{"id":168709,"date":"2025-12-03T08:41:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T13:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=168709"},"modified":"2025-12-03T08:41:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T13:41:58","slug":"why-the-clippers-are-parting-ways-with-future-hall-of-famers-what-is-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/12\/03\/why-the-clippers-are-parting-ways-with-future-hall-of-famers-what-is-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Clippers Are Parting Ways With Future Hall Of Famers And What Is Next"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> are parting ways with Chris Paul<\/a>, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Los Angeles Clippers are sending home future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul in a bizarre severing ties move, league sources tell me,” Haynes tweeted early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

The Clippers<\/a> are currently in Atlanta in the early going of a six-game road trip. Miami blew them out 140-123\u00a0on Monday night as the Heat shot 53% from the field and made 24 threes at a 52% clip. The 140 points are the most the Clippers have allowed since permitting 176 to Sacramento in a double-overtime affair on February 23, 2023.<\/p>\n

Why The Clippers Are Parting Ways With Future Hall Of Famers And What Is Next<\/h2>\n

Los Angeles entered the season looking to make a serious run at the Western Conference finals after adding several veterans. The Clippers, who had posted 50-win seasons in each of the last two seasons and three straight playoff appearances, were projected to win 46 to 50 games this year.<\/p>\n

But the Clippers are off to their worst start this decade, sitting in 14th place in the conference with a 5-16 record. The Clippers have lost 14 of 16, including five straight, with seven of those setbacks by double digits.<\/p>\n

Clippers’ Issues Started Early<\/h3>\n

LA had issues from the start, beginning with chemistry problems with its newcomers.\u00a0 John Collins,<\/a> making $26.5 million,\u00a0 is underperforming and is on pace for his least productive season since his rookie campaign. Brook Lopez<\/a> looks his age (37) while Paul and Bradley Beal<\/a>, before suffering a season-ending injury on November 10, were nonfactors. With those additions, the Clippers owned the oldest roster in NBA history with an average age of 29.6.<\/p>\n

Speaking of injuries, Beal is not the only Clipper to miss significant time. Bogdan Bogdanovic<\/a>, who has played just nine games this season, sat out the first two games and has sporadically missed games throughout — including the last six with a hip injury. Of course, Kawhi Leonard<\/a> continues to have difficulty staying healthy as he has already missed 10 games — the Clippers won only two of those contests and had a 5-11 record when he returned. Derrick Jones Jr.<\/a> has been sidelined for the past nine games with a knee sprain.<\/p>\n

While the Clippers have been below average offensively, their biggest issue has been on defense. The Clippers are 27th in defensive rating as opponents are shooting 47.8% from the field. Defending the 3-point line has been the Clippers’ most significant problem, as they allow 15.1 treys per game at 39.1% from the field. Rebounding, creating turnovers, and defense transition have also been issues. They were the third-best defensive team last season.<\/p>\n

What Is Next For The Clippers?<\/h3>\n

Paul, who announced that this was going to be his final season less than two weeks ago<\/a>, was one of four Clippers to receive a DNP-coaches’ decision in the loss to the Heat.\u00a0 It doesn’t appear that the Clippers will waive Paul, at least immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are parting ways with Chris, and he will no longer be with the team. We will work with him on the next step of his career,\u201d\u00a0 Clippers basketball president Lawrence\u00a0Frank said in the statement.<\/a> \u201cChris is a legendary Clipper who has had a historic career. I want to make one thing very clear. No one is blaming Chris for our underperformance. I accept responsibility for the record we have right now. There are many reasons we\u2019ve struggled. We\u2019re grateful for the impact Chris has made on the franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul returned to the Clippers to finish out his career with the team he previously spent six seasons with and had the most success with. However, the 40-year-old averaged just 2.9 points on 32.1% shooting and 3.3 assists in 14 minutes over 16 appearances.<\/p>\n

With Paul being sent back to LA and still on the roster, the Clippers will be severely shorthanded for the next several weeks. The NBA trade window doesn’t open up until December 15. The Clippers opened the season with 14 players on standard contracts, as they are just $1.2 million below the first apron, which is hard-capped. Their financial situation is why the Clippers are not releasing him.<\/p>\n

The Clippers could only have 10 players available tonight. Bogdanovic will join Jones Jr. and Beal on the sidelines, though he could be on Friday. Jahmyl Telfor<\/a>t is on a G-League assignment, and Jordan Miller<\/a> (back soreness) is questionable.<\/p>\n

Where Could Paul End Up?<\/h4>\n

Unless the Clippers start turning things around in the two weeks before NBA<\/a> trade season begins — four games for the Clippers– they will likely look to dump salary. The Clippers are $6.7 million over the luxury tax, though if they remain there at the end of the season, they will have to pay a repeater tax. They can get under the tax by trading Collins, whose contract is expiring, or Bogdanovic, who has a team option for next season. Lopez and Kris Dunn<\/a> are also trade candidates.<\/p>\n

Paul has a salary cap hit of just $2.9 million, meaning the Clippers can trade him to a team without taking back salary. The Clippers will likely get a conditional second-round pick or potentially cash in a trade.\u00a0 Paul probably won’t have too many suitors. But Sai Mohan of Heavy.com<\/a> mentioned the Houston Rockets,<\/a> Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, and Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> as possible landing spots.<\/p>\n

While the Thunder don’t seem like a real possibility, Paul could be a sensible addition for the Lakers or Rockets. The Lakers could use a veteran backup point guard and have an open roster. But they are just $1.1 million from being hardcapped at the first apron. So, they would likely have to make a subsequent move. Marcus Smart<\/a> has missed the past three games with a back injury.<\/p>\n

Houston is in the same situation as the Lakers. But the Rockets have a bigger need with Fred VanVleet<\/a> out for the season. Aaron Holiday has played heavy minutes over the last four games. As Tari Eason<\/a> and Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a> are dealing with injuries.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Chris Nicoll, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Clippers are parting ways with Chris Paul, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes. “Los Angeles Clippers are sending home future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul in a bizarre severing ties move, league sources tell me,” Haynes tweeted early Wednesday morning. The Clippers are currently in Atlanta in the early going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":168703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,31,27,26,62,3,4721],"tags":[233,229,998,168],"class_list":["post-168709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-rockets","category-clippers","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-brook-lopez","tag-chris-paul","tag-john-collins","tag-kawhi-leonard"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168709"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168714,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168709\/revisions\/168714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}