Clippers Building Playoff Roster Despite NBA Sanctions
Jake Fisher reports the Clippers remain focused on assembling a playoff-caliber team for 2026/27 even as sanctions and front-office upheaval reshape the club.
The Clippers intend to build a playoff-level roster for 2026/27, according to insider Jake Fisher, despite heavy NBA sanctions and a squad reshaped on the fly.
"It is very difficult to forecast what the Clippers will be aiming for next summer. But throughout the off-season and right up to today, the club has been focused on building a playoff-level team for this season," Fisher said.
The insider added that reaching the play-offs has been the club's aim ever since Steve Ballmer took over.
The Clippers were fined and stripped of five first-round picks over salary-cap manipulation. Several senior executives, including Ballmer and Lawrence Frank, have been suspended for lengthy periods, and the club is still working through the appointment of an interim manager — it had no representative in New York for the NBA Board of Governors' recent quarterly meeting.
Trent Redden is set to take charge of basketball operations once that process is completed. By all accounts, it was Redden who called the Raptors and agreed with them to close out a previously discussed deal exactly as originally planned: the Clippers receive Kawhi Leonard, with Brandon Ingram going the other way as the headline name.
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