Zach Harper's 2022 Clippers offseason recap: Grades, goals and more (2024)

The NBA offseason! It feels like it never stops. Except here’s the thing: I think we got to a place where it’s basically over and we’re just treading water until we get to training camp toward the end of September. Sure, we might get a trade request from a disgruntled star player before we get to preseason, and that request might be approved by his incumbent team. For the most part, it feels like we know where the free agents are and where rosters stand heading into next season.

With that, I thought it was a good time to look at how rosters changed and what it means for all 30 NBA teams. We can do that by examining what happened to them last season, how their four groups of players (lead guards, wings, forwards and bigs) changed this summer, whether or not the team got better and how they find success with the new group. We’ll also give them an overall grade for the summer and bring you a local or national expert to answer three pressing questions about this team.

How an offseason ended up for each team depends on what their goals are for constructing their group of guys. These are the statuses available for the 30 teams:

• Rebuilding franchise
• Tired of rebuilding franchise
• Play-In Tournament gives them life
• Playoff hopeful
• On the brink of contention
• Contender
• Championship or bust

Today, we are breaking down the LA Clippers (42-40 last season), who are still waiting to show us what they’re capable of when they’re healthy.

Overall grade from the offseason: B

Team status: Playoff Hopeful

What happened last season?

One of the most impressive coaching performances by Tyronn Lue you could have ever asked for. Remember when Doc Rivers won Coach of the Year in his first season in Orlando because he took a bad Magic team to 41-41? This Clippers team was better than that Magic team, but this coaching job was comparable to what Rivers did. Lue missed Kawhi Leonard for the entire season. Paul George only made it to 31 games. Marcus Morris Sr. missed 28 games. They only had Norman Powell for five games after acquiring him and Robert Covington midseason. Nicolas Batum missed 23 games. The Clippers’ three highest minutes totals came from Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard and Terance Mann, and they still went 42-40 and had a top-eight defense in the NBA. That’s an incredible accomplishment, even when the West was a little down.

Jackson and Kennard were phenomenal. All season, people were just hoping for Leonard and George to get healthy and play. Instead, the Clippers just embraced the idea of trying to win ugly and making you work against their defense in an annoying fashion. Then they’d see if Jackson or Kennard could win the game in the final minutes. It was legitimately effective. The Clippers haven’t fulfilled their destiny of truly competing for a title since acquiring Leonard and George in the summer of 2019. There have been a lot of circ*mstances getting in the way. But Lue has continued to establish himself as one of the NBA’s top coaches, and they were able to truly set a culture last season. It ended without a playoff appearance, as LA lost to Minnesota and New Orleans in the Play-In Tournament. But it caught the attention of a lot of people.

Positional changes

We may have some quibbles over which players belong in specific groups, but I’m just going with my overall impressions of where they did belong and where they probably will belong next season. Not ordered in the expected depth chart. Also, lot of deals are done on draft night where a player is drafted by one team for a trade directed by their trade partner. So we’re doing catch-alls for players acquired on draft night as drafted by their current team. It’s just easier that way.

Be sure to check out David Aldridge’s team offseason rankings with the Clippers clocking in at No. 12.

(Lead guards are just considered the main initiators from the backcourt position.)

Transactions: Signed John Wall (two years, $13.2 million)

Did the Clippers improve here? Jackson was tremendous for the Clippers last season, but they needed some more depth. They solved that by bringing in Wall, fresh off his buyout in Houston. Wall could end up as the starter. In fact, it might even be a better fit so Jackson can run the second unit. But either way, this is a big improvement for the Clippers. Don’t expect All-Star John Wall, but he should still be quite good.

(Wings will do some playmaking, but they’re mostly there to get their job done from the perimeter in various scoring or 3-and-D roles.)

Transactions: Re-signed Amir Coffey (three years, $11 million) | Re-signed Nicolas Batum (two years, $22.5 million) | Signed Xavier Moon (Exhibit 10) | Waived Jay Scrubb

Did the Clippers improve here? The Clippers definitely improved here, but it’s because they’re getting Leonard back into the fold. I think people forget just how good he is because he hasn’t been around as much as we’d like since the 2019 title run in Toronto. Leonard is one of the most effective and dominant players in the NBA. Adding him back to this group, and having a healthy George on top of that, gives the Clippers the deepest wing corps in the NBA. This could be a truly special group. I like the deals to bring back Coffey and Batum too. Good value there.

(Bigger guys who aren’t quite wings across the board, but they’re not consistently playing big enough to get the full-time “big” distinction.)

Transactions: Signed Robert Covington to extension (two years, $24 million) | Drafted Moussa Diabaté with 43rd pick

Did the Clippers improve here? No real change here. The extension for Covington is good value. They need to get him back to the Houston and Minnesota days of effectiveness. Maybe there’s too much wear-and-tear to do that, but that version of Covington would be a massive presence on an already really good Clippers defense.

(The big fellas; it’s pretty self-explanatory.)

Transactions: Re-signed Ivica Zubac (three years, $32.8 million) | Signed Moses Brown (Exhibit 10)

Did the Clippers improve here? They take a hit here because Isaiah Hartenstein became a really good role player, and losing him to New York is tough without properly replacing him. Feels like the Zubac contract is a steal. What he does for just over $10 million per season feels like he doesn’t value himself. I would guess the open market would almost double that number for him, but maybe he just wanted to stay with the Clippers. Or maybe the league is correcting the big-man tax of the past? Great signing by the Clippers.

Did the team get better?

Just with Leonard being back, the Clippers are demonstrably better. Of course, there’s going to be concern with how long Leonard is back, and that will extend to George as well. Their injury histories will leave some doubt in any team outlook because you don’t know if you can count on them to be there enough nights. But the Clippers bring back a very deep team, and they added Wall to the mix. I said it earlier, and it’s worth repeating: do not expect the Wall of old, who was one of the better point guards in the NBA. But even if you think of Wall can become the level of effective for the Clippers that Jackson has become, having two of those running the squad is a huge boost. What a great pickup.

What does it mean for next season?

Clippers fans will hate hearing this all year because it’s become the baseline of analysis around this team for some time now. But everything depends on how healthy the stars end up being. If you can guarantee me even 60 games plus playoffs each for Leonard and George, then the Clippers are absolutely title contenders. This is a deep team. Maybe you’d like a little more size coming off the bench, but this team is structured in a way that its small lineups are often strong enough to still play pretty big. It’s not something a lot of teams can say.

The Clippers could end up as one of the top seeds in the West and play for the NBA title. They could also be in the Play-In Tournament, just hoping their two stars will be good to go if they can get to the first round of the playoffs. They’re like an upgraded, good version of the current Los Angeles Lakers in that way. You are worried about the availability of the stars. The difference is the Clippers have a lot of good role players to keep things afloat, and the Lakers do not. Let’s just hope the Clippers are healthy enough to show us what they can truly do.

Three quick questions with Law Murray, Clippers beat writer for The Athletic

Zach Harper is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the NBA. Zach joined The Athletic after covering the NBA for ESPN.com, CBS Sports and FRS Sports since 2009. He also hosts radio for SiriusXM NBA and SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio. Follow Zach on Twitter @talkhoops