The LA Clippers messed around and found out. On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Pablo Torre's Aspirations scandal mic-drop moment, the NBA has laid down the hammer. The franchise has been found guilty of cap circumvention surrounding Kawhi Leonard.
As punishment, the Clippers have been docked five future first-round picks in 2029-33. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has been suspended from the league and team activities for a year. He was also fined $30 million. He helped Leonard find shady off-court endorsement deals that were eventually defined as cap circumvention and a way to pay the NBA superstar extra money.
Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker is also suspended for one year without pay. He also helped orchestrate
Leonard's faux endorsement deals and was dishonest with league investigators during the year-long investigation. Finally, Clippers President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank is suspended for six months without pay. He was also involved in the scheme.
There are no appeal processes left. This is pretty final. Even Leonard admitted wrongdoing in his statement. As he gets traded to the Toronto Raptors, he leaves the Clippers completely destroyed and with no real future in sight. You could make a sound argument that this is the harshest punishment the NBA has ever handed out.
In total, LA forked over a dozen years of control of its own first-round pick and two-time MVP winner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to both acquire and keep Leonard for six seasons. The perks of all those headaches? One measly Western Conference Finals appearance — in which he didn't even suit up due to injury.
Yikes.
As the entire NBA world reacts to the year-long investigation finally concluding, you have to start wondering about the ripple effects a franchise-killing punishment like this has not just on the Clippers — but on the rest of the league. We've already seen it happen to one team as it looks like the Indiana Pacers are collateral damage. LA will reportedly forfeit the 2029 first-round pick it acquired from the Ivica Zubac trade. But it won't return to the Eastern Conference contender.
Already breaking the scoreboard from running the score up — ala the OG Space Jam — the Oklahoma City Thunder have continued to pile on cherries on top of inarguably the most lopsided trade in NBA history. Especially if you frame the 2019 Paul George blockbuster as a means to land Leonard.
Could they gain even more brownie points with this latest death blow? I don't see why not. The Thunder own LA's 2027 first-round draft pick swap rights. Yep, you read that right. That's still a thing as we enter the late 2020s. The George trade is the gift that keeps on giving. Heck, it landed Gilgeous-Alexander his running mate in Jalen Williams.
And even with that blockbuster officially closed, the Clippers gave the Thunder a parting gift. As a thank you for helping LA land James Harden in Oct. 2023, OKC received the 2027 first-round swap. Three years later, that move could pay huge dividends.
As things stand right now, the Clippers are expected to be bad. Like 15th-place-bad. Looking at their roster, Brandon Ingram and Darius Garland are likely their best players. Maybe Keaton Wagler once he gets his legs underneath him. You're just asking to lose a bunch of games in that scenario. And with the new wacky lottery reform, the Thunder could get some overdue luck from the lottery gods in 2027.
There's also the psyche element to this whole ordeal. For a year, the Leonard saga hung over LA like an ominous cloud. Even though they had nothing to do with it, I'm sure seeing the entire NBA world grill your franchise over this cheating scandal was bad for morale. Expect that to multiply tenfold — now that the league has gone all out to punish the team.
If that happens, the Clippers could get in a hole quickly. And unlike last year's 6-21 start, there's no real motivation to climb out of it. Everybody already knows that the 2026-27 regular season is a punting year. This punishment has cemented that as fact. If that happens, LA could finally give OKC a much-needed boost in the draft lottery.
Considering what was at stake — the sport's entire integrity and the importance of following the salary cap rules — the NBA absolutely hit this punishment out of the park. Give the top decision-makers and investigators credit. Sure, it took longer than expected, but at least they set the right precedent. Which is what ultimately matters.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: How the LA Clippers, Kawhi Leonard punishments affect OKC Thunder
