So that there's no confusion, I'm going to preface this by saying that the Clippers absolutely made the right move, they had to do it, and they're set up to compete for multiple championships for a good-sized window now.
However, even if mid to late 20s is the most likely outcome for these picks, the whole situation, as with the Lakers, is heavily correlated. If Kawhi's quad issues come back, or whatever, you're looking at a mediocre team in a competitive conference that has no way to get better for years. The problem then becomes not just that you don't have the picks, but that you don't have the picks you need to get better right now, and you end up in hell, just waiting for the 2026 pick to finish conveying so that you can be a normal franchise again.
This is exactly what happened to the Nets when it turned out that Deron Williams was cooked. He was never at Kawhi's level, but people forget how good he was. It's not that hard even now to find hundreds of Nets fans' posts, thinking that the swaps would be worthless, the picks would be in the late 20s, etc.
Again, the Clippers made the right move, and I like it a lot more for them than I like AD to the Lakers, because they kept depth. They also have the picks spaced better: their 2020 pick is free of obligations, so they'll be able to package that to get upgrades, and they also have nice pieces of salary to move along with that.
But it's really insane to me that anyone can confidently declare what picks from 5-7 years out will be worth, especially when their value rises and falls together, and when their being traded itself limits the ability of the team dealing them to lower their value.