The Warriors’ rival report has it’s final opponent in the crosshairs down in L.A. but it ain’t the Lakers. The Clippers are the one Pacific team whose offseason can’t really be graded yet, because the trade that defines it hasn’t actually closed. Before Golden State gets to the part of the summer where every team’s roster feels settled, it’s worth checking in on the one division rival still waiting on the league office to tell them who’s actually on their team.
On paper, the moves are straightforward
enough. Quiet business: re-signings, a small trade for center Johni Broome, a two-way deal for center Jamarion Sharp. The one that actually reshapes the roster is the deal sending Kawhi Leonard to Toronto for Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick, along with a package of picks. Everyone covering the team, from beat writers to fan sites, has spent July writing rotation projections that assume this trade is basically done.
It isn’t. The Clippers and Raptors agreed to it on June 30. Nine days later, both teams announced it was on hold. The Clippers built a roster the league hasn’t signed off on yet. The holdup is an NBA investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap to pay Leonard, tied to a since-collapsed endorsement deal with the company Aspiration.
ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported that the case could stretch into 2027 if the Clippers and the players’ union can’t agree on any findings or proposed punishment. Commissioner Adam Silver has said the investigation needs to wrap before next season starts, but has also acknowledged it’s already gone on longer than he’d hoped. The union has said it won’t hesitate to fight any penalty it sees as unsupported by evidence, and the Clippers have maintained from the start that they never funneled money to Leonard at all.
Meanwhile, basketball analysis has largely moved forward as though the trade is inevitable, projecting Brandon Ingram into the starting lineup and Gradey Dick into the wing rotation before the league has approved any of it. 213hoops’ Robert Flom took the more grounded approach, and it’s probably the more useful one for a fan base trying to figure out what to actually expect this season.
Flom placed the Clippers somewhere in the 9-to-12 range in the West regardless of how the roster shakes out, clearing only the Kings and Pelicans with real confidence. He projected a win total anywhere from the low 30s to the mid 40s, called this the first Clippers season since 2018 without real playoff expectations, and suggested that’s actually not the worst thing, since it might make the year more fun to watch without the pressure of a playoff push riding on it.
So the Clippers enter the season with two different stories running at once. One is a basketball team quietly preparing for a future built around Brandon Ingram, assuming the trade becomes official. The other is a franchise waiting on a law firm and a players’ union to decide whether that trade, and the season built around it, is even allowed to exist as constructed.
Every other team in the Pacific spent the summer answering questions about its roster. The Clippers are still waiting to find out what theirs officially is. Until the league closes the investigation, every projection comes with an asterisk. The Warriors won’t know exactly what they’re preparing for until the NBA decides which Clippers roster is actually allowed to exist.
