Hey there, Last Night In Basketballers — I am, as I do every year, re-appropriating the Three Things I Noticed on League Pass format to preview the upcoming season. Instead of three things I noticed, it’ll be something more along the lines of three things I’m looking forward to, interested in, or want to see. Some of them might be narrative-based, some might be stats, and some might include video. But they'll all be focused on the 2026-27 campaign.
The schedule for those posts will be as follows (podcasts previewing each division with Mo Dakhil are in parentheses):
- Atlantic Division (BOS, BKN, NYK, PHI, TOR) (Podcast)
- Central Division (CHI, CLE, DET, IND, MIL) (Podcast)
- Southeast Division (ATL, CHA, MIA, ORL, WAS) (Podcast)
- Pacific Division (GSW, LAC, LAL, PHX, SAC) (Podcast)
- Northwest Division (DEN, MIN, OKC, POR, UTA) (Podcast)
- Southwest Division (DAL, HOU, MEM, NOP, SAS) (Podcast)
So without further ado, let's get to the Los Angeles Clippers, who, well, you know.
The roster, a hodgepodge
Have you seen the list of guys on this team? It's incredible.
Darius Garland! Brandon Ingram! Max Strus! Rui Hachimura! Derrick Jones Jr.! Keaton Wagler! Brook Lopez! Gradey Dick! Isaiah Jackson! Bradley Beal! Kris Dunn! Jordan Miller! Yanic Konan Niederhauser! Kobe Sanders! Cam Christie! Baba Miller! Jalen Pickett on a two-way!
This is not a roster that makes any degree of real sense, except insofar as it's clearly meant to be a transition from one era to the next, and not necessarily supposed to win very many games. It's not quite like the Bucks' roster, necessarily, but it's not not like the Bucks' roster.
Meanwhile, Ingram is going to be out for a while after it was discovered that he had a partially torn Achilles during his heel surgery. Miller is out for like six months with a torn labrum in his shoulder. Strus injured his foot in the first preseason game. And Beal is dealing with a knee injury during training camp. So, that's all going great.
Ty Lue coaching an under-manned roster is at least vaguely interesting, I guess. Lue has never coached a team that didn't have at least one star player (he almost immediately left the Cavs the year after LeBron did, and then he's had Kawhi Leonard and/or Paul George and/or James Harden for his entire time in L.A. so far), so it'll be interesting to watch him coach a squad that clearly doesn't. (Even if Garland rediscovers his All-Star form, he's clearly not on the same level as those guys.)