Bradley Beal’s season is over.
The Los Angeles Clippers guard has a fracture in his hip and will now undergo season-ending surgery, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. Beal played in just six games with the Clippers this season, his first with the franchise after landing there in the offseason.
Beal was listed as questionable for Monday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks due to left hip soreness, but specifics of the injury weren’t yet known. He had already missed time due to a left knee injury and lower back soreness, but it’s unclear when the hip injury occurred.
While specifics of the fracture aren’t known, Beal’s team opted for surgery.
“We met with numerous doctors and specialists around the country in collaboration with the entire Clippers medical staff over the last few days, and came to the decision unanimously that the surgery will allow Brad to have a full and complete recovery,” his agent, Mark Bartelstein, told ESPN.
Beal will finish the 2025-26 campaign having averaged 8.2 points and 1.7 assists over six games. It is by far the least amount of games he’s played in a season throughout his 14-year career, though Beal hasn’t hit the 60-game mark in a single season since the 2020-21 campaign when he was with the Washington Wizards. That was also the last time he earned an All-Star nod.
Beal averaged 17 points and 3.7 assists per game last season, but he was relegated from the starting role midway through the year in Phoenix. The 32-year-old was the subject of trade rumors ahead of the deadline, too, but those never materialized. Beal signed a two-year, $10.9 million deal with the Clippers.
The Clippers have started the season just 3-7, and will enter Wednesday night’s game with the Denver Nuggets on a five-game losing streak. The team went 50-32 last season, the fourth under head coach Ty Lue, but were knocked out of the playoffs in the opening round for a third straight year. While Beal would have been a key part to the team’s quest to advance deeper into the postseason this spring, or even just to get them out of their current slump, the Clippers will have to turn elsewhere.
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