Los Angeles Clippers Rumors

Injury Notes: Leonard, Jerome, Murray-Boyles, Heat, Cavs

November 20th, 2025 at 6:56pm CST by Rory Maher

Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard went through portions of Wednesday’s practice, though he didn’t do any contact drills, head coach Tyronn Lue told Law Murray of The Athletic and other media members (Twitter video link).

“He did a few things,” Lue said. ” … He’s definitely gotten better. I mean, I don’t know how long it’s gonna be (until he returns). But he’s definitely gotten better. Just seeing him on the floor yesterday was really good to see.”

Leonard, a two-time Finals MVP, was off to a strong start this fall prior to suffering right ankle and foot sprains on November 3. The Clips were 3-3 in the six games Leonard played but have gone just 1-7 without their highest-paid player. The 34-year-old missed his ninth straight game on Thursday in Orlando.

Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:

Free agent addition Ty Jerome has yet to play for the Grizzlies in 2025/26 after suffering a high-grade right calf strain during the preseason. The seventh-year guard will be reevaluated on Friday, with a return timeline expected to come in the days after that examination, tweets Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Collin Murray-Boyles, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2025 draft, will miss his second straight game on Friday due to an MCL sprain in his right knee, as Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca relays (via Twitter). The Raptors forward/center has averaged 8.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in 20.0 minutes per game through 11 appearances as a rookie, with a shooting line of .500/.500/.762.
Heat forward Andrew Wiggins has been diagnosed with a left hip flexor strain and will be sidelined for his first game of the season on Friday in Chicago, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Fourth-year forward Nikola Jovic was ruled out of Wednesday’s game with a right hip impingement and will miss at least two more, as he didn’t travel with the team on its two-game road trip, Jackson reports.
While Cavaliers sharpshooter Sam Merrill will be out for the second straight contest on Friday with a right hand sprain, it’s possible point guard Darius Garland could return to action. The two-time All-Star is questionable against Indiana, per the NBA’s injury report, as are Jarrett Allen (right third finger strain) and Jaylon Tyson (concussion). Garland has missed the past five games after re-injuring his surgically repaired left great toe last week, but head coach Kenny Atkinson recently said the 25-year-old was “really close” to suiting up.

And-Ones: NBA Schedule, Breakout Players, Cap Room, More

November 20th, 2025 at 9:05am CST by Luke Adams

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who has advocated in the past for shorter regular seasons, is beating that drum again this fall with soft tissue injuries on the rise around the NBA, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN. Kerr said he’s “very concerned” about the increase in injuries, pointing to an increased pace of play and a relentless schedule as two factors he believes are contributing to the trend.

“The pace difference is dramatic,” Kerr said after Tuesday’s game vs. Orlando. “This team tonight has really upped their pace compared to last year. I think across the league everybody understands now it’s just easier to score now if you can beat (the other team) down the floor, get out in transition. But when everybody’s doing that, the game’s are much faster paced, and everyone has to cover out to 25 feet because everyone can shoot threes.

“… We have all the data,” Kerr continued. “Players are running faster and further than ever before, so we’re trying to do the best we can to protect them, but basically have a game every other night and it’s not an easy thing to do … (The medical staff) believe that the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage, it’s all factoring into these injuries.”

Kerr said the NBA has done a commendable job of trying to reduce back-to-backs and instances of four games in five days, but points out that it has resulted in teams rarely getting more than one day off between games, which results in little recovery time and almost no opportunities for practices.

“We literally have not had a single practice on this road trip. Not one,” Kerr said after the fifth game of a six-game trip. “We’ve gone a week, or longer, eight days, not one practice. It’s just game, game, game. So not only is there no recovery time, there’s no practice time. What was different back in the day — you did have four in five nights, which was not great, but then you’d have four days before your next game. So you’d take a day off, and you’d actually have a couple good practices and scrimmage. So there’s no easy answer here.”

Kerr isn’t alone in believing that playing fewer regular season games would benefit the players — Knicks forward Josh Hart agreed with that sentiment on Thursday, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post relays. However, both Kerr and Hart acknowledged that it would be very difficult to actually implement that change due to the loss of revenue that would occur..

“Do I think there’s too many games? Yeah,” Hart said. “Conversely, will (team owners) and the league and players take a pay cut to not do that? I don’t know. It’s easy to sit there and say that we play too many games — which we do — but conversely, we’re also blessed to be able to benefit greatly from it.”

