Pacific Division 2026-2027 preview: a scandal, two new cores and one last LeBron-less chapter

No division in the NBA went through a stranger summer than the Pacific. The Clippers absorbed a year-long cap circumvention investigation that cost them draft picks, money and front-office staff before trading away their franchise cornerstone. The Lakers moved on from eight years of LeBron James. The Warriors watched LeBron pick someone else entirely. And two franchises — Phoenix and Sacramento — tried to figure out whether last season's records were a floor or a ceiling. Here's the biggest storyline out of each Pacific Division franchise, and where the five teams stack up.

Golden State Warriors: a Summer League MVP and a Jimmy Butler waiting game

Golden State is coming off a disappointing 37-45 season, and the brightest spot of its offseason didn't come from a trade — it came from Las Vegas. Yaxel Lendeborg, the 11th pick in the 2026 NBA Draft out of Michigan, was named 2026 NBA Summer League MVP, the first Warrior to earn that distinction since the event's inception in 2013. The 6'9" rookie averaged 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.5 steals across six games, capping it with 21 points and 10 boards in the championship game as Golden State went 5-1 and won the title.

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The bigger question mark is health. Jimmy Butler, owed $56.8 million, tore his right ACL on January 19, 2026, and missed the rest of last season. As of late June 2026, he was making "incredible progress" in his rehabilitation, with a possible return before the All-Star break. Stephen Curry ($62.5 million) remains the unquestioned cornerstone, Kristaps Porzingis re-signed and projects as the starting center, and Draymond Green declined his $27.7 million player option on June 29, 2026, before re-signing on a new one-year, $27.7 million deal in late July, according to NBA.com and Yahoo Sports.

Golden State was also one of five teams LeBron James considered in free agency, according to Yahoo Sports. He didn't pick the Warriors. Instead, LeBron signed with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year deal with a player option, Shams Charania reported for ESPN, with NBA.com noting his friendship with Tyrese Maxey and admiration for Joel Embiid as factors. Golden State sits over the luxury tax with Curry and Butler alone accounting for more than $119 million.

LA Clippers: a $30 million scandal precedes the Kawhi Leonard trade

No team's summer reads like the Clippers'. On September 2, 2026, the NBA announced the results of a year-long investigation into salary cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard and a handful of sponsors, including the now-bankrupt Aspiration, Inc. The fallout was severe: a $30 million fine, the loss of first-round picks from 2029 through 2033 plus a 2029 first-rounder acquired from Indiana, a one-year unpaid suspension for owner Steve Ballmer, suspensions for business operations president Gillian Zucker and basketball operations president Lawrence Frank, and a $700,000 fine for Leonard himself.

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Leonard's exit had reportedly been on hold during the investigation. It finally happened on September 14, 2026, when the Clippers traded him to the Toronto Raptors for Brandon Ingram (2.03m, 29 years old), Gradey Dick (1.98m, 22 years old) and five future draft picks. Leonard was coming off an All-Star, All-NBA Second Team season — 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists on 50.5% shooting and 38.7% from deep across 65 games.

It's the second major roster shake-up in a year. Back in February 2026, the Clippers sent James Harden, Ivica Zubac, Kobe Brown and Chris Paul to Cleveland for Darius Garland and Bennedict Mathurin. The protected pick from that deal became Keaton Wagler (1.98m, 19 years old), the Illinois guard Los Angeles drafted this summer.

The Clippers went 42-40 last season, ninth in the West, eliminated in the play-in. Caesars and BetRivers now list them at +50000 to win the 2026-2027 title — a 0.20% implied probability, ahead of only Sacramento and Brooklyn. RG.org projects 33 to 37 wins. Tyronn Lue, whose Clippers record stands at 276-206, returns as coach, but SI.com flagged this as "the first season in the Lue era that the Clippers are not expected to make the postseason."

LA Lakers: building a new identity around Doncic and Reaves

For the first time in eight years, the Lakers enter a season without LeBron James. Gone too are Marcus Smart, DeAndre Ayton, Rui Hachimura and Luke Kennard, leaving a leaner, younger roster built around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. "I don't know if I've honestly processed it yet," Reaves said of starting without LeBron. "He's kind of all I've ever known."

Reaves is no longer just a role player on this roster — he signed a four-year, $180 million extension, adjusted down from $185 million to give the franchise extra flexibility. The most significant addition is Walker Kessler, acquired from Utah in a $130 million sign-and-trade. Kessler led the NBA in offensive rebounds per game at 4.6 in 2024-2025 and was putting up 14.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists in five games last season before a labrum injury ended it early. "He's good defensively, good in the pocket," Reaves said of his new center. "Just a smart player."

