The disastrous Los Angeles Clippers season is beginning to take a toll on the players and the coaching staff. Frustrations have understandably been spreading throughout the team and things hit a new low after Saturday night’s loss disappointing loss to the Dallas Mavericks. After the game, the overall mood in the locker room was particularly discouraging for the future of the franchise.
2025-26 Clippers Are Beginning to Lose All Hope
James Harden refused to provide an optimistic response to Joey Linn of Clippers on SI’s question about whether the season can be salvaged. He said that it has been “challenging” to integrate players that the Clippers haven’t expected to rely this heavily on, before adding, “situation here is difficult.”
Ty Lue was similarly deflated in his remarks to the media. His lack of answers to the Clippers’ issues was obvious when he didn’t have anything to say except, “we got to stay with it. We got to play better.” When asked whether there was a step the Clippers could take at this point, Lue said, “We’ve tried a lot of different things. We’ll keep trying. There’s no next step right now.”
This clearly highlights the bleak reality the Clippers are in. Harden and Lue are both admitting how difficult it has been, and regardless of how hard they have been trying, nothing seems to be working. Until recently, both Lue and Harden had a positive outlook on the season, suggesting that things would improve once Kawhi Leonard returned. Now, Leonard has been back for four games and the Clippers have failed to win any of them, including relatively easy games against the short-handed Grizzlies and Mavs.
Lue has been making changes to the rotation since the start of the season. At various points, Chris Paul and Bogdan Bogdanovic have been benched. Now, Brook Lopez has fallen out of the rotation completely. Kobe Sanders and Kobe Brown have been playing significant minutes just to get more youth, dynamism, and defensive intensity on the floor. None of it made a meaningful impact. Over the last two weeks, the Clippers are allowing 122.7 points per 100 possessions, even worse than their season-long defensive rating, per Cleaning the Glass.
The Clippers will obviously continue to try to find lineups and schemes that work. Like Harden and Lue said, they have no other choice. With an old roster that struggles to stay healthy, the odds are stacked against them, especially with the massive hole they dug for themselves after their 5-15 start.
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