The Clippers can’t afford to live in the Kawhi Leonard aftermath forever.
Yes, the punishment tied to the situation is going to hang over the franchise for years, and yes, the team is still staring at a long road to rebuilding its draft assets. But at some point, the conversation has to shift. If LA keeps staring backward, it won’t make any forward progress.
The reality is simple now: the Leonard situation is over, and the Clippers have to treat it that way. No more dwelling on it.
No more frustration. No more treating it like the center of the franchise’s identity.
What’s done is done, and the only useful response is to move on and deal with what’s in front of them.
That doesn’t mean the organization gets to pretend the whole thing never happened. It did, and it came with consequences.
The Clippers were trying to build the best team they could for their fans, but they went about it the wrong way. Cheating, and trying to work around the salary cap to bring in a player, was never going to be the right path.
Still, that chapter is closed. The focus now has to be on the future, and the future is where the real work begins.
Heading into next season, the Clippers are expected to have Brandon Ingram and Darius Garland leading the roster. Both are solid players, but they do not look like the kind of pieces that will carry the franchise into what comes next. With the team short on draft picks, the front office could explore moving those two by the deadline to try to bring back some first-round selections.
From there, the emphasis should turn to the younger group. Keaton Wagner.
Yanic Konan Niederhauser. The rest of the developing talent.
That’s where the attention belongs now.
The Leonard situation will keep coming up because of how much it shaped everything. But it cannot remain the headline in LA’s day-to-day thinking. The Clippers need to push ahead, stop moping over what already happened, and start building around the team they actually have now.
In Other News...
Brandon Ingram Now Looms Over The Clippers Biggest Season Question
Brandon Ingrams offseason has already become one of the more closely watched storylines around the Clippers, even before camp fully gets going. The forward had surgery to address a heel spur that bothered him late last season, a move designed to clean up an issue that clearly lingered and affected him when it mattered most.
What makes it tricky for the Clippers is the lack of a detailed update on where his recovery stands. The team is expected to be patient with his health and avoid pushing him into anything that could create a setback, which leaves his status for the upcoming season hanging over a roster that would like clarity, not another unanswered question. [Read more 🡒]
Clippers Offseason Looks Very Different Once The Kawhi Fallout Hits
Rui Hachimuras arrival on a two-year deal and the trade for Max Strus gave the Clippers a very different offseason look, the kind that suggests a front office trying to keep the roster moving in a new direction. Both moves came with a clearer basketball logic than splash, and both were easy enough to frame as wins for a team that has spent too long chasing the next fix.
The bigger shift, though, came when the franchise moved on from Kawhi Leonard in a deal with Toronto that reshaped the roster and draft stock around the margins. Even with the added pieces and picks, the Leonard era never really stopped casting a shadow over the Clippers planning, and the long-term cost of that chapter ended up being part of the conversation too. [Read more 🡒]
Clippers Punishment Shows How Ugly Another NBA Cap Probe Could Get
The NBAs yearlong probe into the Clippers ended with a severe penalty package tied to Kawhi Leonards contract, a reminder of how aggressively the league can move when it believes the salary cap has been crossed. Leonard was fined but avoided a suspension, and the fallout centered instead on team-level discipline, with the league going after the structure and the people around it rather than the star at the middle of the deal.
What makes the episode especially relevant around the league is the sense that it may not be the last of its kind. Another investigation is already circling a contract that has raised questions, and if the league concludes there was cap circumvention there too, the punishment could be just as painful. For front offices, the message is hard to miss: the cap rules are not just paperwork, and the league appears willing to make an example out of anyone it thinks tried to work around them. [Read more 🡒]