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the NBA:

In a pair of stories for The Athletic, Fred Katz takes a look at some of the NBA’s most improved players so far this season, while John Hollinger zeros in on several of the league’s breakout players. Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Pistons center Jalen Duren show up on both lists, with Hollinger suggesting Duren appears to be on track for max or near-max money when he reaches restricted free agency next summer.
Previewing the salary cap landscape for the 2026 offseason, Keith Smith of Spotrac projects that six teams will operate with cap room, led by the Wizards with over $80MM in space. We conducted a similar exercise earlier this month, noting that the Wizards, Jazz, Nets, and Bulls are best positioned to go under the cap, while several other teams – like the Lakers and Clippers – are in the “maybe” category depending on what happens with certain free agents and player options.
A panel of ESPN’s NBA insiders takes an early look at potential trade-deadline needs for eight NBA teams hoping to contend this season, including the Pistons, Lakers, Warriors, Timberwolves, and Knicks. In the view of Bobby Marks, the Pistons are better positioned than any other Eastern Conference playoff team to make an in-season move, given their cap flexibility, movable contracts, and extra draft picks.

Derrick Jones Jr. Out At Least Six Weeks With MCL Sprain

November 17th, 2025 at 4:45pm CST by Rory Maher

Clippers forward Derrick Jones Jr. suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee during Sunday’s loss in Boston and will miss at least six weeks, which is when he’ll be reevaluated, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter).

According to Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link), the Clippers were “relieved” that Jones’ injury wasn’t more serious.

The injury occurred late in the second quarter when Jaylen Brown lost his dribble and dove to retrieve the ball just as Jones was reaching for it (YouTube link). The incidental contact resulted in Jones’ knee bending inward at an odd angle, with Jones immediately grabbing at his knee in pain. The high-flying swingman had to be helped off the court and was unable to put any weight on his right leg.

Whiles Jones’ stats are fairly modest — he was averaging 10.9 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks on .540/.341/.786 shooting in the 12 games (26.0 minutes per contest) leading up to the injury — his absence will certainly be felt by the Clippers. The former dunk contest winner is an offensive lob and transition threat and one of the team’s best defenders.

Third-year wing Jordan Miller also exited Sunday’s game with an injury — he aggravated the left hamstring strain that caused him to miss the first three weeks of the season, Murray notes (Twitter links). It’s an unfortunate setback for the 25-year-old, who scored a career-high 22 points in his season debut on Wednesday.

Miller, who is on a two-way deal with Los Angeles, has been ruled out of Monday’s back-to-back in Philadelphia with left hamstring soreness, but isn’t expected to miss extended time, according to the team (Twitter link via Murray).

Rookie guard/forward Kobe Sanders, another two-way player, will get his first career start on Monday, tweets Murray.

Star forward Kawhi Leonard, who is dealing with right ankle and foot sprains, has resumed on-court work and is nearing his return, though it’s unclear if he’ll resume playing during L.A.’s ongoing road trip, which wraps up next Tuesday at the Lakers, Murray adds.

Bontemps/Windhorst’s Latest: Davis, Magic, Clippers, LeBron

November 14th, 2025 at 9:02am CST by Arthur Hill

With the Mavericks off to a 3-9 start, there’s a feeling around the league that trading Anthony Davis — and possibly Kyrie Irving as well — might be their best strategy, according to Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Dallas fired general manager Nico Harrison this week amid continued fan uproar over February’s Luka Doncic trade, and now personnel moves may be necessary to carve out a brighter future.

Trade speculation has already focused on Davis, who is currently sidelined with a left calf strain and has appeared in just five games this season. He’s under contract for $58.5MM in 2026/27 and has a $62.8MM player option for the following season. He’ll become eligible for an extension next summer and could earn up to $218.5MM by picking up the option and extending for three more years.

Considering Davis’ contract situation and his long injury history, Windhorst states that the Mavs may have trouble getting the return they would want in a potential trade.

“I just looked it up so I could say this to my owner if he asks me about it, AD is turning 33 in March and he’s going to be in position next summer where he’ll probably want a contract extension that would cost $70MM per year when he’d be 37,” a rival general manager said. “He’s a great player, full stop. But when you consider a player at his age with his injury history, you’d also be trading for the stress of that extension. That plays into it.”

Executives around the league tell Bontemps that while the Mavericks could still be formidable with a fully healthy roster, moving the two stars and replenishing their draft assets while building around Cooper Flagg is probably their best strategy. After the 2026 draft, Dallas doesn’t control any of its first-round picks for the rest of the decade.

Parting with Davis and Irving would also help the Mavs escape the luxury tax, Bontemps adds. The team is projected to have a tax bill around $32MM this season, and the current roster is about $16MM over the tax threshold.

