The Clippers may have found a second-round steal.
The Los Angeles Clippers spent the 2025-26 season pulling off one of the most unlikely turnarounds in recent NBA history, climbing back from a 6-21 start to finish 42-40 before falling to the Golden State Warriors in the Play-In Tournament.
After using the fifth overall pick on Illinois guard Keaton Wagler, general manager Trent Redden and the front office shifted their attention to the second round and grabbed Cincinnati forward Baba Miller at No. 36, a move that could end up being one of the best values in the entire draft.
What Redden Sees in Miller
Speaking at the team's post-draft press conference, Redden explained why the front office was drawn to Miller with the 36th pick.
"We were hoping for someone that we thought we could just build with," Redden said. "It wasn't necessarily a position but length, basketball IQ, and athleticism are all buzzwords certainly, but with Baba we were kind of able to get a little bit of all of it."
The 6-foot-11 forward's résumé backs that up, having grown up in Mallorca, Spain, and come through Real Madrid's youth academy before spending four college seasons across Florida State, Florida Atlantic and Cincinnati.
As a senior with the Bearcats, he averaged 13.0 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.2 blocks while shooting 52.9 percent from the field, becoming the first Cincinnati player to lead the team in points, rebounds and assists since Oscar Robertson in 1959-60.
Miller Made His Case on Draft Night
Miller echoed that same confidence after being selected, making it clear that he understands where he fits on a roster that already has its stars and just needs someone willing to come in and do the work around them.
"They got guys like Darius and Kawhi that are already established stars in the league," Miller said. "So I feel like just coming in and trying to help the team be better is the main goal."
Why This Could Be a Draft Steal
With Kawhi Leonard putting up 27.9 points per game on 50.5 percent shooting across 65 games this season and Darius Garland averaging 18.8 points and 6.7 assists after arriving from Cleveland at the deadline, the Clippers already have their scoring anchors in place.
What they lacked was frontcourt depth, especially after trading Ivica Zubac to Indiana and watching Yanic Konan Niederhauser go down with a Lisfranc injury in March that ended his rookie season.
Miller fills that gap with the kind of size, fluidity, and passing ability that most teams do not find in the second round.
Multiple draft evaluators pegged him as a first-round talent whose three-point shooting at just 19 percent this past year was the only thing keeping him off the board on night one.
If the front office can help him grow that part of his game while he develops alongside the team's stars, the Clippers may have gotten the kind of pick that reshapes their rebuild, especially with the uncertainty around Leonard's contract hanging over the entire offseason.
