It will not be long before the LA Clippers take the floor for regular season NBA basketball once again. When they do, it will be the beginning of a new era, with fans flooding in to a new arena to watch a team with new uniforms play for the first time since Kawhi Leonard arrived in town without Paul George on the roster.
The Clippers have plenty of doubters before this new era even begins. Many are counting them out and proclaiming that they have no shot to compete in the Western Conference this year, but time will tell how accurate those predictions are. In the meantime, the Clippers are simply focused on bettering themselves and being in the best position possible heading into the season.
As we know, Intuit Dome will host its first regular season NBA game ever on October 23, when the Clippers take on the Phoenix Suns in Game 1 of the 2024-25 season. But before they do that, there are numerous important preseason dates that fans will want to keep up with.
Preseason game schedule
First off is the start of the preseason slate of games, which will be here in practically no time. After the Clippers travel to Honolulu, Hawaii for training camp, they will remain there to face off with the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of preseason.
Date | Opponent | Time |
|---|---|---|
Saturday, October 5 | Golden State Warriors | 4:00 PM PT |
Tuesday, October 8 | Brooklyn Nets | 7:30 PM PT |
Friday, October 11 | Portland Trail Blazers | 7:30 PM PT |
Monday, October 14 | Dallas Mavericks | 7:30 PM PT |
Thursday, October 17 | Sacramento Kings | 7:30 PM PT |
From there, the Clippers will return to California and square off with the Brooklyn Nets, Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings. After the conclusion of their final preseason contest, LA will have six days remaining before the start of the regular season.
Media day
The Clippers will conduct their 2024-25 media day on September 30. This is the date that 28 NBA teams will host their media day, with the two exceptions being the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets, who are set to travel overseas for preseason action. September 30 is also the day that every player from those 28 teams can report to their teams (and not earlier than 11:00 AM local time).
Training camp
With the exception of the Nuggets and Celtics for the aforementioned reasons, all other NBA teams will open up training camp on October 1. For those 28 teams, this will be the first day following media day. The Clippers' training camp will be hosted at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and will continue through October 5, when the first preseason game tips off.
Final roster cuts
All throughout the preseason, Ty Lue and the rest of the coaching staff will be tinkering with the roster, trying to figure out which pieces will fit best further down the bench for this team. They will of course decide which players they want to keep and which they want to cut loose before the regular season begins, but all roster decisions must be made by October 21. At 4 PM local time on that day, the roster will officially be set for opening night.