{"id":892241,"date":"2026-09-14T23:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892241\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T23:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:58:12","slug":"clippers-need-to-start-cleaning-house-in-wake-of-nba-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892241\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers need to start cleaning house in wake of NBA sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Along with Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, the Clippers<\/a> should send the Toronto Raptors a fruit basket and a thank you card.<\/p>\n

Because what was already a steal when the teams first agreed to the trade in June now looks like an absolute lifesaver. Paddles for the life raft so the Clippers can change directions and make better decisions \u2014 hopefully with better decision-makers.<\/p>\n

First, the Clippers had to move on from Leonard, who reportedly will go back to Toronto for a package that includes Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick, unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a 2027 first-round pick swap and two second-round selections.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a defibrillator of a deal. One that could keep the Clippers afloat after the NBA hammered them for all the salary-cap-circumventing they apparently did for Leonard, an oft-injured, 35-year-old who flopped even before the NBA blew the whistle on millions of dollars in off-the-books, no-show endorsements.<\/p>\n

With the trade finally completed after the Raptors paused it on July 9 as they awaited the results of the NBA\u2019s investigation, and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer announcing Sunday<\/a> he will accept the league\u2019s historically steep punishment without further protest, Clippers fans can finally exhale.<\/p>\n

Forget the fines and suspensions, most hurtful to fans is the league stripping the Clippers of five first-round draft picks, from 2029 through 2033.<\/p>\n

A death sentence? Darn near would be, if not for the Raptors, those suckers \u2014 er, that one team whose fans still associate positive feelings with Kawhi.<\/p>\n

Remember, Leonard won an NBA title with Toronto in 2019. That was the season before he seemingly started milking the Clippers, who also traded five first-round picks and future league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Paul George \u2014 to meet the demands of a guy who wouldn\u2019t lead the Clippers to even one NBA Finals appearance.<\/p>\n

At present, the Clippers will have Ingram, Darius Garland, Rui Hachimura and No. 5 pick Keaton Wagler on a Tyronn Lue-coached team. They\u2019ll be a competitive regular-season team, as usual.<\/p>\n

And the Clippers could have cap room going into the 2027 or 2028 offseasons \u2014 not that big stars avail themselves in free agency anymore. These days, the goal is to get traded, retain Bird rights<\/a> and maximize earnings. If not for Toronto\u2019s first-round picks, the Clippers would have little draft capital to use in trades for impact players.<\/p>\n

Now they have some, even if it\u2019s only enough to pursue trades for the disgruntled, the redundant, the overpaid.<\/p>\n

The Clippers could offer to take those sorts of players off teams\u2019 hands \u2014 if they include future draft assets as sweeteners. Even if it takes the Clippers holding their nose and restocking, there are ways forward, and having the Raptors\u2019 two first-rounders in their pocket will help.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all so Clippers, to have lined up this move that will keep them afloat, just treading water.<\/p>\n

Fifteen consecutive seasons of .500 or better ball, y\u2019all! Someone, raise a banner.<\/p>\n

The Clippers still don\u2019t have an actual championship banner to decorate the Intuit Dome \u2014 and pursuing a title will be harder now, of course.<\/p>\n

\"Lawrence <\/p>\n

Lawrence Frank, the Clippers\u2019 president of business operations, speaks during a news conference in July 2019.<\/p>\n

(Ringo H.W. Chiu \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

But it will be impossible if the Clippers don\u2019t reset in a meaningful way, if they don\u2019t replace Lawrence Frank, their president of basketball operations, who was among the Clippers\u2019 executives punished by the NBA, with someone with better taste in stars.<\/p>\n

Frank is a master of the margins, but the Clippers need a lead executive who can spot it \u2014 greatness, not just on the court, but in the locker room, in the community. Someone who will steer Ballmer toward not only elite basketball talent, but players who offer the whole package: leadership, competitiveness, desire, rootability.<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks recognized all that in Jalen Brunson. They didn\u2019t care that Becky Hammon and many more of us were skeptical about the prospects of a team that decided to build around a 6-foot-2 guard. And now, look. Brunson just led the Knicks to a championship.<\/p>\n

The Clippers were so desperate for a star to pick them, they didn\u2019t pick up on the fact that they already had a budding superstar in their midst. Gilgeous-Alexander played his rookie season with the Clippers and checked all the boxes Leonard wouldn\u2019t. After they traded him to OKC, he worked and blossomed, becoming one of the NBA\u2019s coolest competitors, a two-time league MVP, the undisputed leader of a championship team.<\/p>\n

But who could have predicted that?<\/p>\n

Well, ideally, the professionals being paid to make personnel decisions.<\/p>\n

Leonard hadn\u2019t been the leader of either of his San Antonio Spurs or Raptors championship teams. He\u2019d had an angsty breakup with the Spurs. He had a flashing-red injury history. He certainly did not have the personality to siphon any fans from a LeBron James<\/a>-led Lakers team. And he came apparently asking for way too much!<\/p>\n

The Clippers went all-in anyway, and they\u2019ve had nothing but grief to show for it.<\/p>\n

Grief and, now, Toronto\u2019s two first-round picks. The question is who will use them, and how?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Along with Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers should send the Toronto Raptors a fruit basket and a thank you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,109230,55087,145110,10225,69844,1816,373117,43920,590,461949,85,3018,3920,17602,576,461950,4209],"class_list":["post-892241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-big-star","tag-brandon-ingram","tag-clipper","tag-clippers","tag-fan","tag-impact-player","tag-kawhi-leonard-trade","tag-leonard","tag-nba","tag-nba-sanction","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-trade","tag-unprotected-first-round-pick","tag-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}