The NBA hammered the LA Clippers

On September 3, 2025, Pablo Torre released the first episode alleging that the Los Angeles Clippers and Steve Ballmer had violated the salary cap circumvention rules of the NBA.  They were using different companies to pay Kawhi Leonard more money, framing them as sponsorships. When in fact the Clippers were funneling money through these companies to pay Leonard more money. It was unclear whether or not the NBA would find the Clippers guilty and if they did what kind of punishment would they bring down. On Wednesday, we learned that the league brought the hammer, with a punishment of 5 first round picks, suspensions for owner Steve Ballmer and top Clipper executives, a $30 million fine for Ballmer, a 5-year ban for Kawhi Leonard’s uncle Dennis Robertson and a $700,000 fine for Leonard. Adam Silver was given a lot of hard evidence that the Clippers were cheating and he brought the hammer down on the franchise for it.

There were many different companies starting in March 2020 that were paying Leonard money that the Clippers had already paid them. That is not allowed and is cap circumvention. This has happened before in 2000 when Joe Smith agreed to take less money from the Minnesota Timberwolves with the promise that they would give him a big raise when allowed. They also got 5 first round picks taken away (though the NBA reinstated 2 of them) and a $3.5 million fine. Adam Silver needed to levy a penalty similar to this one if he found the Clippers guilty and he did. 

I think a big part of this is that the league needed to make sure that no one else would try and do this going forward. If the league had given a slap on the wrist, teams would have had guys take less money and pay them through sponsorships. They needed to send the message that this is not allowed and if you do it, there will be steep punishments. Silver’s M.O. is typically to work with teams, to make sure that there aren’t any issues. He is not usually one to bring the hammer down on a team like this. Which makes this punishment surprising. I think the punishment fits the crime, 5 first round picks is crippling to a franchise and will set the Clippers back a decade. Silver knew he needed to bring the hammer down on the Clippers and he met the moment in doing so.

One thing that stands out is with all the punishments that were given out, Kawhi Leonard came out of this scott-free. He made millions of dollars thanks to these ‘endorsements’ and his punishment is a $700,000 fine? The NBA Players Association really came through for Leonard in this circumstance. This now leads to the trade that sees Leonard traded to Toronto Raptors going through. Which is good because Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick, the players going back to the Clippers, had no part of this and were in limbo about what team they will play for this season all summer. Leonard claims to have not known about this and that is what the league is saying as well, hence the slap on the wrist, but I find that hard to believe. I think the NBA wanted to hammer the Clippers and that is made easier by getting the Players Association to sign off on the punishments. The association wanted to protect their guy so they negotiated the punishment down and the NBA went for it so they could go forward with the other punishments. 

So where does this leave the Clippers future? I would say it leaves it in not a great spot. They already traded first round picks and swaps in 2027, 2028 and 2029 and now are out all their picks through 2033, the NBA took away the previously acquired Indiana Pacers pick in 2029 and the Clippers own picks from 2030-2033 as part of the punishment. The roster is one that is getting ready to rebuild and will now have to do so without their own pick until 2034. This is as close to the death penalty as the league has ever given out and the Clippers are now going to need to find new ways to rebuild their roster. They really need the Darius Garland and Keaton Wagler backcourt to be really good because the rest of the roster is certainly lacking. 

Good for the NBA and good for Adam Silver for handing out this punishment to the Clippers. You couldn’t allow this to become something that every team felt comfortable doing and the league made sure that won’t be the case. Also good for Pablo Torre for sticking to his guns the whole time and uncovering this story because boy is it a big one.