Bontemps and Windhorst share more inside information from around the NBA:

The Magic have won five of their last seven games, but their offense is still just 18th in the league and the offseason trade for Desmond Bane hasn’t provided the spark that was hoped for. According to Windhorst, head coach Jamahl Mosley has turned over most of the play calling to assistant Joe Prunty, who was hired during the offseason. However, some observers are skeptical that the current roster is capable of producing an efficient offense. “It’s got to get a little better, but the pieces aren’t changing,” a West executive said. “Bane will settle in eventually. But you still have a ball-dominant, iso star in Paolo (Banchero) that doesn’t scream ball movement, player movement and getting open shots. It hasn’t been pretty at all.”
With an old roster and growing injury concerns, the Clippers may be “cooked” after a 3-8 start. Bradley Beal has been lost for the season with a hip fracture, and Kawhi Leonard has been diagnosed with a sprained foot as well as a sprained ankle. It appears the decision to invest heavily in veteran talent is backfiring, as Windhorst notes that Brook Lopez, Nicolas Batum and Bogdan Bogdanovic haven’t been productive early in the season, while Chris Paul is completely out of the rotation. “They move so slowly, they can’t recover when they turn the ball over or give up a quick transition,” one advance scout said.
The Spurs and Lakers are both off to impressive starts, but there are mixed opinions on whether they can finish in the top four in the West. A West scout doesn’t believe Victor Wembanyama can hold up for 82 games, while an East executive isn’t convinced that L.A. will get better when LeBron James returns from his injury. “Don’t ask me about the Lakers until I can see LeBron play and see him move and how he looks,” the executive said. “He isn’t just dealing with the sciatica, he hurt his knee at the end of last season, and it surely affected his training routine. He’s never started a season coming off injuries like this before.”

L.A. Notes: LeBron, Luka, Thiero, Clippers’ Young Reserves

November 13th, 2025 at 11:01pm CST by Rory Maher

LeBron James, whose season debut has been delayed by sciatica on his right side, is ramping up his activity. The Lakers superstar practiced with the team’s G League affiliate on Wednesday, including doing contact five-on-five work, as Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group writes.

“It was also an incredible opportunity for [South Bay coach] Zach [Guthrie] and his staff and all the guys that are with South Bay right now to have that experience,” head coach JJ Redick said. “But the reports are that he looked good, and was moving well.”

James was also a full participant in South Bay’s practice on Thursday and showed no ill effects from Wednesday’s session, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, who hears from sources that the 40-year-old forward could practice with the Lakers on Monday if he continues to experience no discomfort in the coming days.

Here’s more from Los Angeles:

The Lakers were thoroughly outclassed by the Thunder on Wednesday, losing by 29 points. After being limited to a season-low 19 points (on 7-of-20 shooting), star guard Luka Doncic said he wasn’t concerned about the apparent gap between the two teams, instead using it as a source of motivation. “Definitely wasn’t our best game, probably one of the worst this season,” Doncic said, per Price. “They all did a great job on me. They’re champions for a reason. They showed that. We need to be more ready. Obviously, it starts with me. I need to be way better than that.”
Lakers rookie Adou Thiero has been listed as questionable for Friday’s matchup in New Orleans, tweets Dan Woike of The Athletic. The 21-year-old was selected 36th overall in the 2025 draft, but has yet to make his NBA debut after undergoing left knee surgery in college. Redick previously expressed optimism that the high-flying forward could return during the team’s current road trip, which concludes Saturday in Milwaukee.
While the Clippers have had a rough start to the season – they hold a 3-8 record after dropping six straight games – their young reserves have been a bright spot of late. Second-year guard Cam Christie had some encouraging performances late last week against Phoenix, notes Janis Carr of The Orange County Register, then Jordan Miller and Kobe Sanders received rotation minutes in Wednesday’s loss to Denver, with third-year wing Miller having a career night (22 points and four rebounds in 26 minutes). “I thought they came in, gave us a lot of energy … so they got to keep growing, these young guys,” head coach Tyronn Lue said (story via Carr). “They’re going to make some mistakes, we understand that. But I did love the way they played. I thought they played the right way. The ball moved, guys got open shots, we attacked the paint, made the right play, and so just kept giving those guys room to grow. And I thought tonight was a step in the right direction.”

Clippers Notes: Beal, Leonard, Collins, Harden

November 12th, 2025 at 10:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Bradley Beal‘s season-ending hip fracture isn’t related to any other injury he has experienced, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank told reporters on Wednesday (Twitter link from Mark Medina).

