The Clippers’ punishment from the NBA was supposed to close the book on the Kawhi Leonard saga. Instead, it’s only made the next chapter more confusing.
Los Angeles was hammered with the harshest penalties in league history for its role in the cap-circumvention case tied to Leonard’s undisclosed “no-show” endorsement money. The team was fined $30 million, stripped of five first-round draft picks, and saw several high-ranking executives suspended, including owner Steve Ballmer. Leonard, meanwhile, came out of it with a $700K fine and a green light to move on to the Toronto Raptors.
That part looked straightforward enough. Leonard had already been waiting on the investigation, and once the league handed down its ruling, he returned to Toronto, where he won the title in 2019, expecting the trade to be wrapped up. But the deal still hasn’t been finalized, and the surprising wrinkle is that the Clippers are the ones slowing it down.
“With a week having passed since the NBA came down hard on the Clippers with its ruling in the historic salary-cap circumvention case centered on the 35-year-old small forward, that remains to be seen, but the reasons for the continued delay, it’s safe to say, have become a bit of a mystery to people involved in the process and around the league. League sources in this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the subject publicly.”
On paper, there’s no obvious reason for Los Angeles to drag its feet. The trade would finally separate the Clippers from the player at the center of the scandal, and it would also bring back two second-round picks. Yet the team says the suspensions - especially the ones handed to Ballmer and Basketball Ops President Lawrence Frank - are disrupting day-to-day operations.
“Per league sources, the Raptors, Leonard’s camp and the camps of other prominent players in the trade remain very confident it will go through soon. Leonard, it should be noted, is known to be with his Raptors teammates (in an unofficial capacity) on a retreat of sorts in Miami this week, but according to multiple league sources, the Clippers have indicated the impact of the league’s discipline on their front-office structure is the reason for the delay.”
The delay has raised questions around the league because the Clippers do have another route available. If they wanted to push the deal through immediately, GM Trent Redden could step in and handle the front office duties. Instead, Los Angeles appears reluctant to hand the wheel to anyone.
That leaves open the possibility that the Clippers are trying to squeeze something more out of the situation. If this isn’t about punishing Leonard, the only other obvious play would be to revisit the terms and ask for a better return, with the Raptors unlikely to agree but the door not entirely closed on the possibility.
For now, the picture remains murky. The Clippers are facing massive fallout, they plan to fight the ruling, and they have limited ways to undo what the league has already done. But with the trade still sitting there unfinished, the team seems willing to consider every option it has while trying to clean up the damage from the scandal.
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