Lawrence Frank has said the Los Angeles Clippers are not a contender, a blunt assessment that lands with the team still trying to sort out who it will actually have when the season starts. He said in June that the plan remained to win with Kawhi Leonard, but also that the bigger picture was simple: the Clippers were not good enough yet and had to find a way back to contention.
That matters now because September has arrived and the Clippers are still reshaping around that reality. They finished the 2025-26 regular season at 42-40 and missed the playoffs, extending a run of five years without a playoff series win. They then agreed a week after Frank’s June remarks to trade Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, in a deal that would send Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and draft capital to LA.
But the swap has not gone through. The Raptors paused the transaction until the NBA decides whether the Clippers will be punished in a yearlong investigation into alleged salary-cap circumvention, leaving Leonard under contract with the Clippers as of September and Ingram and Dick still under contract with Toronto. Until that ruling comes, the league’s answer on punishment will determine whether the reported trade remains a paper deal or becomes a completed one.
Frank has not acted as if the Clippers are standing still. In the same stretch, the team acquired Max Strus in a five-team trade with the Denver Nuggets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards, and Frank said Strus would be a big part of a highly competitive team this season. The Clippers are planning for the 30-year-old, a 37 percent 3-point shooter on an expiring $16.6 million contract, to be in the rotation whether he starts or not.
That push to stay competitive comes with real risk. Jordan Miller suffered a torn rotator cuff in a workout and is expected to remain out at least through the 2027 All-Star break, while Bradley Beal is being asked to prove he is healthy enough to earn a rotation spot after season-ending surgery in November to repair a fracture in his left hip following only six games. The Clippers also let Bennedict Mathurin walk, a reminder that their roster math is being driven as much by what they gave up as by what they added.
So the Clippers are trying to move in two directions at once: build around Leonard, even as a deal sending him to Toronto remains unresolved, and rework the roster around players such as Strus while waiting on the NBA’s next move. The ruling on any punishment is now the piece that matters most, because it will decide whether the Leonard trade can be completed or whether the Clippers are forced to keep building with a roster that may still change again.