Beal underwent a right knee scope in May and saw limited action during training camp. He had been on a minutes restriction all season before suffering the hip injury in Saturday’s game against Phoenix. Frank said the injury occurred on this play with 9:12 remaining in the second quarter.

“He did everything he (was) asked. He’s a high character guy. I feel horrible that he’s dealing with this,” Frank said. He added that doctors are “extremely optimistic he’ll make a full recovery” and said the time off will help him get over lingering “knee inflammation.”

In an interview with Medina for Essentially Sports, agent Mark Bartelstein also expressed optimism about Beal’s future and said his client had been making progress with the knee issues.

“It’s devastating for him. He’s put so much work into his body and recovered from the scope this past summer,” Bartelstein said. “He was actually going to have his minutes restriction lifted. So everything was trending in the right direction. He was going to be able to get back to play his normal minutes. Then to have this happen is devastating. There’s no way around it.

“But the good news is that he’ll have a full recovery. It’s going to take a while, just as it takes a while for these fractures to heal. But talking with all the doctors, he’s going to have a full recovery. He should do great with the surgery. We got to put all of our energy and focus toward the rehab, which is what we’re going to do.”

There’s more on the Clippers:

Kawhi Leonard is dealing with a “significant” foot sprain as well as the right ankle sprain that was reported over the weekend, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Frank said Leonard is making progress and will join the team for its upcoming road trip, where doctors will monitor his condition to determine when he can resume playing. “We will have a better feel for it next week,” Frank said.
With John Collins making his second straight start tonight, Lue talked about how he expects Collins to fit into that role (Twitter video link from Law Murray of The Athletic). “Just understand spacing the floor, especially when you’re on the floor with (Ivica Zubac) and James,” Lue said. “There’s not really a lot of room in that paint area, that 15-foot area.”
James Harden blames a lack of consistency for the team’s 3-7 start, saying that lineup changes from game to game have made it difficult for the players to establish any rhythm together, writes Janis Carr of The Orange County Register (subscription required). “Some guys haven’t played ever, some guys are just being put in the rotation,” Harden said. “Some guys are new here, their first 10 games. That’s a lot that goes into it, so I don’t think we can pinpoint and put our fingerprint on one thing. I think it’s a variety of things that’s happening that hopefully we can come to a halt very soon.”

Bradley Beal To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery

November 12th, 2025 at 2:09pm CST by Luke Adams

Clippers guard Bradley Beal has been diagnosed with a fracture in his hip and will undergo season-ending surgery, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

“We met with numerous doctors and specialists around the country in collaboration with the entire Clippers medical staff over the last few days, and came to the decision unanimously that the surgery will allow Brad to have a full and complete recovery,” agent Mark Bartelstein said in a statement to ESPN (Twitter link).

According to Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link), who confirms Charania’s reporting, the projected recovery timetable for the procedure is six-to-nine months.

Beal had been hoping for a fresh start in Los Angeles this fall after two disappointing years in Phoenix. His time with the Suns came to an end over the summer when he and the team agreed to a buyout that left roughly $97MM in dead money on Phoenix’s cap.

The 32-year-old signed a two-year, $10.98MM deal with the Clippers with the expectation that he’d play a significant role in the rotation and help make up for the scoring the club lost when it traded Norman Powell to Miami in a three-team deal that sent John Collins to L.A.

However, Beal was able to suit up for just six games with his new team, averaging 8.2 points on .375/.368/.750 shooting in 20.2 minutes per contest. While those six games will be by far the fewest Beal has ever played in a single season, injuries have been a recurring problem for him in recent years — he hasn’t made more than 60 regular season appearances since 2018/19.

Beal’s season-ending surgery makes it more likely that he’ll opt into the second year of his contract with the Clippers. He holds a $5.62MM player option for 2026/27.

The Clippers will have the ability to apply for a disabled player exception in the wake of Beal’s injury, but it would only be worth about $2.68MM (half of Beal’s salary) and wouldn’t allow the team to surpass its hard cap. Currently, L.A. is carrying just 14 players on its standard roster and doesn’t have the ability to add a 15th man until January, at which point a prorated minimum salary will fit below the first tax apron.

With no reinforcements likely on the way in the short term, the Clippers will have to hope for more from veteran guards like Bogdan Bogdanovic and Chris Paul, who are off to slow starts this season. Additionally, Collins figures to be among the players who take on more offensive responsibilities to help James Harden and Kawhi Leonard (when healthy) shoulder the scoring load.

