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Clippers 2025 Exit Interviews: Drew Eubanks
Our exit interview series on the 2025 Clippers continues with mid-season acquisition Drew Eubanks.
Basic Information
Height: 6’9
Weight: 245 pounds
Position: Center
Age: 28
Years in NBA: 7
Key Regular Season Stats: 2.7 points, 0.4 assists, 2.4 rebounds, 0.1 steals, 0.3 blocks, and 0.4 turnovers in 7.4 minutes per game across 24 games played (zero starts) on 55.1/78.6 (0.6 FTA attempts) shooting splits (58.9 True Shooting)
Postseason Stats: Garbage time only
Expectations
Drew Eubanks was acquired mid-season along with Patty Mills
for Mo Bamba and PJ Tucker. While Eubanks was filling Bamba’s spot in the rotation
as the backup big man, there were really no illusions that Eubanks would become
a key part of the Clippers’ playoff push. Instead, expectations were that he
would play some minutes if Zu was in foul trouble, get limited rotation chances
against certain matchups, and just be on hand in case of injury so the Clippers
had another veteran big to fill gaps.
Reality
Reality squarely met expectations, as Eubanks played under
200 minutes in the regular season for the Clippers and only logged 13 garbage
time minutes in the playoffs. While Eubanks appeared in most of the regular
season games down the stretch of the season, a lot of those minutes came
exclusively in garbage time. When Eubanks did play, he was mostly bad, with his
energy and hustle not made up for by his lack of height, athleticism, or, quite
frankly, skill. His baseline competence as a seasoned NBA veteran made him
better than Kai Jones, but he was not a marked improvement over Mo Bamba.
Instead, he sat right in the Mo zone as “good 3rd stringer, not a
solid option for a rotation spot”.
Future with Clippers
Eubanks is under contract for next season at a non-guaranteed
$4.75M. While that’s an overpay for a guy who to me is not really a rotation
player on a good team, it’s still an easily movable contract that the Clippers
can use in trades. Thus, while it’s possible he gets traded this summer, I find
it unlikely that the Clippers will waive him to cut his salary entirely unless doing
so unlocks a move that can’t be done via trade. Considering the Clippers don’t
have another center on the roster after Ivica Zubac, I think it’s also perfectly
logical to think that Eubanks also actually makes the Clippers’ opening night
roster as their backup center, even if he’s not the ideal candidate.