Kawhi Leonard is gone. The paperwork is done. Now comes the hard part — building a team that actually works.
The Clippers enter September 16 staring at a roster that looks nothing like the Kawhi-era blueprint. Brandon Ingram is the trade centerpiece. Darius Garland is the sure-fire point guard. Around them: a jammed backcourt, a paper-thin frontcourt, a No. 6 pick who needs minutes, and a coaching staff inventing an identity from scratch. Ty Lue’s first season without Kawhi is not a soft landing. It is a full-blown puzzle — and the pieces do not snap together cleanly.
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The New Core: Garland and Ingram Are Locked — Everything Else Is Fluid
Project the starters and it keeps circling one lineup: Darius Garland, Max Strus, Brandon Ingram, Rui Hachimura, Brook Lopez — size, shooting, scoring, and questions stacked like traffic on the 110.
Garland and Ingram are the only sure-fire starters. Everything else is Lue’s chessboard. Strus and Rui give the best blend of size and shooting, so they have the inside track. Kris Dunn’s defense, Derrick Jones Jr.’s athleticism, and Bradley Beal’s résumé still knock on the door. Flexibility is the feature — and the headache.
Ingram arrives coming off a second All-Star nod and a 21.5-point, 5.6-rebound, 3.7-assist season across 77 games in Toronto. He is owed about $40 million this year — length, mid-range creation, and wing scoring a post-Kawhi roster needed. Garland, acquired in February when James Harden went to Cleveland, is the jitterbug engine: downhill, pick-and-roll, score-first. On paper, they complement. On the floor, someone has to decide who gets the last shot when the West turns ugly.
The Scout’s Cold Water: Complimentary Ingram, Undersized Garland
Not everyone is buying the new era. An anonymous NBA scout told Sports Illustrated the Clippers will be “interesting to watch” — then added he is “not sure there will be any easy answers.” That is a warning label in polite clothes.
On Ingram, the scout did not soft-pedal: “I’m not a big Brandon Ingram fan.” The critique ran deep — All-Star as a backdoor selection, real flaws, more complimentary piece than focal point. Run all the actions for him and “it’s going to be trouble.” As a third or fourth option, maybe he thrives. As the guy who has to put the team on his back next to Garland? The scouting report gets louder, and the Clippers may learn how thin the ceiling is.
Garland drew praise for getting downhill and playing pick-and-roll — then a blunt hit on defense. The scout called him a “big liability on defense because of his size,” questioning whether the offense makes up for it as a winning player. Score-first in the pick-and-roll means he needs a big, physical screener. Lopez is the veteran big. The same scout shrugged: smart, big body — “He’s not going to roll” — and at this age, the minutes question is real.
That is the tension. Ingram is the centerpiece. Garland is the floor general. Together they are the face of the franchise — and league voices still see complementary parts asked to become the main event.
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Who’s In, Who’s Out — And Why the Depth Chart Feels Lopsided
The turnover is real. Walking in: Ingram, Gradey Dick, Max Strus, Keaton Wagler (No. 6 overall out of Illinois), and Rui Hachimura. Walking out: Kawhi, John Collins, Bennedict Mathurin, Nic Batum. Add Beal back and Lopez’s team option picked up, and you get a roster rebuilt for spacing and scoring — not for Kawhi’s two-way gravity.
The imbalance jumps off the depth chart. The backcourt is crowded: Dunn, Beal, Wagler, Kobe Sanders, Dick, Cam Christie — and Garland already locked at the one. That is a minutes war waiting to happen. The frontcourt is the opposite problem. Lopez and Isaiah Jackson are the dependable bigs. Yanic Konan Niederhauser is still recovering from Lisfranc surgery. That is thin. Whether Trent Redden’s front office moves before tip-off will say a lot about how seriously they treat the paint problem.
Seventeen players are under contract. The limit is fifteen. Two names have to go. With the backcourt overflowing, Christie and Dick sit in the rumor crosshairs — even though Dick came in the Kawhi deal. Transitional years are ruthless: assets arrive, then get sorted.
Wagler is the wild card Lue cannot ignore. A high lottery pick after a breakout Illinois season, he needs runway — and he will get minutes for spacing, creation, and two-way growth. Without Kawhi’s gravity, young upside has to show up early — or those bleak 30-52 projections start looking prophetic.
Lue Without Kawhi, Ballmer on Ice, and a Camp Clock That Will Not Wait
This is Ty Lue’s first season without Kawhi as the franchise’s gravitational center — closing lineups, late-game isolations, and defensive assignments all rewrite at once. Steve Ballmer is serving a one-year suspension. Lawrence Frank is out for six months. Trent Redden leads basketball ops through the noise. The league stripped five first-round picks across the late-2020s and early-2030s — which is why Toronto’s 2031 and 2033 firsts, the 2027 first-round swap, and the 2030 and 2033 seconds matter. They do not erase the penalty. They refill the cupboard enough to keep a future alive.
Remember the path: Harden to the Cavs in February for Garland and a second. Zubac gone midyear. Kawhi to Toronto for Ingram, Dick, and the pick haul. Now the calendar compresses into basketball. Media Day is September 28 at Intuit Dome. Hawaiʻi camp runs September 29 through October 3. Preseason vs. the Warriors hits October 4. Then the emotional one — Raptors in Vancouver on October 10 — Kawhi in Toronto colors, Ingram and Dick in Clippers red and blue.
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What Clippers Nation Should Actually Watch For
Strip the scandal fog and the thesis is sharp. Can Ingram be more than a complimentary scorer when defenses key on him and Garland? Can Garland’s pick-and-roll juice outweigh size issues on the other end? Will Strus and Rui start — or will Dunn and Jones force a defensive look? Who survives the cut from 17 to 15? Does Wagler force real rotation minutes before Thanksgiving? And can Lopez plus Jackson hold the paint while Niederhauser heals?
This is not yesterday’s “trade just closed” story. This is the roster puzzle after the goodbye — scoring, shooting, youth, and draft capital back in the pipeline, plus scouting-world skepticism, a crowded perimeter, a thin middle, and a staff rewriting the playbook without Kawhi.
Interesting to watch? Absolutely. Easy answers? Do not hold your breath. Practice opens September 29 — and those reps will define whether this chapter opens as a retool that competes or a rebuild that learns the hard way.
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