{"id":717754,"date":"2026-06-21T17:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/717754\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T17:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:46:22","slug":"why-loaded-nba-draft-could-hinge-on-what-clippers-do-with-no-5-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/717754\/","title":{"rendered":"Why loaded NBA draft could hinge on what Clippers do with No. 5 pick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even during an early start to their offseason, the Clippers got one major win in May.<\/p>\n

The Clippers were the quiet winners of the NBA draft lottery, where, with coin-flip odds, they swiped the Indiana Pacers\u2019 first-round pick in a loaded draft class. The No. 5 pick can add an immediate rotation player for the Clippers while also being a potential fulcrum for what experts consider one of the deepest draft classes ever<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The top four prospects are locked. The only question is in what order Brigham Young forward AJ Dybantsa, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer and North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson will hear their names called Tuesday night at Brooklyn\u2019s Barclays Center. Washington, which picks first, Utah, Memphis and Chicago have the first shots at those potential franchise-defining players.<\/p>\n

The first round then could turn with the Clippers\u2019 pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts the Clippers in an interesting spot at five,\u201d ESPN draft analyst Jeremy Woo said on a conference call with reporters. \u201cThey\u2019ve got options, including trades.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the top tier of primarily wing prospects, four guards are likely to go in the next wave of picks. Louisville\u2019s Mikel Brown Jr. broke former No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg\u2019s Atlantic Coast Conference freshman record with 45 points in a game, but did not play in the NCAA tournament because of a back injury after averaging 18.2 points and 4.7 assists for the Cardinals. <\/p>\n

Kingston Flemings (16.1 points, 5.2 assists, 1.8 turnovers) became the first freshman at Houston to earn All-America honors, named a consensus second-teamer last year while leading the Cougars to the NCAA tournament\u2019s Sweet 16. But Houston\u2019s bid for consecutive Final Fours ended against Illinois and guard Keaton Wagler.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-6, 180-pound guard averaged 17.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.8 turnovers as a freshman. Coming out of high school, Wagler was the lowest-ranked prospect out of the four guards jockeying for draft position between picks five and eight, but he could be the first of the group off the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has the size, and he has this brain where you see how quickly he\u2019s improved,\u201d Woo said. \u201cAnd that, to me, is the biggest thing. But I just think people will continue to learn more about him. He\u2019s not someone NBA teams knew about really coming into the year. \u2026 It just happened faster than we all expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arkansas\u2019 Darius Acuff Jr. has the attention of scouts after averaging 23.5 points while shooting 44% from three-point range, but the 6-foot-3, 190-pound guard could create a defensively challenged pairing next to Clippers point guard Darius Garland.<\/p>\n

Garland was acquired<\/a> in a midseason move that signaled a significant pivot in the team\u2019s plans. The Clippers sent 36-year-old James Harden, who was having his highest-scoring season in six years, to Cleveland in exchange for the 26-year-old Garland and a 2028 second-round selection.<\/p>\n

Two days later, the Clippers got even younger<\/a> by sending starting center Ivica Zubac and third-year guard Kobe Brown to Indiana for 23-year-old guard Bennedict Mathurin, backup center Isaiah Jackson, two first-round picks and one second-round pick. One of the first-round picks turned into this year\u2019s selection after the Pacers, who finished with the second-worst record, slipped out of the top four in the draft lottery.<\/p>\n

Zubac, 29, was the Clippers\u2019 longest-tenured player and top rebounder. He and Harden were two of their top three scorers.<\/p>\n

\"Houston <\/p>\n

Houston guard Kingston Flemings goes for a layup during an NCAA tournament game in March.<\/p>\n

(Ashley Landis \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we traded James and when we traded Zu, those were incredibly hard and difficult situations,\u201d Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank told reporters after the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it requires that you must be honest about yourself and honest about where you\u2019re at as a team. Usually teams, when you study team building, if they\u2019re in this contender status, they usually take this huge drop to rebuilding. We\u2019re not going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clippers have had 15 consecutive winning seasons, the longest active streak. But they have not won a playoff series since their Western Conference finals run in 2021. Last season ended with a play-in game collapse, the Clippers squandering a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead to the Golden State Warriors at home.<\/p>\n

The midseason trades helped the Clippers start replenishing their draft capital after the blockbuster move that brought Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to L.A. in 2019 hamstrung their assets. Because of the Cavaliers trade, the Clippers also have the 52nd overall pick in Wednesday\u2019s second round, along with the 36th pick. The moves also helped reset the roster from the oldest in league history to one with six rotation players who are an average of 25.7 years old.<\/p>\n

Leonard, who turns 35 the week after the draft, is entering the final year of his contract. The superstar forward averaged a career-best 27.9 points while playing 65 games, just the second time with the Clippers that he appeared in 60 or more in a season.<\/p>\n

But the franchise still is waiting for the results of a league investigation into alleged salary cap circumvention<\/a> involving Leonard and former team sponsor Aspiration. The punishment levied could include multimillion-dollar fines, a loss of future draft picks or voiding Leonard\u2019s contract with the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even during an early start to their offseason, the Clippers got one major win in May. The Clippers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[24796,155495,7630,143714,31437,309175,7095,3441,11653,355,13329,309174,472,6379,13544,99,2394],"class_list":["post-717754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-assist","tag-clipper","tag-clippers","tag-first-round-pick","tag-guard","tag-highest-scoring-season","tag-houston","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-nba-team","tag-no","tag-pick","tag-point","tag-sports","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}