{"id":636824,"date":"2026-05-11T16:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636824\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:05:09","slug":"clippers-were-the-quiet-winners-of-nba-draft-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/636824\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers Were the Quiet Winners of NBA Draft Lottery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good things can still happen to the Clippers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For a franchise that has been second fiddle to the Lakers<\/a> in Los Angeles<\/a> for decades and snake-bitten with injuries in recent years, the organization got a rare win Sunday when it landed the No. 5 overall pick in June\u2019s loaded draft.<\/p>\n

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The team didn\u2019t even have a representative on the lottery stage when the pick was announced, because the pick\u2014acquired from the Pacers<\/a> in February for Ivica Zubac<\/a>\u2014had to fall out of the top four in order to convey.<\/p>\n

Clippers executive Rishabh Desai was in the drawing room and told The Athletic<\/a> he wore a suit gifted to him by NBA legend Jerry West and longtime Clippers advisor for good luck.<\/p>\n

The result led Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard to apologize to <\/a>Indiana<\/a> fans.<\/p>\n

It will be the Clippers\u2019 highest selection since drafting Blake Griffin<\/a> No. 1 overall in 2009. It also comes as the league has still not announced its findings from its investigation into Kawhi Leonard and environmental startup Aspiration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The investigation into whether the Clippers used the failed company to funnel Leonard additional money and circumvent the league\u2019s salary cap is still ongoing, a league spokesperson told Front Office Sports.<\/p>\n

The maximum possible penalties include a $7.5 million fine, the voiding of Leonard\u2019s contract, and the stripping of multiple future draft picks. If Adam Silver did so, it would severely restrict the Clippers\u2019 ability to build a competitive roster in a post-Leonard era.<\/p>\n

Leonard, 34, has one year left on his current contract worth $50.3 million.<\/p>\n

But the No. 5 pick gives the organization someone to build around if the NBA indeed hits it with the maximum penalties. That\u2019s desperately needed, as L.A. does not fully control its own first-round picks until 2030. Because the Pacers pick was conveyed to the Clippers, Indiana now will fully retain its 2031 first-round selection. The Clippers would have netted the 2031 pick had the Pacers\u2019 2026 pick stayed in the top four.<\/p>\n

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The Clippers also narrowly avoided more pain Sunday. In addition to getting the Pacers pick, their own pick landed at No. 12 overall. That pick belongs to the Thunder as a result of the 2019 Paul George<\/a> trade and could have gone even higher for the defending champions.<\/p>\n

The post Clippers Were the Quiet Winners of NBA Draft Lottery<\/a> appeared first on Front Office Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good things can still happen to the Clippers. For a franchise that has been second fiddle to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[21403,7630,2652,25174,11653,6306,3031,355,15990,60519,99],"class_list":["post-636824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-blake-griffin","tag-clippers","tag-indiana","tag-ivica-zubac","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-lakers","tag-los-angeles","tag-nba","tag-pacers","tag-paul-george","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}