The Los Angeles Clippers may have been eliminated in the first round of the 2025 playoffs, but they could reasonably believe themselves to be the third-best team in the league after that run.
No one pushed the eventual champion Thunder harder than the Nuggets, and L.A. took Denver to seven games in the opener.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a mental dominoes game, but when healthy, the Kawhi Leonard- and James Harden-led Clippers performed like bona fide title contenders. And this offseason, on top of bringing back most of the most important pieces from 2024-25, they bolstered their rotation with Chris Paul, Bradley Beal, Brook Lopez and John Collins.
This is now, unquestionably, one of the deepest teams in the NBA.
But it’s also the oldest. Collins is the only rotation player in his 20s. And Leonard has famously had a terrible time avoiding injuries throughout his career.
There’s a world in which age and various ligaments and joints derail L.A. at some point this season, but it might have accumulated enough raw talent to overcome those concerns.