The Los Angeles Clippers have spent the last six weeks rebuilding their season in public, grinding their way out of a rough start and into the kind of form that usually quiets trade talk. That’s why the idea of moving James Harden now has hit the locker room like a cold splash, and why John Collins didn’t bother pretending otherwise.
“It was shocking. Hell ya. It would be a shock for me and for the team. And what we’ve been able to do. Our season turned around. Definitely something different. Out of left field,”
Collins said after Monday’s loss, reacting to the sudden wave of reporting that Harden and the Los Angeles Clippers are actively exploring what a deal could look like before Thursday’s trade deadline.
John Collins on the James Harden trade reports:
“It was shocking.”
Is it disappointing?
“Hell ya. It would be a shock for me and for the team. And what we’ve been able to do. Our season turned around. Definitely something different. Out of left field.” pic.twitter.com/9WYANXqeu0
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) February 3, 2026
Collins’ emotion wasn’t about gossip; it was about timing. The Clippers’ recent surge has been built on continuity, and Harden has been central to that identity. Even as the team has played its last two games without him for personal reasons, the broader context has been a turnaround. The Clippers are 17–5 since Dec. 20 entering Monday with the loss to Philadelphia ending a five-game home winning streak.
The reason the rumors have weight is that the reporting isn’t vague. The Clippers and Harden are “working through” whether they can find a deal by the deadline, and that both sides are aligned in discussions with interested teams, a notable framing that suggests this isn’t a unilateral push from either party.
One of those interested teams is the Cleveland Cavaliers, with the most discussed concept being a Harden-for-Darius Garland structure. Whether that swap ever gets close to the finish line is unclear, but Collins’ reaction captured why it would be so destabilizing internally: the Clippers aren’t talking about a teardown. They’re talking about potentially moving the engine mid-flight.
