NBA Draft won’t change Clippers’ free-agency plans, and James Harden is ‘No. 1 priority’

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The NBA Draft was another opportunity for the LA Clippers to utilize their new home, the Intuit Dome, in unforeseen ways.

This time a year ago, Intuit Dome had yet to open, and the Clippers operated out of their expiring practice facility in Playa Vista, Calif. They didn’t have a first-round pick, and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank and general manager Trent Redden didn’t address the media until after selecting teenager Cam Christie out of Minnesota. Paul George left the franchise by the end of the weekend. This year? It was like a celebration. Season-ticket holders were invited to Court B to watch the draft and hear from the Clippers’ brain trust.

“Just looking back on it — our toughness, our defensive intensity, finishing third in the NBA in defense — but it didn’t translate to the playoffs, which is kind of tough for me,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said while participating in what felt like a fireside chat with play-by-play broadcaster Brian Sieman and sideline reporter Lauren Rosen in front of fans. “But just talking about it with our coaches, (Ivica) Zubac, he protected the paint for us all season long. He did a great job of just protecting. But now, when you think about it, if you’re playing against the Denver Nuggets, Joker (Nikola Jokić) is on the 3-point line. So Zu is on the 3-point line. When guys get beat to the basket, we had no rim protection. We were first in the league in defensive rebounds … but in this series, same thing.

“As much as I was mad that it didn’t translate to the playoffs, it was a reason why. And I thought Denver did a good job of just exploiting those matchups. But I’m really happy and proud of our team. I think we got a good chance next year to be pretty good,” Lue said.”

LA wound up using the 30th pick, only its third first-round pick in the last six years, on Penn State center Yanic Konan Niederhauser. Perhaps Niederhauser, a native of Switzerland who destroyed the G League Elite Camp and earned a combine invite, could help Zubac in terms of giving the Clippers some consistent relief. But this is also a Clippers team that hasn’t had a rookie play at least 1,000 minutes in a season since 2018-19. That was 2025 MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Clippers executives made it clear that they like Niederhauser’s potential as the most athletic center in the draft, but there will be another option for LA to add to the frontcourt.

“We’ll probably have at least three centers,” Frank said. “We may want to get a different complement to balance it, because it’s hard at any level for rookies to come in, but especially on a team like ours. But we’ll kind of see how the roster plays out.”

Lawrence Frank on the top line for Yanic Konan Niederhauser

– terrific athlete (N/S)
– Fast, aced combine
– screener/roller/vert threat
– potential future 3-point shooter
– super coachable
– understands where he needs to improve
– motivated to be good
– legit positional size pic.twitter.com/6SbQRRk6Aa

— Law Murray 🚨 (@LawMurrayTheNU) June 26, 2025

The Clippers are the oldest team in the NBA. And though they are not one of the NBA’s best teams, the Clippers are a good team that happens to have one of the league’s best free agents — potentially. Point guard James Harden, a third-team All-NBA selection for the first time in five years, has a player option for 2025-26 worth more than $36 million.

“We were able to formally engage with James once the finals ended,” Frank said after the first round of the draft. “He’s our No. 1 priority. We’re super hopeful that James is here, and he’s here for a long time. But yet, at the same time, we always respect that he has a player option. So he can opt in, and obviously, we’re super, super excited with that. Or he can opt out, and hopefully we can do a deal that makes sense for both sides.”

About that. League sources say that Harden would not prefer to opt in to that last year of a contract signed a year ago. An opt-in would likely signal that the Clippers and Harden are far apart to the point where Harden would start looking for other teams. The scenario everyone expects is that Harden opts out, intending to re-sign with the Clippers. Harden, who turns 36 in August, can’t sign for more than three years due to the Over-38 rule in the collective bargaining agreement.

“James was phenomenal, and we hope to continue to see his play,” Frank said.

Kawhi Leonard, who turns 34 years old on the same day (Sunday) that Harden and veteran power forward Nicolas Batum’s player option decisions are due, spent time in France this week. But before that, Leonard had been working in a way that his body hadn’t permitted him to in recent years. This marked the first season that Leonard was healthy to end the regular season and postseason in five years. And even in 2020, the entire league was suspended for four months before resuming play in Florida due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“He actually continued to train all the way until basically the end of the finals because he wanted to push his body to get to that point so he can play deep in June,” Frank said about Leonard on Wednesday. “He’s extremely excited because it’s the first time in a while he’s not rehabbing from a surgery, an injury. … He pushed himself all the way until the finals, and now he’ll continue with his normal summer routine.”

In the second round of the draft, the Clippers moved up a spot from No. 51 to No. 50 to select Nevada point guard Kobe Sanders, a 6-foot-7 San Diego native who averaged 4.5 assists and only 1.8 turnovers per game last season. Before Sanders’ selection, Frank discussed another San Diego native who was a second-round pick back in 2015, Norman Powell.

Last season was something of a career year for Powell, who averaged the most points (21.8), steals (1.2) and 3s (3.0) of his career while shooting better than 40 percent from 3 for the sixth time in his career. Powell certainly benefited from the “addition by subtraction” of George’s departure.

But as great as Powell was before the All-Star break, he struggled afterward with multiple injuries (knee, hamstring) and uneven play, culminating in his worst playoff game of the Denver series in Game 7. Now, Powell may be in the same position in 2025 that George was in two years ago: extension eligible, on the other side of 30 and entering the final year of a contract while missing at least 20 games in three of the last four years.

Powell may be the most interesting trade candidate for the Clippers, whether that is this offseason or at the February deadline, in what could be their effort to find a difference-maker with size. But Powell is a valuable on- and off-ball player who may be needed to begin the season with the Clippers, given Harden’s high workload from last season and Leonard’s challenges with durability and availability.

“Norm extension conversations actually can’t start until July,” Frank said. “At the appropriate time, we’ll sit with Norman and his representative to talk about an extension and what it would look like and how it would fit in the bigger picture.”

The Clippers ended the draft with two players who likely won’t figure into the rotation in 2025-26. Niederhauser is likely a third-string center, while Sanders is likely to start his NBA career on a two-way contract. LA added two more undrafted free-agent rookies who are expected to play on a summer league team coached by assistant Jeremy Castleberry: Butler lead playmaker Jahmyl Telfort and Yale shooter John Poulakidas.

In addition to Harden and Batum, the Clippers’ free agents include center Ben Simmons, shooting guard Amir Coffey, point guard Patty Mills and two-way contract Trentyn Flowers (restricted). Small forward Jordan Miller is likely to stay on a non-guaranteed contract, while center Drew Eubanks is on a non-guaranteed contract that could be useful for trade purposes.

Using the same objectives entering the draft, here are five potential free agents to watch for the Clippers, one for each position:

• San Antonio Spurs point guard Chris Paul
• Washington Wizards shooting guard Malcolm Brogdon
• Minnesota Timberwolves small forward Nickeil Alexander-Walker
• Milwaukee Bucks power forward Bobby Portis
• Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez

There will be more to learn from LA’s draft picks at summer league next month. How the Clippers use their portion of the midlevel exception to upgrade a roster that could realistically have three open standard contract roster spots will be determined in the next week. LA doesn’t need much: a point guard who can run the second unit and spot start for Harden, as well as a big who can play in the second unit with the size to defend power forwards and centers, along with the skill to play with Zubac potentially.

But it all starts with Harden’s decision this weekend.

“What’s the best-case scenario? That James is here a long time, and the Clippers win championships,” Frank said this week. “That’s the best case scenario.”

(Photo of James Harden: Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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