
But he has struggled this year, averaging career lows across the board, and falling in and out of Lue’s rotation.
Two weeks ago, the 40-year-old announced he was retiring from the NBA at the end of the 2025–26 season. The Clippers have been mired in controversy since before the season started, when journalist Pablo Torre reported that the team allegedly circumvented the NBA salary cap by using Aspiration, a since-collapsed environmental tech company, to pay millions of dollars to star forward Kawhi Leonard.
The team is still under investigation from the NBA, while owner Steve Ballmer has been sued by 11 former investors of Aspiration.
