Clippers: the offseason so far
the record
The desk keeps a day-by-day record of everything that happens to the LA Clippers: results with the players who decided them, injury changes, roster moves, reports, milestones and the schedule ahead. The story of the offseason is written from that record every week; the timeline below is the record itself, each line linked to the page that proves it.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on Kawhi Leonard (17.4 wins without him), Derrick Jones Jr. (3.7 wins without him), Rui Hachimura (1.3 wins without him) and Brook Lopez (0.4 wins without him): on/off from 2025-26, details under Injuries. Computed Thu, Sep 10; the method is on the methods page.
Day by day
1 days on the recordThe franchise today
Updated 2026-09-09Now
Tyronn Lue returns as head coach of a Clippers team built around Kawhi Leonard, the last man left from the Paul George-Leonard era after George departed for Philadelphia and Russell Westbrook left for Denver in the 2024-25 offseason. Leonard, 35 and in his 15th season, played 65 games last year and averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists. Around him: Bennedict Mathurin (17.6 points in 54 games), Darius Garland (18.8 points, 6.7 assists in 45 games), Rui Hachimura (11.5 points in 68 games), Kris Dunn (7.3 points, the only Clipper to play all 82 games), Derrick Jones Jr., Max Strus and Jordan Miller. Last season's team went 42-40, its offense ranking 11th in the league, its defense 18th, for a net rating ranked 16th at a 97.29 pace. Payroll runs $196.9 million across 18 contracts, over the $165.0 million cap but under the $200.4 million tax, led by Leonard's $50.3 million and Garland's $42.2 million. The real story of the offseason is the draft-pick damage: on September 2, 2026, the NBA ruled the team had circumvented the salary cap through Leonard's dealings with Aspiration, fining the Clippers $30 million, stripping their first-round picks from 2029 through 2033, and suspending Steve Ballmer for a year.
Identity and rivalries
The Clippers still carry the "Lob City" identity born with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan turning fast breaks into highlight-reel dunks, the image of a team trying to play above the rim and above its own history of losing. The defining rivalry is with the crosstown Lakers, two teams that have shared the same city and, for decades, the same downtown arena floor. The gap between them shows in one number from that shared-building era: on March 6, 2014, the Clippers beat the Lakers 142-94, still the most lopsided win in Clippers history and the most one-sided loss the Lakers have ever taken. Every meeting between the two carries that same weight, in a market where the Clippers have spent decades trying to prove they belong on equal footing with the team next door.
Home, owners and numbers
The Clippers play their home games at Intuit Dome, their home since the 2024-25 season, having replaced the arena now called Crypto.com Arena, home to the team from 1999 to 2024. Before that, the franchise moved through the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (1970-1978), with occasional games at Maple Leaf Gardens (1971-1975), the San Diego Sports Arena (1978-1984), and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (1984-1999), with occasional dates at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (1994-1999). The move to Intuit Dome also brought the team new branding. Steve Ballmer owns the team, with Dennis J. Wong among its minority owners.
What they are chasing
The Clippers are still chasing the franchise's first championship; the closest they have come is the trip to the 2021 Western Conference finals. The nearer-term chase is financial and disciplinary: staying below the $209.0 million first apron and the $221.7 million second apron, and working through the five-year compliance program the NBA imposed on the organization, all while Gillian Zucker serves a year without pay and Lawrence Frank serves six months. With its 2027 second-round pick owed to Utah, its 2029 second-round pick owed to San Antonio, and its 2027 and 2028 first-round picks reduced to swaps, the open argument among fans is whether the front office can still retool around Leonard through trades and free agency alone.
The Los Angeles Clippers began in 1970 as an NBA expansion team, the Buffalo Braves, playing at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium alongside the NHL's Sabres. Under coach Jack Ramsay and center Bob McAdoo, who won three straight scoring titles and the 1974–75 MVP award, the Braves made three playoff appearances, losing to the Boston Celtics in 1974 and 1976 and the Washington Bullets in 1975. A scheduling conflict with the Canisius Golden Griffins over the arena, plus new owner John Y. Brown Jr.'s roster teardown, pushed the franchise toward a swap: Brown traded ownership with Celtics owner Irv Levin in 1978, and Levin moved the team to San Diego, renaming it the Clippers after the sailing ships in San Diego Bay. Gene Shue coached a roster built around Randy Smith, Swen Nater, World B. Free, and later Bill Walton, but the team missed the playoffs in all six San Diego seasons.
In 1981, Donald Sterling bought the club for $12.5 million. His tenure brought chaos: a $10,000 NBA fine for guaranteeing losses to secure a shot at drafting Ralph Sampson, unpaid hotel and travel bills, and an NBA committee recommendation that his ownership be terminated before he negotiated to keep it. In 1984, Sterling moved the team to Los Angeles without league approval, drawing a $25 million fine later reduced to $6 million once the NBA dropped its lawsuit in 1987. The Clippers opened at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, going 31–51 in their first LA season under Jim Lynam. Injuries to Derek Smith, Norm Nixon, and Marques Johnson defined the "Clipper Triangle" years, culminating in a 12–70 finish in 1987, then the second-worst record in NBA history. Elgin Baylor joined that year as general manager. A 1989 trade brought in Ron Harper, and with draftees Ken Norman, Danny Manning, Charles Smith, and Loy Vaught, the team became a playoff contender into the early 1990s, with Larry Brown taking over as coach in 1991–92.
The Clippers moved into the Staples Center (later Crypto.com Arena) in downtown Los Angeles in 1999, sharing the building with the Lakers, the WNBA's Sparks, and the NHL's Kings. Over their first 27 seasons in Los Angeles the team reached the postseason just four times and won only a single playoff round, cementing a reputation as one of pro sports' perennial losers next to the far more successful Lakers.
The 2010s brought the franchise's clearest identity shift. The "Lob City" core of Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Chris Paul carried the Clippers to six straight playoff appearances from 2012 to 2017 and back-to-back division titles in 2013 and 2014, both franchise firsts. Even so, the team kept losing in the Conference Semifinals and did not reach the conference finals until 2021, still with no NBA Finals appearance to date, making them the oldest North American pro franchise never to play in a championship game.
Beginning with the 2024–25 season, the Clippers left Crypto.com Arena for the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. That same year, the NBA G League's Ontario Clippers relocated and took the San Diego Clippers name and a modernized three-sails logo, tying the franchise's history back to its 1978 San Diego roots. Fans know the team as "the Clips" or "LAC."