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The State of the Clippers’ Future Draft Picks
There have been a few requests on the blog to outline the Clippers’ future draft picks, so here it is! Hopefully this layout is straightforward enough.
Owned
2030 1st Round Pick
2031 1st Round Pick
2031 2nd Round Pick
Swapped
2025 1st round pick (with Thunder, from Paul George deal)
2027 1st round pick (with Thunder, from James Harden deal)
2029 1st round pick (with Sixers, protected 1-3, from James Harden deal)
2030 2nd round pick (with Jazz, from Kris Dunn deal)
Gone
2025 2nd round pick (to Lakers originally from Bones Hyland deal)
2026 1st round pick (to Thunder from Paul George deal)
2026 2nd round pick (to Grizzlies or Rockets from John Wall/Luke Kennard deal)
2027 2nd round pick (to Hawks from Lou Williams deal)
2028 1st round pick (to Sixers from James Harden deal)
2028 2nd round pick (to Hornets or Pistons from Reggie Jackson deal)
2029 2nd round pick (to Spurs originally from James Harden deal)
What it Means
Just to clarify, swaps mean the Clippers will receive a pick of some kind in those years. Unfortunately, with how good the Thunder are right now and set up to be for the next five years, they might be the worst team to swap picks with in the entire NBA. Even if the Clippers are pretty good this season, the Thunder will almost certainly be better, meaning the Clippers will get a pick at the very end of the 1st round. The same will likely be true in 2027, when SGA, Chet, and the rest of the Thunder will all be in their prime. The 2029 pick swap with the Sixers is interesting, as it’s protected 1-3 (which is nice) and that pick is so far out its virtually impossible to know how teams are performing then.
In terms of tradable assets, the Clippers can trade either of the 2030 or 2031 first rounders, but not both due to the Stepien rule. Thus, their largest remaining trade package would be trading the 2030 first outright and 2031 second outright and swapping the 2031 first. However, it feels very, very unlikely the Clippers are going to move any more first round picks to bolster this iteration of the team, barring unexpected success this year.
The Clippers could also do what the Suns did, and perform double swaps on the picks they’ve already swapped. This would mean that instead of getting the worst of two picks, they would instead get the worst of three picks. The Suns did this multiple times last trade deadline to acquire 2nd round picks for use in trades and it’s a tactic the Clippers could pursue for similar purposes. However, I don’t think they’d want to go even further down the rabbit hole of moving future assets, and the double swaps would make it even more of a certainty that the first round picks they do get in the next five years will be at the very end of the first round.
Laying out these assets like this really serves as a companion piece to my article on the Clippers’ failures on the margins. Many of these picks were dealt for PG or Harden, but you also see second rounders for Bones (smart play that the Clippers have screwed up), Rondo (awful at the time), Eric Gordon (blah), and Mason Plumlee (understandable at the time but due to poor roster management). Second round picks aren’t exactly blue-chip assets, but the Clippers not having any of them for another six years is just another barrier for them in making moves and acquiring young talent.