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2025 Clippers Exit Interviews: Bones Hyland
Our exit interview series continues with Bones Hyland, who barely appeared at all for the Clippers in his third year on the team.
Basic Information
Height: 6’2
Weight: 175 pounds
Position: Point Guard
Age: 24
Years in NBA: 4
Key Regular Season Stats: 7.2 points, 1.4 assists, 1.2 rebounds, 0.9 steals, and 1.2 turnovers in 11.1 minutes per game across 20 games played (0 starts) on 39.1/38.8/88.5 (4.0 3PA, 1.3 FTA) shooting splits (56.9 True Shooting)
Expectations
Theoretically, there was a path for Bones to provide value on the Clippers this year. The Clippers knew they would have to lean heavily on James Harden – an aging guard with a ton of miles – but their primary backup point guard was set to be the unreliable and frankly bad Kevin Porter Jr. An injury to either Harden or Porter Jr., or poor play from the latter, would seem to open a path for Bones to enter the rotation.
In actuality, all the reporting from Clippers’ beat reporters over the past year indicated that the Clippers were done with Bones, and that he would play only in garbage time or as a last resort. Really, the only expectation for Bones was when – not if – he would get traded during the season.
Reality
Sure enough, expectations matched reality. Bones sat on the bench for the first month-plus of the season, appearing in games only in garbage time. Then, in early December, Kevin Porter Jr. went down and Bones was thrust into the rotation. Bones had two massive games back to back, scoring 18 points on 12 shots against the Wolves on December 4 and 22 points against the Rockets on 13 shots on December 8. Unfortunately, the Clippers were blown out in both games, and when Porter Jr. got health a few days later, Bones went right back to riding the pine.
The rest of the season kept going in much the same way, with Bones mixing in mostly DNP-CDs with the occasional garbage time stint. Finally, on February 6, Bones was traded to Atlanta as part of the Terance Mann deal. Almost immediately, reporting came out that Atlanta would just waive Bones, and he was only in the deal as salary filler. When the buyout was completed, Bones sat as a free agent for a bit before signing with the Timberwolves as a two-way player. He’s still on the Wolves now, cheering from the bench as the Wolves progress into the Western Conference Finals.
Future with Clippers
Bones seems an incredibly unlikely candidate to return to the Clippers. Even if he’s able to stick around the NBA (and I hope he does – there’s real talent there, despite the on-court limitations and off-court frustrations), Bones probably rightly feels like he wasted the better part of two seasons on the Clippers, while the Clippers clearly had no interest in playing him. Any return of Bones to the Clippers would probably have to involve a change of coaching staff or front office in LA, or a lengthy time gap for any feelings and issues to get resolved. In the meantime, I hope he’s able to get a true chance to play in the NBA and prove he belongs as a reliable rotation player.