Currently seventh in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Clippers are easy to write off as nothing more than first-round fodder. After all, they don’t even technically have a playoff spot yet — stuck in the Play-In Tournament at the moment — and share a conference with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers and the suddenly unbeatable Golden State Warriors.
Despite all this, I can’t seem to quit the Clippers. To me, not only do they stand in the way of a Western Conference Semifinals berth for someone, the Clippers are one of the most dangerous teams in the West and here’s why.
Depth And Versatility
At the risk of being the dude who is just naming names, the Clippers have a stacked cast. There are the obvious ones like Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Norman Powell and Ivica Zubac. But there’s also a cavalcade of defense-first wings: Kris Dunn, Derrick Jones Jr., Amir Coffey and Nicolas Batum. And the trio of trade deadline veterans they added in Bogdan Bogdanovic, Ben Simmons and Drew Eubanks.
By my count, that is 11 players the Clippers can realistically turn to for minutes in a playoff series. Most teams are happy to have eight or nine of those guys. Heck, some could argue the Nuggets only have six of those players.
Not only does having lots of bodies allow teams to keep guys fresher, it also lets them play many different styles. In the postseason, the best team doesn’t always win. Basketball becomes more like boxing, and it’s the contrast in styles that makes the fight. The Clippers’ diverse roster makes them more equipped than almost anyone to handle a variety of opponents.
Against the Nuggets, Houston Rockets or Minnesota Timberwolves, the Clippers can go big with Zubac at center. If they face the Thunder or Grizzlies, they can play two of their four wing defenders to help them combat all the spacing and skill they’ll need to deal with versus those teams. And if they play the Warriors or Lakers, they can go small by playing Simmons at the five. The point is they have plenty of options.
Two-Way Balance
To make a deep postseason run, teams generally need to fall under one (or more) of three buckets. They must be an elite offense, an elite defense or balanced on both sides of the ball (top 10 in both offensive and defensive rating, for example).
The Clippers defense’ is very good, but at fourth in defensive rating, it doesn’t necessarily constitute as elite. Meanwhile, their season-long offense is closer to average than awesome (18th in offensive rating).
However, a big reason their offense has waned so much is they have spent a large part of the season without their best offensive weapon in full form. Kawhi Leonard has only played 26 of the Clippers’ last 69 games. He’s played in six of their last 10, though, and in that span, we’ve gotten a glimpse at just how dynamic this Clippers team is at max power.
Kawhi Leonard in 8 March games: 25.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.1 steals, 40% from 3, 59% TS pic.twitter.com/lh7eOcxL7Y
— Sportscasting NBA (@SportcastingNBA) March 19, 2025
Over their last eight games, the Clippers boast the league’s second-best offensive rating, sixth-best defensive rating and third-best net rating — the exact type of footprint we’ve seen from past contenders.
Elite Lineup Options
To be a true contender, not only does it behoove teams to have a deep bench or fit in one of the three boxes outlined above, they also need to have a lineup that can go blow-for-blow with the fiercest teams in the association.
That statement alone sounds rather nebulous. How can a team know if its best lineup actually meets the threshold necessary to give it a shot at the trophy?
Last year, I tried to answer this question. What I found was 19 of the last 21 NBA Champions had a regular season lineup featuring most/all of their best players with 300 or more non-garbage time possessions together and posted a point differential of at least plus-9.0 per 100 possessions (per Cleaning the Glass).
The Clippers have that in their five-man unit of Harden, Powell, Jones, Leonard and Zubac. That group has played 377 possessions together and is plus-24.4 per 100 possessions. It’s the second-highest mark of any five-player lineup with 300 possessions in the NBA this season.
Is This Finally The Clippers’ Year?
All this comes with the same caveat attached to the Clippers for the last six years: if they stay healthy. There is no guarantee Leonard finally makes it through a postseason unscathed, that Harden — who’s carried a substantial load all year — doesn’t run out of gas the further they advance or Powell’s hamstring injury hasn’t zapped him of the pop fueling his special start to 2024-25.
In fact, it is more than likely one or more those things go wrong and the Clippers’ season flames out the same way it has for years now. But on the off chance the stars finally decide to align for them, I wouldn’t count them out of the mix just yet. They have all the tools necessary to travel deep into the postseason.
