No Los Angeles Lakers fans have a soft spot for the Los Angeles Clippers. The latter's misery is often the subject of fun ridicule for the former. However, that much cannot be said of the circumstances that played out on Wednesday night in the NBA Play-In Tournament.
The Clippers dueled the Golden State Warriors for an opportunity to face the Phoenix Suns for a chance at the eighth seed in the West. After jumping ahead in the first half of the matchup, the Clips ran out of gas by the fourth quarter, losing a tight 126-121 ball game to the Warriors.
That defeat officially ended the Clippers season. A situation that would be a fun laughing matter in most cases for Lakers fans comes with a touch of unease considering the ramifications that come with that loss.
Everyone was quietly rooting for the necessary evil of seeing the Clippers make the playoffs because of who their first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft belongs to. Instead, with the loss, an already rich Oklahoma City Thunder team was just gifted a lottery pick in a highly-anticipated draft class.
The Paul George trade continues to haunt everyone but the Thunder
Most should remember how we all got here. The Clippers were desperate for real relevance. That led them to mortgaging their team's future for a duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Needless to say, that never worked out.
The move completely laid the foundation for the Thunder to have one of the most impressive rebuilds the league has ever seen. At the very least, it is right up there with the best ones seen in modern NBA history.
Unfortunately for everyone outside of Oklahoma City, the Clippers are a gift that keeps on giving for the Thunder.
OKC continues to have a ton of control over the draft pick future of the other Los Angeles team. Any slip-ups like this season will only result in a juggernaut franchise strengthening their hold on the competitive balance of the league.
The Clippers' pick that will belong to the Thunder is projected to be at the back end of the lottery. However, as seen with Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks, plus Zaccharie Risacher and the Atlanta Hawks, sizable jumps in the lottery are more than possible.
Seeing any one of AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, or Cameron Boozer end up with the Thunder would result in a collective groan for the league as a whole. Lakers fans will hope the Clippers did not just hand the Thunder a pathway toward that reality.
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