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Projecting Clippers’ Ceiling and Floor for 2026-27 NBA Season
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- Projecting Clippers’ Ceiling and Floor for 2026-27 NBA Season
(Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images)
The Los Angeles Clippers last played a game that counted on April 15, when the Golden State Warriors beat them 126-121 in the play-in tournament at Intuit Dome, and the team that hosts the Sacramento Kings to open the new season on Wednesday looks different from that one.
Forward Kawhi Leonard is with the Toronto Raptors now after a trade that brought back forward Brandon Ingram, guard Gradey Dick and future draft picks.
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That leaves guard Darius Garland and rookie guard Keaton Wagler, the fifth overall pick in the 2026 draft, in charge of a team that went 42-40 and finished ninth in the Western Conference last season.
Where the Roster Stands Before the Opener
Head coach Tyronn Lue will start the year without several players he planned to lean on.
Ingram is out with a partially torn Achilles and won't be ready when the season starts, and guard Bradley Beal has knee inflammation that will keep him out of the opener.
Guard Max Strus was diagnosed earlier this month with a partial tear of the plantar fascia in his right foot and was given a four-week re-evaluation timeline, so the coaches need a couple of players to step up .
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Lue said last week, in comments shared by ClutchPoints , that the team will wait for Strus to get healthy.
The Ceiling Is a Top-Six Seed
The best version of this season needs Ingram back on the floor and playing like the All-Star he was with Toronto last season, when he averaged 21.5 points in 77 games.
If he does that next to Garland, with Beal and Strus healthy too, this team would have more ways to score.
Losing Strus hurts more than it might look, as Lue explained to Clippers sideline reporter Ohm Youngmisuk earlier this month.
"A lot of movement, ATO's, coming off screens, pindowns… another guy that was shot-ready at all times, when he was on the floor, guys had to stay closer to him, more spacing, his movement… we are going to miss that tremendously."
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Lue also has forward Derrick Jones Jr., forward Rui Hachimura and center Brook Lopez, veterans who can hold the defense together while the scorers get healthy.
If all of that comes together, I think this team can climb into the top six of the West and skip the play-in, and I would call a first-round series win a big success.
The Floor Is Missing the Play-In
The worst case is a slow start the team never fixes, and the first week is not easy, with Sacramento at home on Wednesday, a trip to face the Lakers on Friday and a road game against the Thunder on Sunday.
If Ingram's return drags into the new year and Beal's knee keeps acting up, Garland would have to carry most of the scoring next to a 19-year-old rookie.
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Some pundits were already down on this team before the preseason started, and a long run without the best scorers would prove them right and could drop the Clippers outside the top 10.
My guess is 42 wins and another trip to the play-in, though I could see that number climbing to about 50 wins if Ingram is back by January, with the floor somewhere near 35 wins.