All-Star Game To Feature U.S. Vs. World Three-Team Format

November 11th, 2025 at 9:12pm CST by Dana Gauruder

This season’s All-Star Game will have a U.S. vs. World format, the NBA confirmed today in a press release. The game is scheduled to be played Sunday, Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. ET at the Clippers’ Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.

Two teams of U.S. players and one team of international players (the World team) will compete in a round-robin tournament featuring four 12-minute games. The three teams will each have a minimum of eight players.

The NBA has experimented with an number of different formats to make the All-Star Game more entertaining and encourage players to take the game more seriously. This is the latest attempt by the league and Player’s Association to make that happen.

As in the past, 24 NBA All-Stars (12 from each conference) will be selected as follows: The five starters from each conference will be selected by fans (50% of the vote), current NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%). The seven reserve players from each conference will be chosen by NBA head coaches.

This year, the All-Stars will be selected without regard to position. The process for assigning players to the two U.S. teams will be determined at a later date.

According to the release, if All-Star voting does not result in the selection of 16 U.S. players and eight international players (which can include American players with ties to other countries, if necessary), commissioner Adam Silver will select additional All-Stars to join either group to reach that minimum.

In the round-robin tournament, Team A will play Team B in Game 1. The winning team from Game 1 will take on Team C in Game 2, followed by the losing team of Game 1 meeting Team C in Game 3.

After Game 3, the top two teams by record will advance to face each other in the championship game (Game 4). If all three teams have a 1-1 record after Game 3, the tiebreaker would be point differential in each team’s two round-robin games.

The All-Star Game will be played earlier in the day than usual because it will be broadcast by NBC, which is building All-Star Weekend around the network’s coverage of the Winter Olympic Games, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps points out.

Injury Notes: Beal, Giddey, Harris, Adebayo, Curry

November 10th, 2025 at 10:49pm CST by Rory Maher

The Clippers are concerned that Bradley Beal could miss extended time with a left hip injury, head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters prior to Monday’s game vs. Atlanta (Twitter link via Justin Russo). Beal is currently undergoing tests to determine the severity of the injury, which was initially described as left hip soreness, tweets Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints.

According to Kellan Olson of ArizonaSports.com (Twitter link), Beal said on Friday in Phoenix that he’s been dealing with an unspecified injury since last season, when he was a member of the Suns. The 32-year-old has battled a variety of health issues over the past several years, having played between 40 and 60 games each of the past six seasons.

In other Clippers news, John Collins received his first start with his new team on Monday. Lue said he plans to stick with Collins in the starting lineup “for a while,” per Russo (Twitter video link).

“We’ve been struggling rebounding the basketball, and career, statistically, he’s been a really good rebounder,” Lue said of the Collins, who will be an unrestricted free agent next summer if he doesn’t sign a veteran extension.

Here are a few more injury-related notes from around the NBA:

While Josh Giddey missed Monday’s loss to San Antonio, head coach Billy Donovan said the Bulls don’t have any long-term concerns about his right ankle sprain, as Jamal Collier of ESPN relays. “We don’t feel like it’s anything too severe with his ankle,” Donovan said. “He didn’t have really much swelling after the game [Saturday]. He got some [treatment] yesterday and was just a little bit uncomfortable today at shootaround.” Giddey is considered day-to-day, according to Donovan.
Pistons forward Tobias Harris is making progress from his high right ankle sprain, but there’s still no official timetable for his return, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said on Monday (Twitter links via Hunter Patterson of The Athletic and Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press). Harris, who missed his fifth straight game tonight against Washington, will be a free agent in 2026.
Five-time All-Defensive big man Bam Adebayo was ruled out for the third consecutive Heat game on Monday vs. Cleveland, notes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (via Twitter). The 28-year-old forward/center was diagnosed with a sprained left big toe on Thursday after undergoing an MRI. Adebayo is considered day-to-day.
Warriors superstar Stephen Curry (illness) was out again on Sunday during the win over Indiana, but he’s not on the injury report ahead of Tuesday’s game at Oklahoma City, as Anthony Slater of ESPN tweets. The 37-year-old guard contracted the illness last week and wound up missing three games, Slater writes for ESPN.com.

Kawhi Leonard Sidelined For "The Next Few Games"

November 8th, 2025 at 11:04pm CST by Arthur Hill

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Kawhi Leonard will miss “the next few games” with a sprained right ankle, according to The Associated Press. Lue didn’t provide any specifics about Leonard’s condition, but he stated that medical tests are indicating it won’t be a prolonged absence.