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Chis Paul is coming home to Los Angeles as the Clippers continue to ace their 2025 offseason. It’s quietly been one of the more impressive front office jobs for a while now.
Back when the Clippers signed up for more Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, which looked like a busted duo masquerading on name value, for well north of $200 million, and then proceeded let Paul George walk to Philly, many, myself included, posited that they were simply trying to keep a sinking ship afloat long enough to at least open their new arena. But Leonard got healthy and Harden made All-NBA and the Clippers built themselves back into a contender by way of depth and defense.
So now they’re staying in the Kawhi and Harden business, but only through 2027, when they both come off the books and the Clippers are positioned to have max cap space for a fresh start on a new era. Meanwhile, they continue to put themselves in position to maximize this one just when it was starting to looked like a plagued venture.
They were smart not to overpay George like the Sixers did, even though, again, a lot of people argued that if you were going to pay Harden and Leonard you might as well take the full measure and pay George. But they knew something we didn’t, that Norman Powell was ready to not just take George’s place but actually be an upgrade.
Powell played so well last season that he’s now in line for a massive raise next summer as an unrestricted free agent. So the Clippers, aiming for clean books in 2027, traded him to the Heat in a three-team deal that brought back John Collins, who’s on an expiring contract.
Collins stands to be one of the better under-the-radar moves of the summer, but still, the loss of Powell stood to really hurt the Clippers … until they signed Bradley Beal to a two-year, $11 million clearance-rack contract. Beal isn’t as good as Powell these days, but at that cost he’s a great replacement; if he commits defensively, which is a must with the Clippers for anyone not named Harden, he could be turn out to the be the steal of the summer.
How were the Clippers able to sign Brook Lopez while staying under the tax line, which, in turn, gave the access to the full MLE for Beal? By Harden agreeing to sign for less that his max — $81.5 million over two years with the second year not even fully guaranteed.
“Without James, we can’t even get Brad [Beal], because we wouldn’t have use of the full MLE,” Clippers president Lawrence Frank said this summer. “So that allowed us to get Brook [Lopez] and Brad because of the way James [Harden] structured his contract. Two, the way he’s structured his contract in year two gives us flexibility that if we want to have max space, we can choose to do so.
“He’s been great in that sense,” Frank added. “He’s also been great in that he’s very, very proactive. When word was out that Brad may get a buyout [from Phoenix] and we were allowed to talk to Brad, James was the first one, `well let me call him.` And willing to do anything. So, all James cares about is winning.”
So kudos to Harden, who did the same thing with a team-friendly deal in Philadelphia to allow the Sixers to sign P.J. Tucker and wasn’t rewarded, in his mind, on his next contract. Now, Harden has made plenty of money in his career and let’s chill on the philanthropist talk over a guy on an $81.5 million contract. But he could’ve said to hell with taking a pay cut again, and he didn’t. He wants to give this team its best chance to compete. Beal and Lopez go a long way toward that end if — and this is always a big IF — Leonard can stay healthy.
However it turns out, you have to applaud the Clippers’ process. They let Powell go knowing, or at least having a pretty good idea, that they were going to get Beal, and again, they got Collins on top of it for their trouble. Collins was a forgotten man with the Jazz, but this is a guy who averaged a hair shy of 20 points and eight rebounds per game on 53/40/85 shooting splits last season.
In Harden, he’ll have his best pick-and-roll pilot since Trae Young, and on a team with two All-NBA level players and another All-Star-caliber guy in Ivica Zubac, he won’t be overtasked with a being a top-line guy as he was in Atlanta when his stock was near All-Star status.
Collins is not Aaron Gordon, but there are similarities and look what happened to Gordon when he downsized from go-to guy in Orlando to role-player extraordinaire in Denver. At the very least, Collins combines with Lopez to give the Clippers enviable frontcourt depth in a league that continues to collectively prioritize size.
Now here comes Paul, who played all 82 games for the Spurs last season and was a top-10 assist man at 7.4 per game. He’s obviously not the player he used to be entering his 21st season, but like Beal at $5.5 million, Paul is a very helpful player at $3.6 million for one year. Same for Lopez, who goes from a limited, declining starting center to a bonafide bench boon at $18 million over two seasons.
Imagine adding Bradley Beal, Chris Paul and Brook Lopez for $18 million, total, in Year 1 salaries. I don’t care where they are in their respective careers, that’s a score. Everything is relative, meaning if you’re leaning on Paul and Lopez to run pick-and-pop offense as a starting tandem, at this point, you’re in trouble, but if you’re able to use them against second units, you’re spoiled.
Understand, this is still a dicey situation. None of it will matter if Leonard isn’t healthy and/or Harden goes in the tank for multiple playoffs games. It’s an extremely old roster. The West is a bloodbath. But from where they were when George left and it looked like they were sinking right alongside Leonard’s health and Harden’s game, this is an incredible position to be in for a 10-deep team with a real chance to compete with the league’s best.