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Los Angeles also brought in Quentin Grimes, who shot 39% from 3-points on 52% overall last season, and Collin Sexton, who averaged 15.4 points in under 24 minutes a night. The projected starting five runs Doncic at point guard, Reaves at shooting guard, Grimes at small forward, Mamukelashvili at power forward and Kessler at center. On Doncic, Reaves didn't hide his feelings: "one of my best friends on this planet." The Lakers sit roughly $33.5 million over the cap with Reaves at $41.24 million and Kessler at $30.11 million, and JJ Redick enters his second season as head coach.

Phoenix Suns: continuity, Miles Bridges and a Devin Booker-heavy ceiling

Phoenix finished 45-37 last season, second in the Pacific and seventh in the West, before beating Golden State 111-96 in the play-in and getting swept 4-0 by Oklahoma City in the first round. The Suns' biggest swing this summer sent Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale and a future first-round pick to Charlotte for forward Miles Bridges, a 2029 first-rounder and a 2027 second-rounder. Bridges, 28, arrives in the final year of his deal, set to earn roughly $22.8 million before hitting unrestricted free agency next summer.

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Phoenix otherwise prioritized keeping its core together. Dillon Brooks agreed to a three-year, $73 million extension through 2029-2030. Mark Williams returned on a three-year, $38 million deal, Collin Gillespie signed for four years and $48 million, and Jordan Goodwin re-upped for three years and $19 million. The projected starting five has Booker, Green, Brooks, Bridges and Williams, with Devin Booker coming off a 26.1-point, 6.0-assist, 3.9-rebound season across 64 games.

Jordan Ott enters his second season as head coach after taking over in June 2025, with ESPN noting he's been "challenged to juggle touches" between Booker and Bridges. Phoenix's cap allocations sit at $242,376,222, the sixth-highest figure in the league, roughly $7.2 million above the first apron. Bookmakers had the Suns at 120-1 to win the 2027 title, per ESPN's July 24, 2026 report — long odds, but the shortest among the Pacific's non-Lakers, non-Warriors group.

Sacramento Kings: a reshaped rotation after one of the league's worst records

Sacramento closed last season at 22-56, one of the league's worst records, and went 0-4 in the NBA Cup. The roster turnover since then has been dramatic. Dennis Schröder moved to Cleveland, Devin Carter joined Atlanta, Isaac Jones landed in Detroit, and two more departures went overseas: DaQuan Jeffries signed with Besiktas Istanbul on July 11, 2026, and Dario Saric joined Anadolu Efes Istanbul on June 16, 2026.

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Even more striking: DeMar DeRozan, Russell Westbrook, Keon Ellis and Killian Hayes — who combined for 77, 64, 48 and 24 games with Sacramento last season — don't appear on a 2026-2027 roster in available records. In their place come three college products: Alex Karaban out of UConn, Darius Acuff Jr. from Arkansas and Emanuel Sharp from Houston.

What remains anchored is Domantas Sabonis, who averaged 13.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists on 54.3% shooting in 22 games with the Kings last season, alongside Zach LaVine (18.7 points in 40 games) and Malik Monk (10.9 points in 71 games, starting only 3). Doug Christie, named full-time head coach on May 1, 2025, enters his second full season, with TheScore and The Athletic both reporting he's been kept on for 2026-2027. The roster is reshuffled, but not clearly upgraded on paper.

Predicted Pacific Division standings for 2026-2027

Phoenix projects as the steadiest team in the division. A 45-37 finish last season, an aggressive but coherent Bridges trade, and a wave of extensions for Brooks, Williams, Gillespie and Goodwin give the Suns the most stable foundation of the five.

The Lakers come next. Doncic and Reaves form a real foundation, and Kessler projects as the starting center, but the depth behind the new core is still unproven and the cap sheet is already tight.

Golden State sits in the middle of the pack, and almost everything hinges on Jimmy Butler's recovery timeline and whether Yaxel Lendeborg's Summer League form carries into the regular season. Curry remains elite, but the roster's ceiling depends on health more than anything else.

The Clippers project as the division's rebuild team, not by choice. Between the $30 million scandal, the stripped picks and the Kawhi Leonard trade for Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick, Los Angeles enters the season among the longest title odds in the league at +50000 — and RG.org's own 33-to-37-win projection reflects that.

Sacramento brings up the rear after last season's 22-56 finish, with a rotation still searching for continuity around Sabonis, LaVine and Monk.

By comparison, the Southeast Division's offseason — full rebuilds in Washington and Charlotte, Giannis Antetokounmpo's arrival in Miami — was turbulent in its own right. But nothing there matched a league-wide cap circumvention investigation, ownership suspensions and a star traded mid-scandal. The Pacific's offseason was the more chaotic of the two.