We finally got an extended break between Clippers’ games, so now seemed like as good a time as any to hand out some grades. I was not kind.
Initial Starters
James Harden: B+
The Clippers talked all summer about trying to lighten the load on James Harden to keep him fresh for the playoffs. Mission failed so far. James is averaging 35.3 minutes per game, the exact same figure as last season. Moreover, due to injuries to key players and the ineffectiveness of other teammates, Harden’s usage is actually up, from 29.6 to 31.3; the highest it’s been since 2020, when Harden was an MVP-level player. Harden isn’t quite that good anymore, but he’s still been astonishingly effective for the Clippers, raising his scoring from 22.8 to 26.8 points per game while boosting his efficiency from a 58.2% True Shooting to 62.9%. He’s somehow even trimmed his turnovers slightly (though his assists have also taken a small hit). The reason Harden isn’t at an A+ is because his defense has been truly nightmarish. Unlike everyone else on the team though, it’s tougher to blame him considering the load he carries on offense. Harden being this good at age 36 is remarkable, and it’s the only thing keeping the Clippers from being unwatchable.
Bradley Beal: F
Beal played a measly six games for the Clippers before being ruled out for the season with a fractured hip. Even in the games he did play, Beal was entirely ineffectual, averaging 8.2 points, 0.8 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 20.2 minutes while scoring the ball at a highly inefficient rate and playing bad defense. You could see why the Clippers wanted Beal – he’s a more sure ballhandler and playmaker than Norm Powell – but he never looked healthy in his limited time and the team trying to feature him did not work. He will be back next season, presumably, as he has a player option that he will most likely pick up, and it will be hard for his 2027 to be worse than his 2026. You can’t blame Beal for his injuries, but that doesn’t make his season any less of a disaster for the team.
Derrick Jones Jr.: B
DJJ has missed the Clippers’ past 10 games with a knee injury, and the team has missed him greatly. While not having an outstanding season, Derrick is one of the few Clippers that didn’t actually underperform to start the season, putting up nearly identical numbers to last season. His defense was maybe slightly worse than 2025, like so many of his teammates, but it was still at least solid, and he provided his usual energy, above-the-rim offense, and fine-enough three-point shooting. The Clippers getting DJJ back and healthy is a huge step in their getting their defense back on track as well as just adding more pep in general.
Kawhi Leonard: C+
Kawhi is an interesting test case for these grades. His scoring is up pretty significantly from last season (25.4 points compared to 21.5), his efficiency is up somewhat, and his rebounding and assists are at a similar level. That would seem as though he should get a pretty solid grade. Well, I’d disagree with those raw numbers being a good reflection of Kawhi’s impact. First of all, his defense is worse than last season, when it was already significantly worse than it had been earlier in his Clippers tenure. Kawhi has been downright bad on that end in a number of games this year, and considering expectations are for him to be a real plus on that side of the court, that’s a big negative. Second, while Kawhi has only missed nine games, those nine were when the team truly fell off a cliff, and even though injuries aren’t the fault of players, they still matter when assigning grades. Finally, his minutes restrictions have been as frustrating as ever, with multiple games swinging in the balance when Kawhi had to check out due to an inability to play more. Now, all of that is basically saying Kawhi is too good for the Clippers to be without him – shouldn’t that result in a good grade? Considering how bad the team has been, the team’s best player not being available enough, and not being strong enough on the side of the ball they are losing games on, means it’s difficult to give Kawhi anything much above a “just passing” grade.
Ivica Zubac: C-
This one might confuse people. Let me explain. Zu is averaging the same number of minutes (32.8) and shot attempts (11.8) as last season. He has played in every game, like the trooper that he is. His scoring 15.9 is only slightly lower than his mark last season (16.8), and the same goes for his rebounding (11.6 to 12.6), assists (2.6 to 2.7), and blocks (0.9 to 1.1), while his shooting splits are only a bit worse (59.9% from field to 62.8). Those slight decreases across the board are one thing, but the fall-off in defense is what earns Zu a “disappointing” grade here, as I think more than any other individual player, Zu going from an All-Defense monster on that end last year to a decent at best defender this year (stats and eye test back this up) is a primary culprit in the team’s slide on that end. Nearly everyone on the team is worse on defense compared to last year, but Zu’s dip is larger in scale and also more impactful because of the position he plays. He’s still been good this year, but not close to the near All-Star level guy he was last year.
The Bench
Chris Paul: F
It’s hard to give CP3 anything other than an F, even without the locker room drama that resulted in him being sent home last week for good and basically dismissed from the team. Chris just did not have it, averaging a mere 2.9 points per game while shooting 32.1% from the field and 33.3% from three while never getting to the line (2 total attempts). There were flashes of his usefulness as a playmaker (3.3 assists to 1 turnover per game) and as a defender (0.7 steals, generally smart rotations), but like so many other Clippers he just looked old and slow most of the time. A sad end to a great career and the best Clipper of all time.
