Why The Clippers Are The Second-Best Team In The Western Conference

After losing Paul George for absolutely nothing this offseason, the 2024-25 Los Angeles Clippers have taken the basketball world by storm. With James Harden still playing at an All-Star level, Norman Powell making his best bid at the Most Improved Player of the Year (MIP) award, Ivica Zubac’s metronomic consistency, and a stifling defense (2nd in defensive rating), the Clippers have remained competitive without their best player.

Now, Kawhi Leonard is healthy and getting closer to his full form, and the Clippers look like a dangerous team. However, I’m willing to take this a step further and say that this Clippers squad is the second-most dangerous team in the Western Conference.

A Successful Trade Deadline

While the Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, and Sacramento Kings all added new star players to their ranks, it was the Clippers who did the best job of creating a roster with little to no weaknesses. In the last two weeks, they’ve introduced four new players, and three of those guys (sorry, MarJon Beauchamp) should remedy this roster’s most glaring issues.

Bogdan Bogdanovic

The Clippers may be near the top of the league on the defensive side of the ball, but their offense is a completely different story (21st in offensive rating).

Whenever a team is struggling on that end of the floor, it is usually due to a lack of creation and/or shooting (the Clippers are 28th in 3-point attempts per game). Being without Leonard for nearly 75% of the season has left a gaping hole in both of those areas and now that he’s back, the Clippers’ offense is trending upward. In Leonard’s minutes, the Clippers have an offensive rating of 117.4 (76th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass).

But even then, the Clippers could still use more shooting and secondary ball handling to take the load off of Leonard, Harden, and Powell. In theory, Bogdan Bogdanovic is the perfect player to carry out this role

The theoretical caveat is in play here because it has been a down scoring year for the veteran wing (10th percentile in true shooting). Still, he’s got great pedigree as a shooter (career 38% from three), and a history of being able to generate shots independently (71st percentile in unassisted field goal rate in 2021-22).

A new position on a team with more talent than his previous employer (the Atlanta Hawks) should help to alleviate some pressure off of Bogdanovic, which should, in turn, help him breakout of his recent slump.

Drew Eubanks

As we alluded to earlier, Zubac continues to be one of the most underrated big men in the NBA (see chart below). Unfortunately, even with all his splendor, he is still one man at the end of the day. And when that one man steps off the court, things get ugly for the Clippers.

According to PBP Stats, the Clippers have a net rating of +7.32 (61-win pace in an 82-game season) when Zubac is on the floor (1,600 minutes) and a -4.98 mark (27-win pace) when he is on the bench (906 minutes). A big reason for this disparity (outside of Zubac being very good) is the lack of a quality option behind him.

To be fair, Drew Eubanks – the team’s new backup center – isn’t clearly better than his predecessors, but he does give them another bite at the apple now that Mo Bamba and Kai Jones have run their course. Besides, if Eubanks doesn’t work out, the Clippers now have the flexibility to take their lineups in a different direction.

Ben Simmons

Shortly after the trade deadline ended, the Clippers landed arguably the biggest fish on the buyout market, signing three-time All-Star Ben Simmons for the rest of the season.

Injuries and the league learning how to weaponize his offensive pitfalls against him have diminished Simmons to the point where he hardly resembles the man who earned those All-Star honors. Still, Simmons has been semi-healthy this year (appearing in 33 games for the Nets), and the Clippers don’t need him to be an All-Star for them to have success.

What the Clippers need is someone who can adequately don the small-ball five mantle when they choose to go in that direction. If Eubanks doesn’t pan out, or they are just playing a smaller opponent, the Clippers may want to use a forward as their center when Zubac is off the floor.

So far, they have leaned on Nicolas Batum in these situations, but his body is too old to really be effective in this role, as evidenced by the Clippers being a -61.8 per 100 in their most used small-ball lineup (per Cleaning the Glass).

Simmons, with his blend of size, speed, and strength (6’10 and 240 pounds), offers a much more viable alternative in these spots, giving the ultimate in-game adjuster Tyronn Lue yet another toy in his bag of tricks.

Why The Clippers Are Dangerous

As long as Leonard is the team’s best player, there will always be skepticism surrounding the team and the ability of Leonard to make it to the finish line of a postseason run.

But, if Leonard can stay healthy (big “if,” I know), this team is the Oklahoma City Thunder’s biggest threat in the Western Conference. By adding the three players we highlighted above, the Clippers addressed their need for secondary creation, shooting, and a backup center. Now, they have a roster that has everything you need to be a versatile and balanced team.

Leonard, Harden, Bogdanovic, and Powell all give you on-ball creation, ball handling, and spacing. Zubac’s roll gravity gives you some much-needed rim pressure. He, Derrick Jones Jr., Kris Dunn, Amir Coffey, and Batum all give you size and rim protection (and all of them except Zubac give you perimeter defense, too). And, for IQ, you have a basketball genius at point guard (Harden) and another one on the bench (Lue).

They can also play so many different styles. They can play big with Zubac, play small with Simmons, prioritize offense by giving more minutes to Bogdanovic, be super switchable with all their defense-first wings/forwards, etc.

The Clippers have done a great job over the last couple of weeks of acquiring all the pieces they need to be as dynamic as possible. Now, they have a team that no one in the Western Conference should be excited to play.