The second round of the NBA draft is usually where front offices throw darts in the dark. Most of those darts miss badly. But for an LA Clippers team that spent years lacking high-end athletic upside and youth, you can't blame them for changing the script. During the 2026 draft, Lawrence Frank and the front office grabbed two fascinating, flawed, yet entirely logical college veterans in Baba Miller and Nick Martinelli.
If you just look at the raw data, you might see two 22-year-old seniors and think the Clippers played it safe. You'd be wrong. These picks represent two completely opposite sides of the basketball spectrum. One is an athletic specimen with broken mechanics; the other is a basketball savant with a limited physical engine.
Let's look at why these specific gamble choices matter for a team trying to rebuild its identity on the fly.
The Physical Wildcard in Baba Miller
With the 36th pick, the Clippers grabbed Baba Miller. He stands 6-foot-11 with a 204-pound frame that screams modern NBA wing-forward if he can ever put the pieces together. Miller was a nomadic college player. He spent time at Florida State and Florida Atlantic before finishing up his amateur career at Cincinnati.
The appeal here is obvious when you look at his senior year production. He logged 13 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game while hitting nearly 53% of his field goals. He can handle the ball surprisingly well for a guy pushing 7 feet, and he flashes real playmaking vision out of the post or on the roll. That's a rare toolkit.
But the floor is incredibly low here. Let's be real about it. Miller shot a miserable 19.2% from the three-point line on low volume during his final college season. His defensive instincts remain an absolute mess despite his elite length and recovery speed. He often relies on pure athletic ability to erase mistakes rather than playing smart team defense.
If Miller can't develop a passable spot-up jumper or figure out how to operate within a structured defensive scheme, he won't survive in the league. But at pick 36, taking a flyer on a guy with that size-to-athleticism ratio is exactly what a asset-depleted team should do.
The High Feel Floor of Nick Martinelli
If Miller is the high-variance gamble, Nick Martinelli at pick 55 is the brainy insurance policy. The Clippers front office got creative to lock this one in. They originally held the 52nd pick, traded it away to grab extra cash, and then used a chunk of that cash to trade back up to 55 to snag the Northwestern product.
Martinelli is a 6-foot-6, 200-pound scoring machine who carried the Wildcats offense. He put up a massive 23 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2 assists per game as a senior. He did all of that despite having essentially zero vertical explosiveness or elite foot speed.
He is an absolute master of angles. He functions as a vintage midrange assassin, living in the paint, converting tough floaters, and constantly drawing contact to get to the free-throw line, where he converts at an 80.9% clip.
The swing factor for Martinelli is simple. Can he translate his 41.7% three-point college shooting percentage into genuine NBA spacing? He only took about three triples a game at Northwestern. He preferred to hunt his comfort zones inside the arc. In the NBA, small forwards who can't stretch the floor out to the deeper line get completely phased out of bench units. If that shot translates on higher volume, he is an instant rotation player. If it doesn't, he is a G-League star.
Changing the Roster Identity
For years, the Clippers built their depth with predictable, low-ceiling veterans. They prioritized floor-spacing specialists who couldn't generate their own look or defensive stalwarts who offered nothing on offense. The addition of Miller and Martinelli changes the development room.
Both players are already 22 years old. In the modern draft landscape, being a 22-year-old senior usually drops your stock because teams obsess over 19-year-old potential. But the Clippers aren't in a position to wait four years for a teenager to learn how to rotate on defense. They need cheap, productive depth right now to support their stars.
Look at how these two skill sets balance out the training camp roster:
- Miller brings vertical spacing, rim protection upside, and elite rebounding depth.
- Martinelli provides low-mistake offensive creation, high basketball IQ, and elite free-throw shooting.
The front office didn't just draft players; they drafted specific utility profiles. They are hoping at least one of these contrasting styles sticks to give the main roster a massive boost without breaking the bank.
To get the most out of this draft haul, the Clippers coaching staff must establish clear development tracks for both guys during Summer League. Miller needs immediate, intense shooting repetition and defensive simulation work to fix his poor court awareness. Martinelli requires physical conditioning to adjust to quicker perimeter defenders, alongside a strict directive to look for his catch-and-shoot three-pointer first. Watch how Tyronn Lue deploys them in July; their early usage will reveal exactly how quickly the team expects them to contribute to the main roster.