Kris Dunn: C+
A lot of people have been really down on Kris this year, and I get it. His defense is nowhere close to as good as it was last season, when he was one of the very best perimeter defenders in the entire NBA. This year, his defense has more just been in the “good” range, and that slippage is a big part of why the Clippers’ defense is not what it was last year. However, it must be said that Dunn’s offense has actually been better than last season by a real margin – he’s scoring more per game and doing so at a much higher efficiency due to better two-point percentages and higher free throw rate. There is also the fact that even though Dunn is overexposed as a high-minutes starter, that’s not his fault. He’s been pushed into the starting lineup due to injuries to Beal, DJJ, and Bogi, and has performed about as one would expect. At the very least, effort and energy is usually not a question with Dunn, and that earns at least minimal brownie points.
Bogdan Bogdanovic: C-
In some ways, I think Bogi kind of sums up the Clippers’ season. He hasn’t played much (just 10 of 23 games) and hasn’t been awful so much as ineffectual. His playmaking (3.2 assists, third-highest on the team and second to Harden if you exclude the departed CP3) is a bonus, and he’s had stretches of useful shotmaking. But the defense, shooting (33.3% from three on 5.1 attempts), and overall scoring (9.2 points per game) have just not been good enough, especially considering Beal’s absence. If the Clippers are to have any hope of turning their season around, they need Bogi to stay healthy and be an impactful force on offense.
Nic Batum: B-
Nico hasn’t been great, but he hasn’t been one of the problems on this team, and thus he gets one of the higher marks. His defense has still been mostly competent (his slow feet do not help on a team that’s so old, but he knows where to be, makes the right rotations, and is strong) and he’s made threes at a pretty solid clip (37.6%). Nico doesn’t offer anything else at this stage of his career, but for the Clippers’ 9th man base 3 and D competence is fine enough. Nico is no longer the solution, as he was a few years ago, but he’s not one of the guys whose play is draining the team.
John Collins: D
The Collins for Norm Powell swap, however understandable it may have been considering Norm’s desire for a contract extension and his poor play in the playoffs, currently looks like a disaster for this year’s team. Collins has been quite bad for the Clippers, offering almost nothing outside of scoring – and even his scoring (12.2 points) is way down from his mark last season (19). His rebounding has been abysmal, the defense has been worse, and the lack of creation outside of the easiest mismatch post-ups has been tough to watch. The energy and effort is there with Collins, and there have been a few games where he’s at least given the Clippers a good scoring punch, but there’s no denying how disappointing he’s been. He avoids an F due to his availability, effort, and a few bright spots, yet he might be the guy on this list I was the most wrong about.
Brook Lopez: F
There are other players whose performances have been more negatively impactful on the Clippers’ season, but if I was ranking personal disappointments, Brook would top the list. I was so excited for Brook, as despite his age he seemed like a lock to be the first competent backup center the Clippers have had behind Ivica Zubac since Isaiah Hartenstein in 2022. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. Brook has made threes at a decent rate, but that is the only thing he’s done well. He can’t rebound, he can’t move on defense, and his shooting doesn’t even space the floor much since opponents usually guard him with smaller players anyway. He’s been a true negative on both sides of the ball in a way I just was not expecting, and it’s been a real reason the Clippers have disappointed so badly. We all know the impact that bad backup centers can have on teams, and even in limited minutes Brook has reached that demarcation.
The Deep Bench
Kobe Sanders: A-
It’s been so long that the Clippers have had a decent rookie that I think people are a little overhyped on Sanders, whose raw numbers aren’t great and whose advanced stats are pretty awful. That bit of a cold shower out of the way, Sanders has nevertheless been one of the only bright spots in a miserable season. The second-round rookie is averaging 6.9 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 19.9 minutes per game, and while that production isn’t insane, it’s not at all bad considering that there were no expectations for Sanders to be a rotation player entering the season. Sanders is hitting threes at an ok clip (34.8%) while taking a few per game (2.9) and his on-ball defense has been mostly fine. The off-ball and rotation defense is still quite bad, but that’s true of most rookies. Even if the upside is fairly limited considering Kobe is already 23.5 years old, he’s had an impressive rookie season and looks like a real NBA player. That’s a win.
Cam Christie: B-
Cam has played 184 minutes so far this season, more than three times what he played in the NBA last year (59 minutes). He hasn’t been great, but his point of attack defense has looked solid, and he’s gotten to the line at a really impressive rate (albeit in obviously limited minutes). It’s not like he’s really contributed to wins, but he hasn’t looked awful, and for a 20-year old that barely played as a rookie, that’s enough to get a passing grade.
Jordan Miller: Incomplete
Jordan has played in fewer games than any other player on the Clippers roster (yes, fewer than Jahmyl Telfort or Brad Beal), and as such, giving a grade is tough. This is different than Beal, who was supposed to play a major role. Miller being limited in games due to injuries is much less an indictment of the roster construction and less important to the team.
Kobe Brown: C+
Has Kobe Brown been good? Not particularly. But considering he was not expected to play in the rotation at all this year, his minutes have been *fine* given the expectations. He’s actually averaging career highs in minutes, points, rebounds, assists, and scoring efficiency, and his minutes haven’t been particularly more negatively impactful than most other players on the Clippers. It was a low bar, to be sure, but Kobe has exceeded my expectations for the year at least a bit, hence the slightly above average grade. The defense and three-point shooting are still bad, but he’s effective in transition and adds at least some connective elements on offense.
Yanic Konan Niederhauser: Incomplete
Yanic has played only 57 minutes, and nearly all of them in garbage time. It’s impossible to give him a grade for the season to this point.
