The Los Angeles Clippers have been quite busy this offseason, making moves that anyone else would have done if they were in their shoes. Signing Brook Lopez, acquiring John Collins, signing Bradley Beal, and most recently, bringing back Chris Paul. However, these moves have all equated to the Clippers getting even older, and the Utah Jazz know all about the risk that comes with that.
Last year, HoopsHype's Sam Yip revealed the oldest NBA teams in NBA history, though in his article, he factored not just age, but who among the older players were depended. Three teams from the vaunted Karl Malone-John Stockton era were mentioned: the 1999-2000 Jazz, the 2000-01 Jazz, and the 2002-03 Jazz (the last Stockton-Malone team).
This resurfaced following Paul's return to the Clippers, as him going back to LA makes an old team even older.
It looks like the 2000-01 Utah Jazz hold the honors for the oldest roster in NBA history. Those post-Finals teams did not infuse a lot of youth at all--three of the seven oldest teams ever. https://t.co/slvaE57eqh https://t.co/7Fj2KF866E
— David J. Smith (@davidjsmith1232) July 21, 2025
The Clippers have some of the oldest players in the league, and that goes beyond bringing Paul back (the second-oldest player behind LeBron James at 40). They also employ Lopez (37), Nicolas Batum (36), James Harden (35), and Kawhi Leonard (34).
Some of their other rotation players are also getting up there, including Beal (32), Bogdan Bogdanovic (32), and old friend Kris Dunn (31). Make no mistake: the Clippers have a deep rotation of quality players, as well as some older ones.
The Jazz had a similar strategy, as not only were Stockton and Malone getting up there, but they were also depending on Jeff Hornacek, Armen Gillam, Olden Polynice, Danny Manning, John Starks, and Mark Jackson around that era.
How those Jazz teams' failures are relevant to the Clippers
Besides the irony that Paul has been compared to Stockton in recent months, those Jazz teams were still quite successful in the regular season. From 1999 to 2003, the Jazz went from winning 55 games to 47.
While the decline is pretty notable in and of itself, what was also notable was that their playoff success dwindled. In 2000, the Portland Trail Blazers eliminated the Jazz in the Western Conference Semifinals, then never made it out of the first round.
Besides the fact that they were getting older, it didn't help that the NBA had ushered a new era of talent, including Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Garnett. The Clippers have assembled an even more impressive team than the Jazz did by the late 90s, early 2000s. However, the West is also transitioning to an era where its newer talent is taking over.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards, Victor Wembanyama, and Cooper Flagg are all coming, and they are not going away. No one is saying that the Clippers don't have a shot, because they have cleverly built themselves into a fortified playoff contender, but like the Jazz teams mentioned above, the window is beginning to close.
Props to them for getting Paul back, the best Clipper in franchise history before Kawhi Leonard made that an argument, but they might be in for the same fate those Jazz teams did.